The talk about MLB players participating in the 2028 Olympics is getting stronger, and there’s real indication that the MLB will take a 10 day mid-summer break so their athletes can participate in the LA games

If so, the Olympics will have a new venue in play - Dodger Stadium - the largest stadium in MLB at over 56,000 capacity, and the home of baseball in the 1984 games

The 2022 World Baseball Classic wound up being a smash success, ending with the two best players in the game facing one another. It drew fans from Japan, Korea, Venezuela, Mexico, Puerto Rico, even as far as Israel, and all around the US, insane crowds, camaraderie, everything you’d want from a tournament that brought the world together.

Here’s an example of Dodger Stadium when it’s full. Los Angeles is a baseball-mad city, and it’s likely a few Dodgers stars will be involved (including Shohei Ohtani, the most popular athlete in Japan). LA won’t just be US fans, there are massive Mexican, Korean, and Japanese communities as well. You also have teams like the superstar-rich Dominican Republic, who don’t have a lot of traveling fans but people will pay just to see smash baseballs.

All this to say I think the conditions exist to showcase the sport at its best, with high tension and crazy crowds and a totally different Olympics vibe, and once the world gets to experience baseball this way I can’t imagine it being dumped again.