IBAF says MLB won't have to stop for Olympics

By JIM ARMSTRONG,

TOKYO (AP) The head of the International Baseball Federation says Major League Baseball doesn't have to shut down its season to enable the best players to take part in the Olympics.

IBAF president Harvey Schiller was in Tokyo on Thursday to enlist the help of Japanese baseball officials in getting the sport back on the program for the 2016 Olympics, for which the Japanese capital is bidding, against Chicago, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro.

Baseball was voted off the Olympic program by the International Olympic Committee in 2005 and will not be a part of the 2012 Olympics in London but is pushing to be reinstated in 2016.

The principal reason the IOC voted baseball off its program was that the world's best players do not take part, as the Olympics clashes with the U.S. season.

Schiller said the IBAF has several proposals on the table that would allow MLB players to take part, including cramming the entire competition into five days.

"Baseball is a big business and you don't have to shut it down to have the best players in the Olympics," Schiller said Thursday. "Just as the Premier League doesn't stop playing football."

"We've proposed a short 5-day tournament similar to what was done by ice hockey where the best players were in the Olympics," said Schiller.

MLB commissioner Bud Selig said recently the major leagues would be flexible but would not stop their season for two-and-a-half or three weeks in August so go to the Olympics.

The baseball tournament in Beijing lasted 10 days.

The IOC vote on whether to reinstate baseball will come in October in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Along with the absence of the sport's top players, the doping problem in professional baseball - and lack of rigorous testing and sanctions - was a factor in the sport's exclusion from the Olympics.

While MLB's image has been tarnished by recent alleged doping controversies surrounding names as big as Alex Rodriguez, Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, Schiller said he was pleased with the cooperation he was getting from MLB on doping.

"The commissioner and his staff and the players' association have been very cooperative," said Schiller. "I can't challenge the kind of cooperation I've been getting."

Schiller said regardless of which city is chosen for 2016, he is confident they will be prepared to host baseball should it be reinstated.

"Rio and Madrid were bid cities for 2012 and have baseball plans in place," said Schiller. "For Chicago and Tokyo it would be easy and a great economic benefit given the stadiums and the popularity of the game."

Updated February 19, 2009