Baseball’s push to return to the Olympics has reportedly gained the support of Major League Baseball’s labor union.
Evan Drellich, who specializes in Major League Baseball for The Athletic, reported on his X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday that Major League Baseball’s labor union has expressed support for the return of baseball to the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
The Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee has proposed five sports for inclusion in the 2028 Summer Games: baseball/softball, cricket, flag football, lacrosse, and squash.
The proposal has been reviewed by the IOC Council and is now on the agenda of the IOC Session currently underway in Mumbai, India.
Olympic baseball has been a part of the Olympic program since the 1992 Barcelona Games and remained so until the 2008 Beijing Games.
However, it was removed from the Olympic program at the London 2012 Games and reinstated at the Tokyo 2020 Games on the recommendation of the Organizing Committee.
It has been removed from the program for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, but is expected to return for the 2028 Games.
Major League Baseball’s labor union endorsement of the sport’s inclusion in the Olympics can be interpreted in a number of ways. Major League Baseball has long banned its players from competing in the Olympics.
This is in contrast to the NBA and NHL, which have not blocked their players from participating in the Olympics since they were allowed to compete professionally. It was also one of the main reasons baseball was dropped from the Olympic program.
To this day, Major League Baseball prohibits players on its 40-man roster from competing in events like the Olympics and Premier 12 outside of its own World Baseball Classic (WBC). 먹튀검증
Instead, Major League Baseball relies heavily on minor league prospects making their big league debuts and veterans with big league experience.
A decision on whether Major League Baseball will allow its players to participate in the Olympics will be made at a later date, Drellich said.
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