SAN DIEGO (AP) — As Major League Baseball prepares for talks about the 2020 Olympics, Commissioner Rob Manfred said “from a calendar prospective, the dates of the Tokyo Games are not ideal.”
The International Olympic Committee executive board voted last month to support a six-nation tournament that year in both baseball and women’s softball, and the full IOC is to vote in August on the inclusion of the World Baseball Softball Confederation for the Tokyo Games, which are scheduled from July 24-Aug. 9.
Baseball became a medal sport for the 1992 Barcelona Olympics but was dropped for the 2012 London Games and won’t be played next month in Rio de Janeiro.