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US Pastime Struggles to Find Footing Globally
Michael Casey | April 28, 2010

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Baseball needs to shed its image as a mainly American sport in order to win back a spot at the Olympic Games, according to the president of the sport’s international federation.

Riccardo Fraccari said on Tuesday that baseball must rebrand itself as an international game, and he sees great potential to expand in parts of Europe as well as Africa and the Middle East, where Iraq and Iran have approached him about investing in the sport.

“The message you have to give to people is that baseball is a global sport, not American,” Fraccari said on the sidelines of the SportAccord International Convention in Dubai. “This was the mistake made in the past.”

Fraccari also said he would work with softball on a joint bid in 2013 to get back into the Olympics. Baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympic program after the 2008 Beijing Games.

Fraccari, an Italian who became president of the International Baseball Federation in December, said his top priority was returning baseball to the Olympics.

He acknowledged baseball was far more developed in the United States than elsewhere, but pointed to thriving leagues in Latin America, Japan and other parts of Asia as a sign it is “a very global sport.”

In 2005, softball and baseball became the first sports in 69 years to be voted out of the Olympics. Both lost appeals for reinstatement in 2006 and then set their sights on this year’s vote to get back on the program for the 2016 Games.

Instead, International Olympic leaders voted to add golf and rugby to the 2016 Games, while softball, baseball and three other sports were left out.

After being dropped from the Olympics, baseball has focused on ramping up interest in the World Baseball Classic and the baseball World Cup.

Many of the games in the 22-team World Cup were played in Europe, which Fraccari said he viewed as the next big market for the sport.

Fraccari said Iran and Iraq have approached him about starting baseball programs, and he said many other Middle Eastern countries also offer potential because they have good weather, American influence and available land.

“I think we have the opportunity to develop baseball there,” he said.



Associated Press