
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, September 18, 1993                   TAG: 9309180146
SECTION: SPORTS                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: TRENTON, N.J.                                LENGTH: Short

OLYMPIC OFFICIALS DISCUSS DREAM TEAM POSSIBILITIES

Baseball's national governing body says the sport's best players should be eligible for the Olympics, regardless of whether they have played professionally.

The Olympics usually fall in the middle of the major-league season, so it's unlikely baseball could produce its own Dream Team to rival the NBA squad that swept to the basketball gold medal last summer in Barcelona, Spain.

But the vote by the board of directors of USA Baseball was described as "the first step toward bringing a superior level of competition" to the Olympic baseball tournament.

"The IOC wants the best available athletes to participate in the Olympic Games; it does not want to deny anyone," said Richard W. Case, USA Baseball's executive director. "USA Baseball agrees with the IOC and feels that having the best baseball athletes participate in Atlanta in 1996 will help make that competition the strongest Olympic baseball tournament ever."

Baseball returned to the Olympics in 1984, but gained medal status only in 1992, when Cuba won the gold medal with a team of government-subsidized athletes.

Rules of the International Baseball Association bar Olympic eligibility for anyone who has played for or been paid by a professional organization. That generally has limited U.S. players to those on college scholarships.

by CNB