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Originally Posted by TL
Look people, there's a reason why Baseball was removed from the olympics in 2012.It sucks and hardly anybody plays it, why else do you think funny teams like Africa and Holland have to be entered?
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Baseball was removed from the Olympics (may be back for the following summer games) due to the lack of involvement from the MLB and it's minor leagues. With the basketball and hockey "dream teams" playing, the IOC hoped that it would be able to lure the MLB for 3 weeks mid-season to play in the games. The interest ran out and baseball, along with softball, was dropped from medal games.
This worked out just fine for the MLB, since they have been after a "world cup" type tournament for the last 15 years. Teams like Italy, South Africa, Australia, and the Netherlands were all playing in the summer games so it made the most sense to invite them to field teams for the World Baseball Classic.