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Ian Kinsler eligible to play for Israel baseball team at Olympics

By OlympicTalkMar 23, 2020, 9:47 AM EDT
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Ian Kinsler, a recently retired MLB All-Star, is now eligible to represent Israel at the Olympics.

An Israel Baseball federation spokesperson confirmed a Jerusalem Post report that Kinsler recently made aliyah to fulfill Israeli citizenship requirements to become eligible.

Kinsler, 37, retired from the MLB in December after 14 seasons and 1,999 hits, most with the Texas Rangers.

Kinsler reportedly would have been eligible to play for Israel at the World Baseball Classic due to his Jewish heritage. He did not, but did play for the U.S. at the most recent World Baseball Classic in 2017, smacking a home run in an 8-0 win over Puerto Rico in the final.

Baseball returns to the Olympics for the Tokyo Games for the first time since 2008. Israel qualified for an Olympic baseball tournament for the first time by winning a joint European-African tournament in September.

Israel, then ranked 19th in the world, upset the highest-ranked European nations — the Netherlands (No. 8) and host Italy (No. 16) — and wrapped it up with an 11-1 win over South Africa. The most notable name on that Israel roster was Danny Valencia, an infielder who played parts of nine MLB seasons from 2010-18.

Active MLB players, as with previous Olympic baseball tournaments, are not expected to be eligible for the Tokyo Games. Other recent MLB players to express interest in the Olympics or Olympic qualifying included fellow All-Stars Adam Jones (U.S.) and Justin Morneau (Canada). The U.S. and Canada have not yet qualified.

It’s believed that two players with prior MLB All-Star experience competed at the Olympics for any nation — Australian catcher Dave Nilsson and Canadian pitcher Jason Dickson.

Many players competed at the Olympics before making an MLB All-Star team, including Stephen Strasburg and Jason Giambi.

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Olympic baseball qualifiers postponed with U.S. seeking one of last spots

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By OlympicTalkMar 12, 2020, 6:18 PM EDT
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The last two Olympic baseball qualifying tournaments, where the U.S. hopes to earn its place in Tokyo, have been postponed due to the coronavirus.

The qualifier for North and South American teams, originally scheduled for March 22-26 in Arizona, has been postponed with new dates to be announced.

The U.S., ranked second in the world, is to compete with seven other nations for one Olympic spot. Its roster is expected to be made up of minor leaguers, including those on MLB 40-man rosters.

The final, global qualifying tournament, originally scheduled for April 1-5 in Chinese Taipei, was rescheduled last week for June 17-21. That tournament will include the second- and third-place finishers from the Americas qualifier, potentially giving the U.S. a last chance to get into the six-nation Tokyo Olympic field.

Last November, the U.S. lost to Mexico at its first Olympic qualifying opportunity, using a roster of mostly double-A and triple-A caliber players.

Japan, Israel, Mexico and South Korea took the first four Olympic spots as baseball returns to the program for the first time since 2008. It is not on the Paris 2024 program but could be added back for the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

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Major League Baseball sponsors U.S. Olympic softball team

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Associated PressJan 23, 2020, 8:21 AM EST
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NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball is using its financial muscle to support the U.S. women’s softball team, which already is assured a spot in the Tokyo Olympics while the American men’s baseball team struggles to qualify.

MLB announced an agreement Thursday to become presenting sponsor of the women’s “Stand Beside Her” tour, a slate of exhibition games leading up to the Olympic tournament from July 22-28.

“We’re both bat and ball sports. Even though we’re not the same sport, there are so many similarities that you just can’t ignore,” said Kim Ng, MLB’s senior vice president for baseball operations. “It was important for us to make sure that they have this acknowledgment and recognition of their ability and their talent.”

Softball began as an Olympic sport for the 1996 Atlanta Games. The U.S. won gold medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004 with players that included Dot Richardson, Jennie Finch and Jessica Mendoza, then lost to Japan in the 2008 gold-medal game.

Baseball and softball were dropped for the next two Olympics, then restored for this year, when the U.S. and Japan will be joined by Australia, Canada, Italy and Mexico for games in Fukushima and Yokohama but not Tokyo. The sports are likely to be dropped for 2024 in Paris but could return four years later in Los Angeles.

The U.S. men’s baseball team stumbled in its first attempt to qualify, wasting a ninth-inning lead against Mexico in the final game of the Premier12 tournament in November and losing in the 10th. The U.S. has two more chances to join Israel, Japan, Mexico and South Korea in the Olympic field: an Americas tournament in Arizona from March 22-26 and a final tournament in Taiwan from April 1-5.

MLB is not allowing players on 40-man big league rosters to compete in qualifying, and few top pitching prospects were at the November tournament.

Softball has no such issues. The Olympics are the sport’s highest-profile event.

“The platform for us is 10 times bigger,” American outfielder Haylie McCleney said. “For us, it’s a great opportunity for people that have never watched softball before, people that have only followed it at the collegiate level, to really see how fun our game is to watch, how pure it is. If people are baseball fans, I guarantee they’re going to love softball because it’s pretty much just a faster game – it’s shorter, it’s quicker, it’s more entertaining to watch, in my opinion.”

The 2008 gold-medal softball game took 1 hours, 45 minutes — less than half the 3:45 average for this year’s World Series.

As part of the deal with MLB, the softball team’s official training facility will be at the Jackie Robinson Training Complex in Vero Beach, Florida, the old Dodgertown spring training camp.

MLB Network will include programming from the tour, which currently starts Feb. 4 in Tampa and has about three dozen stops.

The U.S. women’s soccer team has attracted huge television audiences. MLB sees softball as an opportunity for the sport’s growth.

“These are world-class athletes,” Ng said. “Because we have not been in the Olympics for the last 12 years, they just haven’t had that stage. So it’s really important at this point that we show as much support as we can for them.”

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