Women’s Olympic Baseball

That’s what we’ll have if the International Baseball Federation gets its way:

Baseball will be adding a women’s component to its bid to be reinstated for the 2016 Summer Games.

Harvey Schiller, the president of the International Baseball Federation, tells The Associated Press the change will be made in the next few days.

The move comes a few weeks after women’s softball rejected baseball’s proposal for a joint baseball-softball bid. The two sports are among seven competing for two openings for new sports at the 2016 Olympics. The International Olympic Committee will vote in October on which sports to add.

There are some numbers quoted in the article, but really, I have no idea if women’s baseball is terribly popular, well, anywhere, let alone organized enough to make for a viable Olympic sport. Which is not to degrade it, for it is what it is. I am somewhat more skeptical of International Baseball, which following its snub from softball — a justified snub in my opinion — seems rather desperate to pair up with a women’s sport in order to save its own Olympic viability. It’s quite possible, however, that baseball simply doesn’t have the kind of international following to justify a place in the Olympics.

Not that that’s a bad thing.