August 19, 2021 --

The 2024 Summer Olympics  will be held, provided the pandemic does not require another postponement, in Paris. France. Baseball, however,  is not on the Paris 2024 schedule. Why not? We just had the Tokyo Olympics which included baseball, the gold medal going to host country Japan, with the United States, absent major leaguers, getting the silver medal, losing to Japan in the final, 2-0.

LPR here speculates why there will be no baseball in Paris:  because there is no venue in the French capital that can accommodate baseball, and Parisians are not interested in building a baseball field that will hear the cry "joue la bal"  for just the duration of the 2024 Olympics.   We have seen that France plays basketball.  France, defeating the U.S. team at the start of the 2021 competition, lost to the U.S. in the final game, 87-82, getting a silver medal,  with  gold medals for the American squad.

But has anyone ever heard of baseball played in France?   LPR suspects that baseball in France would be regarded as an insult to French culture or, stated differently, another unwanted aspect of the Americanization of la belle France,

We should not be satisfied  with the assurance  that baseball will return to the Olympics in 2028, when the games will be held in Los Angeles.   (The way California is sliding, figuratively,  into the Pacific, will there be a Los Angeles to host the 2028 games?)  Shouldn't  the Olympic games offer   a sense of stability -- and how can there be stability when the nature of the games varies with the customs of the host country?

(Besides, who can say that seniors 80 years and up will be around in 2028?)

LPR hereby calls for a petition, inviting signatures from the peoples of all Olympic countries, demanding the inclusion of baseball in the Paris games -- with the proviso that if the French will not construct a field suitable for international baseball competition, the Olympic competition for baseball in 2024 will be held in baseball-playing countries, including the U.S., Japan, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.  

LPR also calls on MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred to announce the suspension of the 2024 season to allow MLB players to compete in the 2024 Olympics.   

If a baseball season could endure a  strike interruption in 1981, and a strike that canceled the 1994 season (going into the 1995 season), MLB can endure a two-week interruption  in an Olympics year  so that MLB players, the upper crust of baseball competition, can represent their home countries.

(Aside --  the U.S. is not the only country that would benefit with the participation of MLB players in the Olympics.)

LPR invites its visitors from around the globe to answer the poll questions, on this subject.  LPR requests a response of viral proportioins.