Dave Portnoy Blasts IOC For The Exclusion Of Baseball From The Olympic Program

The Paris 2024 Olympics featured surfing, skateboarding, surfing, sport climbing, and breakdancing as the additional sports instead of baseball and softball.

Dave Portnoy Blasts IOC For The Exclusion Of Baseball From The Olympic Program

Dave Portnoy (Image via Fox News)

In Short
  • Dave Portnoy criticized the IOC for excluding baseball from the Paris 2024 Olympics.
  • Baseball will return to the Olympic program in Los Angeles 2028 after a 12-year hiatus.
  • Portnoy's comments echoed sentiments from Bryce Harper about the significance of baseball in the Olympics.

The Barstool Sports founder and president, Dave Portnoy, blasted the International Olympic Committee for the absence of baseball historically in its Olympic program. The Olympic Committee had dropped baseball as an event for the Paris Olympics 2024, though the event will return to the official sports list in Los Angeles in 2028.

Portnoy, who’s very much known for not withholding his opinions, blasted the Olympic committee on the Monday episode of ‘Wake Up Barstool.’ He held that the Olympic program included several sports that made no sense, while excluding baseball.

Though he didn’t name the events he deemed useless, it is thought to be a jab at breakdancing, whose inclusion sparked several controversies on announcement. Portnoy said in a clip shared via X:

How stupid (do) you have to be to be on the Olympic Committee? You have some of the most ridiculous, dumbest, stupidest sports… and you don’t have baseball where you (just) list all those countries, they all play it. They’re all competitive. You’re gonna have a whole ton of different countries that could theoretically win this thing. And they don’t want to put that sport in Olympics?

The 48-year-old’s comments found their way from Bryce Harper‘s statements from a week ago amid the World Baseball Classic. The Phillies star had said that while the WBC is great, but it’s not the Olympics.

While Portnoy initially agreed with the baseball star, he later changed his mind about WBC, more so because of his thoughts about the Olympic committee.

Baseball was first introduced unofficially in Paris in 1900, as a demonstration sport in 1912, and played as an official sport from 1992 in Barcelona through 2008 in Beijing. After a 12-year hiatus, baseball was played in Tokyo before being moved to Paris.

However, as a relatively less widespread game, the inclusion of baseball depended on the host country, i.e France. The European nation has a national team that is neither successful nor strong. They failed to even qualify for the qualifying tournaments for the first two editions of WBC, and their attempts to make WBC in the last three ended in qualifying.

It was also said that Major League Baseball‘s reluctance to send the professional players’ scores during July at the height of the regular season has also played a role in the host nation’s decision.

The World Baseball Classic to serve as qualifier for the baseball event at the 2028 Summer Olympics

Baseball in Los Angeles will feature six contingents. The United States of America has already qualified as the host of the event. The two best-performing teams from the Americas at the World Baseball Classic 2026 will join the United States.

Edwin Diaz
Edwin Diaz of Puerto Rico (Image via CNN)

There are eleven teams from the Americas at WBC 2026, of which the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela have already advanced to the quarterfinals. Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua, Brazil have already bowed out of the competition. The remaining three teams will be decided only by 2027 and 2028. The best-performing team from Asia and Europe/Oceania at the WBSC Premier 12 next year will be the fourth and fifth teams in the competition.

As of now, only 12 teams have qualified for the 16-team WBSC Premier 12 competition based on the rankings of December 31, 2025. Japan, South Korea, and Chinese Taipei have qualified from Asia, while the Netherlands and Australia have qualified from Europe/Oceania. The teams, who were ranked 13-18 and two wild cards, will play two qualifying tournaments, the first of which will take place in November in China, to determine the four teams.

The sixth team will come from a final qualifying tournament before March 2028. The tournament is set to feature two unqualified teams from Asia and Europe, one from Oceania and the winner of the Africa Cup Baseball Championship.

Also Read: