Baseball made its pitch Friday for reinstatement in the Olympics, one of seven sports fighting for two spots on the program for 2016. A six-strong team led by International Baseball Federation President Harvey Schiller and featuring Detroit Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson made an hour-long presentation to the International Olympic Committee. Schiller told reporters the closed-door session with the IOC program commission went well. “I thought everybody was smiling,” Schiller said. Baseball, softball, golf, karate, roller sports, rugby and squash are competing for the two openings on the 2016 schedule. All were meeting Friday with the 16-member program commission, which will deliver an influential report to the IOC's top decision-making body before a vote next year in Copenhagen, Denmark. Baseball was followed by golf, which was represented by USPGA executive Ty Votaw and Peter Dawson of the Royal and amp; Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, Scotland. “I think they felt we made a powerful presentation,” Dawson said after the meeting. All seven competing sports were rejected for the 2012 London Games program in voting by more than 100 IOC members three years ago. Baseball and softball were dropped, while the other five failed to gather enough support for inclusion. Schiller said the baseball delegation was asked about its ability to deliver major league players to a 16-team Olympic tournament in August 2016. “We're committed to bringing the best players ever to the Olympic baseball tournament,” he said. “We talked about our advances in drug testing. We have an agreement with the professional leagues in terms of out-of-competition testing for the events we sanction.” The program commission, including eight IOC members and eight administrators from other sports, asked about baseball's ability to reach viewers through the Internet and other new media. Each sport must host an IOC delegation to observe an event, and baseball has invited officials to attend the World Baseball Classic finals in Los Angeles next March. Schiller said baseball could work well with any of the four candidate cities bidding to host the 2016 Games. Rio de Janeiro and Madrid had baseball in their plans when bidding for the 2012 Games, while Chicago and Tokyo have existing teams, stadiums and big fan bases. The golf delegation brought the trophy presented the last time the sport was played at the Olympics in 1904. The board meets next June to make recommendations to the full IOC membership. A simple majority is needed for a sport to be voted onto the program. The IOC will also select the 2016 host in Copenhagen. – AP __
