The international federations of baseball and softball ratified a constitution Sunday to form the World Baseball Softball Confederation.
WBSC co-President Riccardo Fraccari said, “this is a historic day. We have brought a new level of world wide unity and determination in our quest to return to the Games”.
In forming a single sporting federation both sports hope to improve their chances of returning to the 2020 Olympic Games.
Baseball and softball have been out of the Olympics since 2008. They are competing against seven other sports for inclusion in the 2020 Games.
Co-President Don Porter said, “our vision is to give every boy and girl in the world a chance to play baseball and softball and to inspire them to take up the sport through the Olympic Games”.
He said the new federation is looking at ways to make baseball and softball more appealing to the International Olympic Committee (IOC), including shortening the time of games”.
The IOC board is to meet in St. Petersburg, Russia next month to select one or more sports to be submitted for final consideration to the IOC general assembly in September.
