back. It is clearly stated even in the article that the IOC wants only sports where the top athletes compete. Yes, men's football has an exemption because it is the world's no. 1 sport and FIFA is powerful enough to get away with it. The IOC needs about three sports -- athletics, swimming and gymnastics. It does not need baseball -- it explicitly voted baseball off just a few years ago. The only way back to the olympic program is the inclusion of MLB stars, you can either push that or accept that baseball is not an olmpic sport. I think that it isn't that pat. First of all, the IOC has never said just the best athletes in the world. Soccer doesn't send its best athletes, as you mentioned. Neither does boxing. Neither did baseball, for many years, successfully. If the IOC only wants the best athletes in the world, then they will need to state that explicitly, and a lot of other sports will need to change. It isn't just baseball and it isn't at all softball. Nearly all of these comments are completely missing the point(s). It's not about the athletes, it's about the SPORT. The IOC should be making decisions about which SPORTS belong in the Olympics, and then let each country's OC decide which athletes they're going to send and how to get them there. This has nothing to do with MLB. Besides, having the top pro athletes in sports where there's major professional imbalance