Watch: Former Reds manager Lou Piniella on his chances in the MLB and the Hall of Fame
Former Cincinnati Reds manager talks about his MLB career and his chances of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
(Note: This appeared earlier this week as an article in the Enquirer’s weekly Baseball Notes column.)
Following the U.S. men’s basketball thriller at the Paris Olympics on Saturday, baseball experts wasted no time in saying the NBA should be a role model – if not the MLB – when it comes to allowing the world’s best players to compete in their sport at the Olympics.
“I’d love to see it,” said Cincinnati Reds pitcher Nick Martinez, who knows Olympic baseball. “But it would be pretty difficult to do.”
Martinez won a silver medal with Team USA in Tokyo in 2021. He pitched six innings and allowed one run in the gold medal game against Japan (a 2-0 loss). Baseball is not currently an Olympic sport.
He was only allowed to play because he was playing professionally in Japan that season and the Asian leagues were closed during the Olympics to allow their top players to participate.
The MLB does not allow players on 40-man rosters to participate.
“So I was pretty lucky that I was playing in Japan at that time, because the league there was shut down that month because they sent their All-Stars,” said Martinez, who signed with the San Diego Padres after that season.
And anyone in the league, including Martinez, will tell you they don’t expect the billionaires who run the league to shut it down so Bryce Harper, Shohei Ohtani and Elly De La Cruz can compete on the international stage.
Every three or four years they let the World Baseball Classic place their bids on the international market.
“There’s been a lot invested in this league and these players to just take them out,” Martinez said. “I’d love to see that happen, but I don’t know how that would work logistically.”
However, this does not mean that it is not worthwhile to work out a solution in the form of workshops that allows costs and schedule to be reconciled.
As much as fans may enjoy watching the international dream teams play on that stage, Martinez – who grew up in a family that watched the Olympics from opening to closing ceremonies – describes his experience in one word: “goose bumps.”
