A mission from the Chinese Taipei Amateur Baseball Association (CTBA) took part in an emergency meeting in Switzerland in an attempt to save baseball from being axed as an Olympic sport.
CTBA Chairman Tom C.H. Peng, who took part in the two-day emergency meeting called by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) Friday and Saturday in the Swiss lakeside town of Montreux, expressed the universal concerns of all IBAF member countries that once baseball is dropped from the Olympic summer games as suggested by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), a terrible blow will have been dealt to the development of baseball around the world.
Peng, a vice chairman of the Asian chapter of the IBAF, said baseball is already the "national sport" of Taiwan with millions of people involved in it. The CTBA will try its utmost to cooperate with other IBAF member countries to avoid the exclusion of baseball from the summer games.
The IOC proposed recently to drop baseball, along with softball and the modern pentathlon, from the summer Olympics.
The IOC Program Commission put forth a report late last month, proposing the removal of the three sports and several other events in other sports, beginning from the 2008 Beijing Games.
The report cited as reasons the fact that the world's top baseball players were absent from Olympic competition and that baseball's popularity is restricted to certain continents. It also noted the high venue construction costs.
IBAF member countries will try all possible means to fight the IOC plans to drop baseball from the Olympic summer games, Peng quoted the meeting participants as saying.
IBAF President Aldo Notari said that he is optimistic that baseball will be retained in the 2008 Beijing Games.
In a statement released after the conclusion of the Montreux emergency meeting, Notari said that he is happy to verify that the strengths most important in baseball around the world -- the professional leagues of the US and Japan, the Players Association in the US, the US Olympic Committee and the IBAF -- are completely united to work together in a positive way to explain to IOC President Jacques Rogge and the members of the IOC Executive Board why baseball must be a part of the Olympic program and remove any doubts that have recently risen.
All key individuals, including USOC President Marty Mankamy-er, all members of the IBAF Executive Board and officials from professional major leagues of the US and Japan, participated in the emergency meeting, reflecting the seriousness of the possible implications of the IOC proposal.
Freddie Freeman homered and drove in four runs, Shohei Ohtani also went deep and Roki Sasaki earned his first major league win as the Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves 10-3 on Saturday night for their seventh straight victory. The Dodgers have won the first two games of the series to improve to 5-0 against Atlanta this year. Los Angeles’ three-game sweep at home early in the season left the Braves 0-7. Sasaki allowed three runs and six hits over five innings. The 23-year-old right-hander gave up a home run to Ozzie Albies, but received plenty of offensive support in his
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Bayern Munich on Sunday were crowned German champions for the 34th time, giving striker Harry Kane his first major trophy, after second-placed Bayer 04 Leverkusen drew 2-2 at SC Freiburg. Bayern’s 3-3 draw at RB Leipzig on Saturday, when the Bavarians came from two goals down to take the lead before conceding a stoppage-time equalizer, meant defending Bundesliga champions Leverkusen needed to win at Freiburg to delay the title party. Leverkusen were two goals down before scoring twice in the final 10 minutes, but Xabi Alonso’s side could not find a third, as Bayern reclaimed the title at the first attempt after
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
RSS