A letter by IBAF president Dr. Harvey Schiller just a few days before the Major League All Star game in St. Louis:
13 July, 2009
Dear Colleague,
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As baseball around the world reaches the midway point of the summer, we wanted to take a few minutes and update you all the positive news on the sport going on throughout the world.
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First, the Major League Baseball All-Star game will take place this coming Tuesday in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, with players from eight countries participating. This is in addition to the players from 12 countries and five continents who were selected to the “Future Stars” game on Sunday (won by the World Stars over the U.S. stars), giving the sport the most diverse international face at the highest professional level in its history. Even more important is that these stars, many of whom have now played in international competition on various levels including the Olympics, are more committed to national support through baseball than ever before. From a media standpoint, this week of festivities will be seen in over 230 countries, once again one of the largest stages for any sport in the world.
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However baseball’s global reach does not stop with the All-Star game. This week a group of United States Collegiate All-Stars, more of the future stars of the game, will take on a team of Japanese Collegiate All-Stars in Japan, renewing a rivalry that is over 30 years old. In Israel, the Maccabiah Games are underway with baseball as one of the center pieces for the first time, and in the Netherlands the World Port Tournament is concluding with the Netherlands, Cuba, Japan and Chinese Taipei vying for another prestigious and highly competitive title.
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This past week at the G8 Summit, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi joined the Italian Baseball Federation in unveiling the official trophy for the Baseball World Cup, which will be held across Europe this September, once again showing the growing importance of baseball in Europe amongst world leaders. Back in the United States, two Indian players made their professional debut in the minor league organization of the Pittsburgh Pirates, bringing to 38 the number of countries now represented in the professional leagues in North America, a total of national representations that is almost unparalleled in professional sport. We were also very pleased with the announcement that the Australian professional league will begin again in 2010, giving those players and fans in Oceania a terrific opportunity to further grow baseball there.
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On the women’s side, our new Women’s Baseball Committee, chaired by Dr. Donna Lopiano, will have its second meeting this week via teleconference, with new developments in the growth of baseball for girls and women of all ages expected to be announced in the coming month.
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Finally, there is the grassroots, where youth leagues in emerging nations, high school play in Japan and other parts of Asia and across South and Central America continue to see record enrollment amongst both young boys and girls. Also in China, we received news that the Olympic softball facility will be converted to a baseball facility in the near future, giving the sport a permanent home for development following the success of the Beijing Olympics.
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On the Olympic front, we are eagerly looking ahead to the August announcement in Berlin of which two sports the IOC will put forward for re-instatement. With 2016 seven years away, our focus has been getting commitments from the future stars of the game, those who will actually represent their countries in 2016, along with messages of support from the games’ current stars. We have received written endorsements from Olympic organizations in Asia, Oceania, Central and South America as well as Africa, and will continue to spread all our positive news of global growth on every level as the summer goes along.
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This is a very exciting time for baseball on a global level, perhaps the most exciting time in the sports history in terms of growth, media attention and quality of play and training around the world. In our recent presentation to the IOC, the leaders of the sport again showed that we have effectively addressed all the issues put forth as to why baseball was removed from the Olympic programme for 2012, and how we can work together to grow baseball and the Olympic movement together on a global basis for the next seven years and beyond.
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On behalf of all our 127 federations, our volunteers, staff, and most importantly all that play, watch and follow baseball around the world, thank you again for your time, and as always if there is anything we can do to assist you, please let us know.
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Regards,
Dr. Harvey W. Schiller
President, International Baseball Federation