Baseball Readies for IOC Inspection; Merger with Softball Moves Ahead

(ATR) International Baseball Federation president Riccardo Fraccari tells Around the Rings this weekend’s World Baseball Classic qualifier in Regensburg, Germany will get some special guests.

An inspection team from the IOC’s Sports Department and Olympic Program Commission will attend games Saturday and Sunday before flying out Monday.

"We are excited about the IOC's visit because this is the first time the IOC will see first-hand the new collaboration between the IBAF and Major League Baseball," says Fraccari.

"This is not only a friendly spirit of cooperation, but also a real and concrete collaboration which will allow the winners of the World Baseball Classic to be properly crowned IBAF World Champion. The IBAF and MLB have worked together over the past year to ensure that these qualifying tournaments are fair, balanced and guarantee a universal participation from IBAF member federations."

Fraccari touts a "new frontier" for his sport with the WBC’s expansion from 16 teams in 2006 and 2009 to 28 for 2013.

That includes eight European teams – up from two in the past – as well as three from South America, including 2016 Olympics host Brazil.

"Our members are thrilled with this new approach and highly motivated to bring their best performing teams," Fraccari tells ATR, "so we are very much looking forward to sharing this new development, live and in action, with the IOC."

Inspectors will see Canada, Czech Republic, Germany and Great Britain play a double-elimination tournament with the winner advancing to next year’s showpiece alongside the top finishers from the other three qualifiers as well as the top 12 teams from 2009.

The visit is standard operating procedure for all seven sports bidding for Olympic inclusion ahead of the 2020 Summer Games.

Roller sports, wushu and sport climbing hosted the IOC earlier this month while visits to wakeboard, karate and squash are still to come before year’s end.

It's expected there will be room for only one to join the 2020 Games, currently capped at 28 sports.

After presentations to the Program Commission in late December, the IOC Executive Board will add another to the fray in February when an existing Olympic sport gets cut.

EB members meet again in May on the sidelines of SportAccord in St. Petersburg, Russia to decide which of the eight then gets recommended to the IOC Session in September 2013 for confirmation.

Merger Moves Ahead

In the meantime, baseball has plenty of work to do if its merger with softball is to materialize.

Little more than 24 hours after touching down in London for the 2012 Olympics, Fraccari and International Softball Federation counterpart Don Porter confirmed their plans in a joint interview with ATR.

Now the IBAF is soliciting opinions from its member federations regarding a possible postal vote to approve the joint bid.

"We are already well into detailed discussions on a new constitution for our joint federation so we are very pleased with the progress of the merger," Fraccari tells ATR.

"We are eager to launch our joint Olympic campaign which we expect to do in early October. The long-term prospects for both our sports are very exciting."

Softball, meanwhile, will convene an extraordinary congress Oct. 30 in Houston to decide whether to move forward with baseball.

"We would have preferred doing a postal vote or even an electronic vote. That would have saved quite a bit of money and time, but under our constitution we have to do this," Porter tells ATR.

"It looks very close now as to the respondents who are attending, but we’re optimistic that we’re going to have the required quorum so we can go ahead and conduct the vote."

Porter says he’s "optimistic" his congress will approve the joint bid so softball can soon launch a joint Olympic campaign with baseball.

"A lot of the other sports that are being considered are certainly promoting their bids, and we want to get on to that ourselves too," he says.

"Time’s running out."

Both the IBAF and ISF must receive the decisions of their member federations by the time of their presentation to the IOC on Dec. 19 or 20.

That’s because a joint candidacy from baseball and softball faces an additional deadline above and beyond those for the other six sports.

A new, merged international federation would need to hold a congress – complete with elections – in sufficient time prior to SportAccord for reports to be supplied to the EB.

In addition to nominating a sport to recommend to the IOC Session, the EB would also be deciding whether to recommend that the new IF be recognized.

To win Olympic reinstatement, then, baseball and softball would need both votes in St. Petersburg and both votes in Buenos Aires.

Reported by Matthew Grayson

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