Baseball and softball, associated in a joint bid to re-enter the Olympic program at the 2020 Summer Games, have taken another step in their campaign to woo the Olympic movement: they have merged their international federations. The new institution took the name World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). It will be jointly led by two presidents, the Italian Riccardo Fraccari, until then in charge of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), and the American Don Porter, his softball counterpart. Comment from the first: “The 65 million baseball and softball licensees around the world are now grouped together within the same entity. » The two disciplines, excluded from the Olympic program in 2005, made their last appearance at the Games in Beijing in 2008.
— Published on April 15, 2013
