SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- On the heels of a successful World Baseball Classic, momentum seems to be building for Major League players to potentially participate in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
There are still hurdles to be cleared, but if it happens, count Giants ace Logan Webb among the players who would be interested in suiting up for the Summer Games.
“If they do it, I'm in,” said Webb, who gave up one run over 8 2/3 innings in his two WBC starts for Team USA this year. “Obviously, I’d have to get asked. But if I'm asked to do it, I'd love to. I told [Team USA manager Mark] DeRosa, I told [Team USA general manager] Mike Hill, I told my wife -- I was like, ‘It's not the last time I want to wear the red, white and blue.’ It was an honor to represent my country, and hopefully I get another chance to do it.”
Major League players have never participated in the Olympics, but MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred believes that could finally change in '28.
“I think that we’re a lot closer to [an agreement] than the last time we talked about it,” Manfred said following the league’s owners meeting last month. “There are some issues with the MLBPA that we just need to resolve. I sense a lot of momentum towards playing in L.A. in 2028. I think we’re going to get over those issues.”
There are few people who understand the thrill of playing baseball at the Olympic level better than The Thrill himself.
Giants legend Will Clark starred for the U.S. Olympic baseball team that won a silver medal when the Summer Games were last held in Los Angeles in 1984. Clark, a rising junior at Mississippi State at the time, led Team USA with a .429 batting average, nine hits, eight RBIs and three home runs in five games, though the Americans ended up finishing runner-up to Japan during the demonstration baseball tournament at Dodger Stadium.
“That one experience probably got me more ready for pro ball than anything,” Clark said.
Clark was part of a loaded American roster that included fellow college standouts and future big leaguers Barry Larkin, Mark McGwire, Bobby Witt (father of Royals shortstop Bobby Witt Jr.) and B.J. Surhoff. Forty-four of the top college players in the country were invited to try out for the Olympic baseball team, though only 20 ended up earning spots on Team USA’s final roster.
Before heading to Los Angeles, the squad spent more than a month traveling around the country to play tuneup games against other college teams.
“They called it a barnstorming tour,” Clark said. “Maybe 36 games in 35 days in 32 different cities. It got you ready to travel and play ball and get up all hours in the morning and night and play no matter what happened. When I got to pro ball, it was very similar, playing every day. In college, you didn’t play every day. That one experience helped me later in my career.
“And then on top of that, when you run out on the field, and you’ve got your college uni on and all that, it’s pretty special. But when you run out there and you’ve got USA and you’re representing a whole country, it’s like, ‘Whoa, that’s a different animal.’”
Clark and his teammates stayed at the Olympic Village in Los Angeles, where they got to mingle with other college stars like Michael Jordan, who was selected to play for the 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team while he was still enrolled at the University of North Carolina. Jordan was already a household name by then, which helped amp up the crowd during the Opening Ceremony at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.
“We came out in the Opening Ceremonies in the L.A. Coliseum -- 120,000 people and they’re all chanting, ‘USA! USA!’” Clark said. “We came out right after the basketball team. Oh my God, that stadium was going [bananas]. They were going crazy.”
The same could be said for Clark. He went 4-for-5 with two home runs and a double against the Dominican Republic and 3-for-4 with a home run against Italy in pool play to help propel the Americans to the final round before they fell to Japan, 6-3, in the championship game.
“I enjoyed every bit of it,” said Clark, who was later selected by the Giants with the No. 2 overall pick of the 1985 MLB Draft. “We wound up losing, but the experience was unbelievable. I came home with a silver medal. Coming into college, I’d have never thought I’d be on an Olympic team, much less coming home with a medal. It was pretty awesome.”
What does Clark think about the possibility of seeing big leaguers play in the Olympics for the first time in '28?
“I would love it,” Clark said. “I really enjoy watching the WBC. Just kind of the time of the year it happens, you wish it would happen at a different time. But I would really enjoy seeing it if it went back to the college ranks and having the college kids play. That’s what I would enjoy. But we’ll see.”