With major league baseball winding up its season…which probably is over by the time you read this … we find the sport continuing its efforts to return to the Olympic field. Officials of the International Baseball Federation reportedly are in the midst of trying to get their sport back into the Summer Olympics.
An Associated Press story this week said that Aldo Notari, president of the International Baseball Federation and Denis Os-wald, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, met with Bob DuPuy, the chief operation of-ficer for Major League Baseball.
Notari notes that baseball was rejected by the International Olympic Committee last July by only three votes. To get back in, they need to convince at least a third of the 115 members of the IOC to submit a motion for reconsideration.
Then half of the members would have to support the motion. If that happened, then a majority approval would be needed for reinstatement.
The attempt at reinstatement would take place during the next general assembly meeting of IOC, just before the Winter games in Turin, Italy next February.
Baseball has been an Olympic sport since Barcelona in 1992. Softball, which also was ejected from the games this summer, had been included since 1996.
Softball was taken off the schedule by a tie vote of 52 to 52, with one abstention. That sport's officials also are trying for reinstatement in Italy in February. They were the first sports dropped from the games since polo was "chukked" out in 1936.
I ask you … how can the IOC eject polo and keep synchronized swimming?
According to the AP, the IOC bounced baseball because MLB was not willing to let its players take part and because of the doping issue.
Notari responds by noting that there are plenty of good players available, i.e. from Japan. He reportedly added that the dop-ing issue involves a minority of players and is being addressed.
The story said that the Olympics' entire program is reviewed after each festival. There has to be at least 28 sports, 301 medal events and 10,500 athletes.
No sport will be added, or, we assume, reinstated, unless something is dropped.
One of the most embarrassed men in the United States this week had to be Brian Jackson of Brentwood, PA. Jackson made headlines and elicited self-righteous chuckles around the country for committing the heinous crime of wanting female compan-ionship.
He didn't stalk anybody, attack anybody or drop a mickey in anybody's drink. What he did was pretend to be somebody else to increase his attraction quotient.
He told one woman he was Ben Roethlisberger and another that he was Brian St. Pierre (who?). He even signed Roethlis-berger's name on a football as a present and signed BR's name on a Steelers' jersey owned by one of her neighbor's
Send the children out of the room!
He was allowed to plead guilty to disorderly conduct and pay a $300 fine. The two women apparently filed the complaint.
But where's the crime? He didn't approach either woman after being found out.
He didn't sign a Steelers' jersey or a football and then try to sell them.
He just wanted a date, for crying out loud.
Hell hath no fury like a woman fooled.
If society jailed every guy who fudged the facts a little to impress a girl, we'd have to let the drug dealers out. If we jailed every woman who did the same to attract a guy … we'd have to let the drug dealers' girlfriends out.
My advice to single men looking for a date … Stay out of Pennsylvania.