By Frank Pingue
TORONTO (Reuters) -Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is feeling more confident about MLB players competing at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, though he said significant scheduling challenges remain to be resolved.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday ahead of Game Two of the World Series in Toronto, Manfred said progress has been made after meeting with LA28 officials.
The Major League Baseball Players Association would also have to be on board with having big leaguers competing for an Olympic gold medal in 2028.
“I am positive about it. The owners have kind of crossed the line in terms of we’d like to do it if we could possibly make it work,” said Manfred. “But there are logistical issues that still need to be worked through.”
MLB players did not compete in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball did allow its stars to participate. Baseball was not part of last year’s Paris Olympics as the host nation did not select it for the program.
“There are a lot of details that need to be worked out,” Manfred said. “We have made a lot of progress with LA 2028 in terms of the calendar. Right now we are in discussions with the players association about that set of issues.”
The biggest scheduling headache is that the Olympic baseball tournament in 2028 will be played July 15-20 at Dodger Stadium, which is around the time of year that MLB holds its annual All-Star Game and festivities.
Manfred declined to elaborate on what impact Olympic participation would have on MLB’s All-Star festivities. “I’m not going to get into the details of the schedule until I am finished with everybody involved,” he said.
With Brisbane hosting the 2032 Olympics, Manfred suggested that even if MLB players do compete at LA28 it might just be a one-and-done type of deal.
“If you think about it, the logistics of LA as evidenced by how long we have been talking about it are difficult,” he said. “The chances that we are playing in Brisbane, difficult, even way more difficult than being in LA.”
Having MLB players in the Olympics would certainly boost the league’s profile, especially given the massive popularity of Japanese standout Shohei Ohtani, who plays for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
In the National League Championship Series, Ohtani produced an otherworldly performance that propelled the Dodgers back to the World Series.
“Shohei has just absolutely been the greatest benefit to the game that you can imagine throughout the year,” Manfred said. “In the LCS he had probably the greatest game of all time and we are fortunate to have him here in the World Series.”
(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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