Sadly, my country was the site of baseball’s removal from the Olympics:
SINGAPORE – Baseball and softball were tossed out of the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games – the first sports cut from the Summer Games in 69 years. The International Olympic Committee then rejected the five sports wanting to get in.
I understand cutting sports for other sports. I wrote last month that baseball was likely to fall out in favour of rugby, and indeed, as far as world popularity is concerned, rugby might even be a better choice. But to cut a sport just for cutting’s sake is ridiculous, particularly as all the would-be host countries can well afford to host the facilities.
Apparently the absence of MLB players and the lack of a strict drug testing programme didn’t help. Oh well. More incentive for the Baseball World Cup to take shape.
On softball, there was an interesting comment from Don Porter, the president of the international softball federation:
[Porter] said his sport’s ties to baseball created problems.
“We tried to keep our distance,” he said. “But I think there’s still too many people think we’re part of baseball. We’re absolutely not. We’re a separate sport.”
Clearly baseball won’t suffer that much from not being at the Olympics, but softball might.