By JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer
2 hours, 5 minutes ago
BEIJING (AP)—Jacques Rogge would get a real kick out of seeing A-Rod in the Olympics. Probably Dice-K, too.
The International Olympic Committee president said Saturday baseball would do itself a big favor toward getting back on the Olympic program by bringing the best from the major leagues, such as the New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez or star Red Sox pitcher Daisuke Matsuzaka.
“It would do good for baseball, like every sport, to have the stars,” Rogge said while attending the bronze-medal game Saturday at Wukesong Stadium between the United States and Japan.
“We have LeBron James in basketball. We had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Magic Johnson on the Dream Team. That trend has continued in basketball, and we have all the stars of the NHL. So we would love to have as many stars of the major leagues as possible. I’d love to see Rodriguez.”
Major League Baseball is committed to getting its sport back in the Olympics for 2016 and will work with the International Baseball Federation toward that goal.
Baseball is off the roster for the London Games and the earliest it could return—if at all—would be in eight years for the following Olympics. Chicago is among the candidates bidding for those games.
IBAF president Harvey Schiller hopes major leaguers would be involved in some capacity if baseball does return to the program, and Rogge agrees that’s of utmost importance.
The baseball season overlaps with the Olympics, and Schiller points to the possibility of having the big league players participate for only the medal rounds. That way, they would not be away from their teams for an extended period or miss a pennant race.
“We’ve heard all these proposals,” Jimmie Lee Solomon, Major League Baseball’s executive vice president for baseball operations, said Saturday while watching the U.S. team of minor leaguers and one college standout.
“We’re very supportive of Dr. Schiller and we will hear a variety of proposals about getting the sport reinstated. There are no plans in place, but we are very interested in remaining on this international platform.”
Among the ideas tossed around is an approximate five-day All-Star break and five-day Olympic tournament, ensuring little disruption to the 162-game schedule. Yet officials realize that would best work if Chicago hosts the 2016 Games. If any of the other three candidates—Madrid, Spain; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Tokyo—is awarded the games by the IOC next year, that plan would be far more difficult to put in place.
The IOC will vote in October 2009 in Denmark about whether to add two sports for 2016. The other sports are softball, squash, karate, roller sports, seven-on-seven rugby and golf.
This year’s games were baseball’s 12th in the Olympics, but it has been a medal sport only since 1992 in Barcelona.
Rogge, a Belgian, received a primer from Schiller on some of baseball’s fine points, like the difference between a curveball and fastball.
“He’s a good lobbyist,” Rogge said with a grin. “We have an open mind.”
U.S. baseball manager Davey Johnson was asked to compare baseball’s situation with that of the NBA, whose players compete in the Olympics.
“It’s very difficult for us (to get top players),” said Johnson, a former major league star and manager. “But baseball is such a big business in the United States. Players with potential to play in the big leagues or of being called up aren’t allowed to come. I think that’d be great, but that’s a decision Major League Baseball would have to make. And now that we have the World Baseball Classic, I don’t see that.”
Solomon arrived in China for a short visit in time to see the Americans lose 10-2 against defending champion Cuba in Friday night’s Olympic semifinals.
“That was very disappointing,” he said.
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