{"id":518701,"date":"2026-03-04T19:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518701\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T19:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T19:16:08","slug":"mlb-stars-participation-in-la28-gaining-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518701\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB stars\u2019 participation in LA28 gaining momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"

The potential inclusion of MLB players in the 2028 L.A. Games would \u201cimmediately transform America\u2019s pastime into one of the main attractions of America\u2019s Games,\u201d according to Jared Diamond of the WALL STREET JOURNAL. Stars like Dodgers DH\/P Shohei Ohtani, Yankees RF Aaron Judge and Phillies 1B Bryce Harper have \u201calready expressed interest in participating in the Olympics,\u201d but the \u201cchallenge has always been persuading baseball\u2019s management class.\u201d Unlike their NHL counterparts, the franchise owners have \u201cnever been willing to shut down the season long enough to send players to the Games.\u201d Nor have they been \u201cwilling to accept the injury risk for a competition that comes with no direct financial reward.\u201d However, the \u201ccalculus appears to be changing.\u201d MLB is now \u201cfar more concerned with expanding baseball\u2019s international reach than it was the last time the U.S. hosted the Summer Olympics in 1996.\u201d The league also has seen the NHL and NBA \u201creap benefits from participating in the Games.\u201d But there are \u201cobstacles to overcome\u201d before MLB players in the Olympics \u201cbecomes a reality.\u201d MLB and the MLBPA \u201cneed to reach a formal agreement, a subject that will likely be broached during the upcoming labor negotiations after this season\u201d (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 3\/3<\/a>). Cubs GM Carter Hawkins said on MLB players in the Olympics, \u201cWe support the growth of the game. So if that\u2019s the way we go, I\u2019m sure, as a fan, people will be excited to see that, and we\u2019ll be supportive in every way we can\u201d (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 3\/4<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The potential inclusion of MLB players in the 2028 L.A. Games would \u201cimmediately transform America\u2019s pastime into one…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518702,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,4034,234685,591,85],"class_list":["post-518701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-baseball","tag-la28","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518701"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518701\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}