Remember the times before the election swept the entire U.S. into madness? This summer, the world came together in peaceful harmony to celebrate the 33rd Olympiad. 2024 is almost over, but I’m still thinking about the Paris games.

Everyone has their issues with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). In the corrupt world of finding Olympics hosts, they have been proven to take bribes, swayed by nationalism, propaganda, and general manipulation.

Guess what my (a baseball fan’s) issue with them is.

It is outlandish that baseball is not a permanent fixture in the summer Olympiad. It used to be – from Barcelona 1992 to Beijing 2008. It made a return as an exhibition sport in Tokyo 2021, and it will do so once again in LA 2028, but its on-and-off story in the games shouldn’t be so spotty.

It’s time to make baseball an Olympic sport. For good.

When the Committee voted it out prior to London 2012, former IOC president Jacques Rogge’s pathetic argument cited a couple issues with baseball and softball, including their global reach, quality of players, and fandom.

“To be on the Olympic program is an issue where you need universality as much as possible,”  Rogge said. “You need to have a sport with a following, you need to have the best players.” 

I’m going to debunk every argument they tried to make.

Universality is the easiest excuse to shred. Look at the World Baseball Classic, baseball’s version of the World Cup. 20 teams competed – and not just from the Americas. The New World was well represented, but also Europe (Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, Czechia), Asia (Japan, Korea, Israel) and even Australia.

It should be obvious that Japan and Korea are prime baseball centers. Some of the best are in the MLB, like superstar Los Angeles Dodger Shohei Ohtani, who requires zero introduction. The Americas (especially Latin America) has a fabled tradition of excellence, from the US to Cuba, Dominican Republic, and Venezuela – all prime hotspots for the MLB’s top players.

You could go all the way down to youth baseball to prove this point. Arguably, the Little League World Series (LLWS) is a 100 times more “world” than the MLB World Series. Yes, it always includes one American team, but it also features a team from around the globe. The last decade of LLWS championships has featured international teams from Seoul, South Korea, Willemstad, Curaçao, and Tokyo, Japan.

In a globalized world where superstar athletes can come from pretty much any continent around the world, you can’t even try to make the “not universal enough” argument anymore.

And if you’re worried that the US will dominate the gold medal, don’t fret. Japan won the World Baseball Classic in 2023, and those results are completely comparable to another international competition such as the Olympics.

Sports already in the Olympics that have already been monopolized by a single nation are: Basketball (the U.S. men’s team has won all but four golds since Berlin 1936), Table Tennis (China: they’ve won every men’s or women’s team gold for the last five Olympics, every women’s singles gold of all time, and seven out of ten men’s singles gold ever), and archery (South Korea: they’ve won seven of ten team gold medals since Seoul 1988). I don’t see anyone trying to remove those from the field.

If you’re still considering it only an exhibition sport, then let me make myself clear.

Baseball should not be on the same level as roller hockey, squash, water skiing, breakdancing or any number of exhibition sports that have made past appearances. I guarantee you that Aaron Judge and Freddie Freeman will put on a better performance than “Raygun.” I’m not saying these sports don’t belong. But if you think any of these stands out as more universal, filled with more superstars, or more entertainingly competitive than the diamond game, you’re wrong. It’s got to be baseball. Every day of the week.

And there’s one more part of Rogge’s argument that I took particular offense to. “You have to win hearts. You can win the mind, but you still must win hearts.”

There are millions of others just like me. Talk to the diehards who visit their local team on game day to cheer them on, rain or shine. Talk to the kids that dream of being like their favorite players when they grow up, and that train and progress with dedication and a love of the game. Talk to the fans who travel from Japan to see their idol play across an ocean. Talk to Oakland fans, Colorado fans, Chicago fans, Washington fans, who still stick by their squads through 100-loss seasons. I’m far from alone in this world. 

Logically, there’s no reason baseball shouldn’t be in the Olympics. But it’s plain foolish to believe that it hasn’t got the passion or the heart to be celebrated on the biggest stage.