BEIJING (AFP) — US Olympic baseball general manager Bob Watson is confident the American pastime will be voted back into the Olympics next year even with no hope of Major League Baseball talent playing at the Games.
Watson, who serves as vice president of on-field operations for the US elite league, said baseball supporters have lobbied International Olympic Committee (IOC) members ahead of a 2009 vote to add sports to the Olympic lineup.
"I think baseball and softball will be reinstated in the Olympic format," Watson said. "I think in '09 they will vote it back in. They have been lobbying hard behind the scenes. I think that vote is going to be baseball's return."
Baseball will not be played at the 2012 London Olympics but it could return as soon as 2016, when the Games could be staged in baseball hotbeds Tokyo or Chicago. Madrid and Rio de Janeiro are the other candidates.
"Global competition is keen," Watson said. "Baseball has been put out around the world. We are making it a global sport."
But Watson also made it clear that the Olympics will never feature Major League Baseball stars because the 30-team US league will not shut down its April-September season so top talent can attend the Games.
"The bottom line is we're not shutting down the season," Watson said. "Our owners are not going to shut down the season. We're not going for that."
Ideas have been pitched but commissioner Bud Selig is against them.
"There are all kinds of solutions. That's not Bud's stance," Watson said. "If they want to hold that against him, they can."
This year's US team has more top minor-league talent than ever. Might clubs allow a reserve or two from active rosters into a 2016 Olympics?
"Is there a possibility? Slim," Watson said.
Major League Baseball has addressed IOC worries, and US lawmaker inquiries, by toughening doping standards in the sport in the wake of the BALCO steroid scandal that rocked the game as well as athletics.
"The fact is we are trying to meet a whole lot of concerns the IOC had, mainly doping standards," Watson said. "All these things have been addressed. Our doping standards are the most stringent in all of major league sports."
While those US standards remain a far cry from the World Anti-Doping Agency levels, baseball has acted on cheating fears and boosted the sport in such areas as China, Russia, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and even Britain.
"All those programs have really grown. The Dutch program is doing well as well as Italy," US manager Davey Johnson said. "I hope this won't affect those programs in 2012."
Major League Baseball staged the first World Baseball Classic in March 2006 with top talent with Japan beating Cuba in the final, South Korea and Dominican Republic also in the final four and the Americans out in round two.
That MLB-controlled event, set to be staged again next March during major league pre-season training, will be the tournament the Olympics had hoped to become.
"In the next eight years, the World Baseball Classic will take on the life of what (World Cup) soccer is," Watson said. "Players are taking it a lot more seriously. We had a lot of guys coming in who want to participate."
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