(AP Photo/Jeff Roberson) Chicago White Sox's Joe Crede hits during Game 2 of the World Series in Chicago, Sunday, Oct. 23, 2005.
Baseball tries to get back into Olympics
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OCTOBER 25, 2005
By Happynews Staff

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP)_Baseball's top guns began developing a plan they hope will lead to the sport's reinstatement to the Olympics.
Leading the effort Tuesday were International Baseball Federation president Aldo Notari and Denis Oswald, president of the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations, which represents all 28 sports.
Bob DuPuy, Major League baseball's chief operating officer, left the World Series on Sunday to join the talks, which coincide with International Olympic Committee executive board meetings.
"We are trying to find ways to return to the Olympic Games as quickly as possible," Notari told The Associated Press. "We were only out by three votes.
"Maybe this time, if we get another vote, we'll be 10 to 15 votes ahead. I don't think this is impossible."
The IOC voted 54-50 in July against keeping baseball in the Olympics, with 53 votes in favor needed to remain. The move was effective for the 2012 London Olympics.
Notari said it would take two or three days to develop strategies to push for a new vote at the IOC's next general assembly in February _ on the eve of the Winter Games in Turin, Italy.
Under IOC rules, at least a third of the 115 members would need to submit a motion to consider a new vote. Then, half the membership would need to favor the motion. If that passed, the sport would require a majority in favor to win reinstatement.
"We are also studying the procedure for possible readmittance very carefully," Notari said. "We don't want to make any mistakes. This is a first for us. We also hope it will be the last."
The IOC also voted in July to cut softball, which fell one vote short of making the cut _ 52-52, with one abstention.
Softball also is seeking another vote in Italy.
Baseball has been in the Olympics since the 1992 Barcelona Games. Softball, for women only, made its Olympic debut in Atlanta in 1996. The sports were the first removed from the program since polo in 1936.
IOC members cited Major League Baseball's unwillingness to let its players take part in the Olympics and the sport's doping problems as major reasons for the decision to remove it from the games.
"But we're only talking about the North American league. Japan sent its best players to Athens," Notari argued. "There are 100 million baseball players in the world. We're talking about 1,000 in the Major Leagues.
"As for doping, it's a minority. And we are working to address that, too."
IOC president Jacques Rogge institutes a review of the entire sports program after each Olympics. He says the games must maintain a maximum of 28 sports, 301 medal events and 10,500 athletes. No sport will be added unless one is dropped.