Fraccari in Los Angeles for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Dodgers Stadium, eyes return to Olympics in LA28

The president of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), Italian Riccardo Fraccari, will be invited to the Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game on July 19 at the legendary Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles.

The park was already an Olympic stage during the baseball exhibition tournament at the 1984 Los Angeles Games, and it is available to host again if this sport along with softball is included in the LA28 program.

The president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach, was preparing Monday to close his one-week agenda in the United States, in Los Angeles where he met with the organizers of the Olympic mega-event, in the presence of Nicole Hoevertsz, president of the Coordination Commission of the IOC for LA 2028 as known by Around The Rings.

This is the second time Dodger Stadium has hosted the All-Star Game since it opened 60 years ago, after hosting it for the first time in 1980, so it’s highly likely there won’t be another All-Star Game at this facility before the Olympics in six years. Dodgers Stadium was supposed to host the All-Star Game in 2020, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic.

The stadium has also hosted 10 World Series, most recently in 2020, and the semifinals and finals of the 2009 and 2017 MLB World Classics.

Both the WBSC and the MLB are confident there will be baseball at the Los Angeles Olympics. According to a baseball source, Fraccari will hold several meetings about this during the All-Star Game.

Two weeks ago, the Italian federation was voted by a large majority for a new mandate until 2028 and has reiterated, in its first press statements after its re-election, that the return of baseball to the Olympic Program in 2028, along with softball, is the main priority in their strategic plan.

“Our goal is to ensure that our sport is among the permanent sports in the Olympic Games after securing its presence in Los Angeles 28 and Brisbane 32″, declared Fraccari, also hoping for the inclusion of baseball and softball in the Australian Olympics.

Fraccari was asked by Around The Rings if the fact the 2028 Games are being held in the United States could make it easier for MLB to guarantee the presence of Major League players as a commitment that would help the acceptance of Olympic baseball.

“The fact that the LA28 Olympics are in Los Angeles can help provide the opportunity for MLB players to play there. We are discussing with them and working in that direction. I see a very positive attitude from MLB,” Fraccari replied.

Fraccari praised the relationships between the WBSC and the MLB and gave the World Classic as an example as one of the initiatives to grow this sport and “which is aligned with the national federations in charge of selecting the teams of each country.”

The fifth edition of the World Classic, which was supposed to be held in 2021, but was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, will be held from March 9 to 21, 2023, and will take place in Taipei (Taiwan), Tokyo (Japan) and Phoenix and Miami (United States).

After appearing six times as an exhibition sport in the Olympic Games (the last one in Los Angeles 84), baseball made its official appearance in the Olympic Program exactly 30 years ago during the 1992 Barcelona Games, always with the hope of the IOC the tournament should feature the top professional players. In the Catalan event, basketball marked a milestone with the presence of the “Dream Team” of Michael Jordan and company.

From that moment on, baseball competed uninterrupted in the Olympic until 2008, it was excluded along with softball from London 2012 and Rio de Janeiro 2016, and rescued for Tokyo 2020. For Paris 2024 it did not have the support of the French organizers. Stars from the professional Asian leagues have competed but not from MLB.

In his recent meeting with the press, the WBSC president described the Tokyo 2020 Olympic tournament as “very successful” in terms of broadcasting, despite not having spectators in the stadiums and assured the gold medal game in baseball “was the most televised event in Japan.”

A flagship project for WBSC in Fraccari’s new term will be the Champions Club League, inspired by the European soccer Champions League, a project the Italian claims to have worked on for four years.

The manager told ATR in November 2023 a rehearsal event will be held in Mexico with the presence of champion teams from Europe, Asia, America and a club from the host country.

Fraccari confirmed there are already several commercial sponsors interested in this project that will attract professional players. “Like in soccer, we want to give baseball clubs a visibility that they don’t have now,” he said.

Some analysts have wondered what will be the position of the historic Caribbean Series organized by the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CBPC) founded in 1949, compared to this WBSC Champions League project.

The Caribbean Series is an international club tournament held at the beginning of each year, bringing together the winning teams of the so-called “winter leagues” of the countries that make up the CBPC, led by the Dominican José Francisco Puello Herrera. Numerous Caribbean stars in MLB traditionally compete in the Caribbean Series.

For example, for Tuesday’s All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, 25 players from the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Mexico have been selected to participate in the Caribbean Series.

Fraccari mentioned in his strategic plan until 2028, “in this post-pandemic reality”, more than 240 roadmaps in which projects such as “Baseball 5″ stand out, which will make its Olympic debut at the Dakar 2026 Youth Games, and the video games, “which will contribute to the growth of our sport worldwide”.

The WBSC now has 185 Member Federations and 8 Provisional Members (72 Baseball Federations, 64 Softball Federations and 57 Combined Baseball and Softball Federations), as well as 14 Associate Members.

Among the recent additions to its recent Congress is the Babe Ruth League, an educational non-profit organization named after one of the most legendary baseball players of all time.