Bryce Harper walked into Citizens Bank Park on July 26 wearing a red, white and blue United States Olympic Team hat. The two-time MVP’s message was loud and clear: He wants in.
The Paris Games, set to conclude this weekend, have been a two-week celebration of sport, a wondrous delight full of the action, glory and joy we’ve come to expect from the Olympics. Yet baseball, which is both America’s pastime and a growing global force, is noticeably absent from this year’s cycle. That’s partly because active Major League Baseball players have never participated in the Olympics.
“You want to grow the game, right?” Harper told Sports Illustrated during the MLB All-Star Game in July. “Why wouldn’t you want to grow it at the peak [of sports]?”
Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani agreed, telling SI, “I’d like to play in the Olympics. Also, knowing the fact that there will be non-baseball fans watching the games as well, I think it would be really good for the baseball industry.”
On Thursday in Paris, an unforgettable semifinal basketball game showed what’s possible. LeBron James, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and the United States team authored a magnificent comeback against a Nikola Jokić-led Serbian squad. It was, quite simply, one of the most iconic games in basketball history. Having such generational players shine together on the world stage was a landmark moment for the sport and the Games.
Understandably, many around the baseball world want a piece of that action.
Casey Wasserman is the CEO of Wasserman Sports, a talent agency that represents a horde of MLB stars, including Zack Wheeler, Tyler Glasnow, Adley Rutschman, Chris Sale and Byron Buxton. He’s also the chairman of the L.A. 2028 Olympic Committee. According to The Athletic, Wasserman made a presentation at the MLB owners meetings in February in which he pushed for MLB participation in the 2028 Games.
Commissioner Rob Manfred, who has been an enormous advocate of the World Baseball Classic, has appeared uncharacteristically upbeat about Wasserman’s idea.
“I remain open-minded on that topic,” Manfred told a room of reporters at the All-Star Game. “Maybe the thing that I found most persuasive that [Casey said]: Forget about what’s gonna happen with baseball in the Olympics long-term, because I think we all know when you’re in Paris, they’re probably not gonna build a baseball stadium, but when you’re in L.A., it is an opportunity that we need to think about.”
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