Baseball And Softball Federation Merge To Create One Sports Federation

The Int'l Baseball Federation and the Int'l Softball Federation have come to a memorandum of understanding to "create a united front to ramp up their campaign for the sport and to reaffront the campaign" to get back on the 2020 Games Olympic program, according to Laura Walden of SPORTSFEATURES.com. According to the memorandum of understanding, a new joint committee will be formed, made up of eight people (ISF President and three members appointed by the ISF, and IBAF President and three members appointed by the IBAF) who will "oversee all facets of the merger process" and now seek recognition by the IOC as one federation. If approved, this would impact the 2020 bidding cities, Istanbul, Madrid and Tokyo, as they would have to "add the venue to their plan" should the new sport be added (SPORTSFEATURES.com, 10/15).