Olympics might alter MLB season

I thought this news was a few days old when I stumbled on it earlier today, but now I've come across it again from a British source. MLB is considering releasing players from their teams mid-season in future years, hoping it makes the sport relevant again for future Olympic games. The game is going to be left out of the 2012 games due to MLB's previous reluctance to allow players to participate.

MLB vice-president Bob Watson, who also serves as the general manager of the American national team, revealed as part of the American squad announcement on Wednesday that talks are ongoing between MLB, the IOC and International Baseball Federation.

"I believe they are trying to work up something, you have a few years to get a plan. There are a lot of moving parts but don't rule it out," Watson said in a conference call.

The previous article I referred to, however, says baseball is considering an overall work stoppage for future Olympics.

Major League Baseball opened the door to allowing top players to take part in future Olympics on Wednesday and said the league would consider shutting down mid-season if Chicago or Tokyo were selected as host of the 2016 Summer Games.

Hopefully the IOC asks MLB to drop the All-Star game winner decides home-field advantage in the World Series debacle, too.

In all seriousness, though, a work-stoppage would be a better way of going about business than removing the top players in season, and asking their teams to play on without them. If baseball needs to start two weeks earlier in an Olympic year, so be it. Play the early-season games in warm-weather cities or domes, and return the two weeks of road games to the cold weather cities once things warm up.