The International community, the committee that decides which sports will be featured in the International Olympics, as of 2016, recently heard arguments for bringing Baseball back into the games. In 2012, baseball will not be played in England. There is no certainty it will come back in 2016:
Softball is equally impacted, as it, too, is not included as a sport as baseball is not.
Did you know there is a competition, held every two years, for the past six, called the IBAF Women’s Baseball World Cup? The International Baseball Federation (IBAF) conducts the event, as a qualifying opportunity for women’s teams around the world, a place holder, if you will, for if/when the International Olympics decides the fate of baseball.
It is the IBAF’s contention that, were Baseball be brought back into the Olympics: the IBAF insists that Women’s Baseball be included: on this point the IBAF will not back down – or will they…
When asked about the limits the IBAF would go to to bring Men’s Baseball back, it seems that Women’s Baseball is not a certainty…
What if the Olympic committee were to take into consideration the facts on the ground: as many girls and women play Softball as boys and men play Baseball worldwide. If you were a committee member: would you sacrifice women’s baseball to ensure women’s softball were included: of course you would!
At this time, the IBAF does not provide the same opportunity for girls and women to play baseball as they do boys and men. In the USA, alone, the USA Baseball organization, a division of the Major League Baseball enterprise, and administered in the US by the same team that manages the IBAF, they don’t even have their own executive, administrative or coaching organization, operation annually, dedicated to women’s interests, as they do for boys and men.
Annually, boys and men enjoy the support of the IBAF, year-round, with many tournaments, competitions, including international travel and tours: all expenses paid.
Girls and women get one event, every two years: that’s it! Girls don’t even have a division like the boys. For that matter, girls are not even encouraged or recognized as viable for playing with the boys in their division, despite skill level. All youth evaluations are at the mercy of Youth Baseball tournament directors, across the USA, to invite teams and players THEY recognize based on their exposure to them: in the same tournament director’s weekly tournaments, that the boys pay to play in.
If you are a girl or woman who wants to play baseball on the world stage: what options do you have to change the direction and trajectory?
