Major League Baseball will not suspend its season to allow the game’s leading players to compete at the Summer Olympics, hitting hopes the sport might return to the Olympic program in 2016.
“We are not going to shut down the season, that’s the reality,” MLB vice-president and Team USA general manager Bob Watson told reporters on Thursday.
“Bud (MLB commissioner Bud Selig) isn’t going to do that.
“If they (IOC) want to hold that against him then they have some serious lobbying to do to move him off the position.”
MLB’s refusal to shut down mid-season was one of the main reasons behind the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision to drop baseball, along with softball, from the Olympic program after Beijing.
MLB has insisted it is eager to see baseball remain part of the Olympics and last month Watson indicated the league might be open to the possibility of shutting down if Chicago or Tokyo hosted the 2016 Games.
Watson said one plan was to extend the current MLB all-star break to allow a condensed tournament format that would satisfy all parties.
However, none of the proposals being floated have impressed Selig, who remains adamant the MLB will never shut down to accommodate the Olympics.
“There are all kinds of possible solutions but that’s not Bud’s stance,” said Watson. “Between now and 2016, is there a possibility of us getting players on 25-man rosters…slim.
“We are not going to shut down our season, so how do you come up with (a solution) for that I don’t know.”
Despite MLB’s hardline position, Watson remains confident baseball will be voted back onto the Olympic roster by the IOC in 2009 pointing to the sport’s growth around the world.
“I think the game of baseball and softball will be reinstated in the Olympic format. Baseball has been really put out around the world and we have raised the bar for baseball by making it a global sport, a world sport.
“As everybody in this room knows, we had the World Baseball Classic a few years back, and we didn’t win. Who won?
“Japan won and Korea showed well, Cuba fared well. That shows you how the game has grown around the world.”