In 1904, baseball made its first appearance in the Olympic Games. The sport was played off and on in the Olympics for decades following its initial appearance, and in 1992 it became an official sport in the Summer Olympics, after its global popularity was recognized.
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Softball has had a shorter run in the Olympics, only having existed as an Olympic sport from 1996–2008. Its presence provided what the Olympic Committee saw as the female alternative to baseball. Although softball is more popular among women than baseball, women across the globe also play baseball — while men play fastpitch, a version of softball offered in the Olympics.
Kids from New York to Nigeria and Santa Domingo to Tokyo now grow up with these sports, playing their own versions of them with the materials accessible to them. In third-world countries, kids use sticks and stones as bats and balls, and make baseball gloves out of milk cartons — the type of glove with which Blue Jays shortstop Jose Reyes got his start. It is estimated that 137 countries and 62 million players worldwide — 7.5 million of which are children outside of North America — are currently participating in organized forms of baseball and/or softball.
Baseball’s popularity is growing exponentially in Japan. The country is producing MLB all-stars, and it has its own professional men’s and women’s baseball and softball leagues. This would seem to indicate that these sports belong in Japan’s Olympic Games. Despite the country’s joint bid for the sports through the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) in the Play Ball 2020 campaign, Tokyo will not be hosting them in its country’s Olympic Games.
Marek Deska, pitcher for the Varsity Blues’ baseball team and pitcher for the Polish national team, explained that the decision is, “pretty disappointing. Baseball has become such an international game, and it’s a shame that it won’t be included in the Olympics. It’s strange to see Japan, a huge supporter of baseball and softball, not include the two sports in their own Olympic Games.”
On September 8, the bid was voted down, and wrestling was the chosen sport to be reinstated to the games after winning the bid in the first round of voting. Wrestling received 49 of the 95 total votes cast, while the baseball/softball bid only received 24 — just edging out squash, which received 22. Wrestling’s presence in the Olympics, which was at risk because of its unpopularity in the 2012 London Olympics, was removed from the lineup in February. Before being removed, wrestling’s status as an Olympic sport dated back to over 3,000 years.
