Confirmed at the last IOC Session as an additional sport at the Los Angeles 2028 Games, will baseball be showcasing the world’s best players in California five years from now? Not for sure. As Major League Baseball (MLB) commissioner Rob Manfred confided late last week, interrupting the regular season to allow players to participate in the Los Angeles 2028 Games is going to be complicated. “Everyone is aware of the difficulties associated with major league players participating in a tournament in the middle of our season,” he explained. We have games every day. And we’re very committed to the integrity of the regular season. It’s very important to MLB.” At the Tokyo 2020 Games, where baseball was already an additional sport, only players not on each franchise’s 26-player active roster, or on the injured list, were eligible. But a large number of clubs prevented the best eligible prospects from traveling to Japan to compete in the Olympic tournament.
— Published 30 October 2023
