Returning to the official sport of baseball at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
"Please allow MLB, team owners, and players to participate."
Major League superstars also dream of participating in the Olympics.
According to ESPN on the 17th, Bryce Harper (31, Philadelphia Phillies) said, "I hope the Major League Secretariat will allow players to participate in the Olympics."
Harper told his wife in an interview ahead of Game 1 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS) against the Arizona Diamondbacks on his 31st birthday. It was revealed that it received a text message saying, "I think one of your birthday wishes has come true."
One of my wishes is to participate in the Olympics.
"I don't know if the team will want me because I'm old by the time (in 2028), but I don't know," Harper said, showing his ambition, saying, "It's everyone's dream to participate in the Olympics."
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) held a general meeting the previous day and decided to return baseball and softball to the 2028 LA Olympics.
Baseball was an official Olympic sport from 1992 Barcelona to 2008 Beijing. After that, he was excluded from the Olympics and returned to Tokyo in 2020, but was excluded again in Paris in 2024.
Baseball is back in LA, but it is still unclear whether major leaguers will be able to play.
Even when baseball was held as an official event, the Major League Baseball Secretariat did not allow players to be transferred, citing that they were in the middle of the season. For this reason, the U.S. started the Olympics by forming a team mainly for minor leaguers. 토토사이트
Harper hopes the MLB Secretariat and owners will make different decisions ahead of the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. "It's going to be really cool and fun," he said. "I want to represent the United States in a top-level competition with 'USA' on my chest. "There is also the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but it is not an Olympics," he said, raising expectations for his participation in the Olympics.
Harper, who won the Rookie of the Year award as soon as he entered the big league through the Washington National League in 2012, has established himself as a star representing the big league. In 1,508 games, he had a batting average of 0.281, 306 homers, 889 RBIs, 997 runs and 133 steals, and was also named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) twice. In March 2019, he signed a 13-year, $330 million (about 445.3 billion won), the highest amount of free agent at the time, and handed it to Philadelphia.
