As I’ve written before, international baseball competitions like the WBC don’t really hold my interest. But I may have a professional interest in this: the International Olympic Committee announced that baseball, among a few other sports, is being put under evaluation for a return to the Olympics effective for the 2020 games.
This could be significant in that, as you may have read, NBC recently won the rights to broadcast the Olympics through 2020. And since, by 2020, I will either have (a) been fired by NBC in an ugly scandal; or (b) managed to convince a couple of people around here that I actually understand baseball a bit and am responsible enough to leave the house, there’s a non-trivial chance that they could send me to the Olympics to cover it! Which means, seriously IOC, you had better pick a kick-butt city for the 2020 Olympics. If this thing goes down in Bratislava, Slovakia* or some place like that, I’m not gonna be pleased.
Less personally, I’m not sure how I feel about baseball in the Olympics. Depending on the timing, it’s likely to have even less elite-level participation than the WBC does. And, as I’ve said before, the whole national pride + baseball thing tends not work as well with baseball as it does with other sports. It has its moments, but it’s not like the game lends itself to a couple hours straight of insane, patriotic screaming. And yes, I realize that many of you think I’m totally wrong about that.
*Note: one of my former law firms had an office in Bratislava for some reason. When I worked there, a couple of my colleagues from Columbus had to travel to that office to handle some sort of arbitration. Their report back to me on Bratislava: “it’s like Youngstown, Ohio with a castle.” So, no, it’s not on my bucket list.
(link via BTF)
