Under most circumstances no one enjoys seeing a grown man cry. But when that grown man is Tommy Lasorda and the tears are the result of enormous pride and emotion for leading Team USA to the Gold Medal during the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, there probably wasn’t an American anywhere who didn’t shed a tear or two right along with Tommy.

Lasorda can’t hold back the tears as Team USA collects their Gold Medals at the 2000 Olympics Games in Sydney, Australia. Legendary USC baseball coach Rod Dedeaux, who managed Team USA at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, stands proudly next to Lasorda. (AP photo)

Sadly, during the Bronze Medal game at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China, the often criticized International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that baseball and softball had been voted out of the 2012 Games in London, UK. The announcement came as a result of an IOC meeting held on July 7, 2005 and it was the first time that a sport(s) had been eliminated from Olympic competition since polo was eliminated from the 1936 Games in Berlin.

“To be on the Olympic program is an issue where you need universality as much as possible,” explained IOC head Jacques Rogge. “You need to have a sport with a following, you need to have the best players and you need to be in strict compliance with WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). And these are the qualifications that have to be met. When you have all that, you have to win hearts. You can win the mind, but you still must win hearts.”

Once the laughter created by Rogge’s seriously flawed logic ceased, the anger immediately followed. Clearly lost on Rogge and the rest of the IOC was the fact that the largest crowd in history to witness a live baseball game (until March 29, 2008) occurred during an exhibition game between an Australian national team and a U.S. team during the 1956 Melbourne Games. On that day, 114,000 spectators packed the Melbourne Cricket Ground. But even at that it still took the IOC until 1992 – another 36 years – to finally make baseball and women’s softball official Olympic sports. (Note: Baseball had been an exhibition and/or demonstration sport during Olympic competition as far back as 1904).

“I think they’ve made a big, big mistake,” said Lasorda upon learning of the IOC’s decision. “Baseball is played by all countries now and softball, too. I think that’s really going to hurt the Olympics. I don’t want to knock the other sports, but I think this is a big mistake. I am very disappointed. I was fortunate enough to coach the U.S. Olympic team in Australia. The parks were full at all times. How can they take away a sport like that?”

Although Rogge tried desperately to sugarcoat it, it was blatantly (and painfully) obvious is that the real reason why the IOC had voted baseball out of the Olympics (taking softball with it) was because of the widespread use (or suspected use) of performance enhancing drugs in professional baseball – there is simply no other spin you can put on it.

But even putting the PED issues aside, it was apparent that Rogge nor his colleagues spent much (or any) time at a Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, Australian Baseball League, Korea Baseball Organization or Chinese Professional Baseball League ballpark (to name only a few) – for if they had, they would have seen that baseball has an enormous following and that it has clearly won the hearts of fans and spectators from around the world a very very long time ago.

After the combined efforts of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) and the International Softball Federation (ISF) failed to convince the IOC to reinstate the two globally popular sports back into Olympic competition at the annual IOC meeting on September 8, 2013, the IOC voted to continue its ban against the two sports and instead reinstate wrestling into the 2020 Tokyo Games.

But then something very interesting happened.

Sometime after that September 8, 2013 IOC meeting and the next one held on September 8, 2014 in Monaco, someone somewhere along the line convinced the members of the IOC that the Olympics were in need of reform – serious reform. As such, IOC president Thomas Bach presented a 40-point “Olympic Agenda 2020” reform package calling for some of the most significant changes in Olympic history.

Included in Bach’s reform package was allowing host cities/countries to add one or more Olympic event based on their popularity within their region. Needless to say, baseball (and softball) are fanatically popular in Japan.

“This is a major breakthrough,” said senior IOC Canadian member Dick Pound during the two-day meeting in Monaco. “We were at a dead-end situation with 28 sports. This provides the flexibility we need.”

Perhaps the most radical change included in Bach’s reform package was a break from the longstanding rule that host cities and/or countries were not permitted to hold Olympic events outside of their city or country which, in the past, caused many countries to shy away from even bidding to host the Olympics because of the multi-billion dollar costs involved. This new proposal would allow joint bids by neighboring cities and countries or even regions, which would significantly reduce individual costs. It does, however, create potential logistical and transportation concerns. As such, it would undoubtedly be closely scrutinized by the IOC.

Another interesting item included in the Olympic Agenda 2020 reform package are plans to launch a digital television channel – possibly as early as next year – to promote Olympic sports between the every-two-year Summer/Winter Games. The IOC hopes that the creation of such a channel will “engage with young viewers.” The proposed channel will feature material from Olympic archives as well as broadcasts of competitions of Olympic sports outside the Games.

After debating each of the 40 points included in Bach’s Olympic Agenda 2020 reform package item by item, the 96 IOC members present voted unanimously to approve all of them.

Although this certainly clears the way for baseball and softball to return to Olympic competition at the 2020 Tokyo Games – and there is no reason to think that they won’t – it also means that their inclusion in future Olympic competition will only occur if future bidding host cities/countries choose to include them. That being said, it’s probably a safe bet that baseball and softball will be included in the 2024 Olympics in Boston.

Somebody hand Lasorda a hankie.