Pro Players Become Eligible for Olympics

Heeding the International Olympic Committee’s warning that baseball could be eliminated as an Olympic sport unless eligibility rules were liberalized, the International Baseball Assn. voted overwhelmingly Saturday to follow the lead of basketball, ice hockey and tennis by opening the Olympics to the world’s best players, including major leaguers.

The decision, however, is not expected to have as much immediate impact on baseball as on women’s softball.

Because the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, are scheduled for Sept. 15-Oct. 1, the climax of pennant races, major league teams have been adamant that they will not make players available for Dream Teams four years from now.

But the positive reaction to the vote by Major League Baseball and its players’ association presents the possibility that major leaguers could play in Olympics beyond 2000. That probably will satisfy the IOC that baseball should remain on the Olympic program, a decision that probably would spare women’s softball.

Although the IOC was pleased with women’s softball in its first year as an Olympic sport in Atlanta, it had been accepted onto the program as the female equivalent of baseball. As a result, the fate of women’s softball in future Olympics was believed to be linked to baseball.

As for the baseball tournament in Sydney, it has been suggested that major league teams might contribute triple-A players, whose seasons will have been completed by mid-September, or that countries might use recently retired major leaguers.

It does not seem likely that Major League Baseball would agree at any point in the future to adopt the NHL’s plan for the 1998 Winter Games by shutting down the season for two weeks to enable its best players to compete.

At the same time, the players’ association favors some sort of participation in the Olympics by major leaguers. Donald Fehr is expected to work toward that goal when elected to the U.S. Olympic Committee’s board of directors next month.

The vote Saturday at a special meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, was 56-7 with two abstentions.

Among dissenters were Cuba and Japan, who fear that the competitive balance will swing toward the United States if major leaguers play.