Baseball looking at Olympic return

The earliest it can win reinstatement is 2009, when the International Olympic Committee considers the sports program for the 2016 Games. The International Baseball Federation said Friday that it has set up a commission "to evaluate and resolve the problems connected with baseball's return to the Olympic program." The move came after a meeting in Rome of international baseball officials from 22 countries. Raffaele Pagnozzi, secretary of the Italian and European Olympic Committees, said he expected baseball to be readmitted "very soon." Baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympics after the 2008 Beijing Games in an IOC vote last year. Baseball has been an Olympic sport since 1992, but will not be part of the 2012 London Games. 2008 GAMES: The host city of the Summer Games is considering hospitalizing the mentally ill, relaxing restrictions on religious services and giving many businesses and factories a holiday as possible contingency measures during the Beijing Olympics.

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