*This content was translated by AI.
It's a surprise remark. LA Dodgers manager Dave Roberts (54) has publicly expressed his desire to take the helm of the 2028 Los Angeles (LA) Olympics.
According to the California Post, a U.S. media outlet, on the 27th (Korea time), Roberts said in an interview with the outlet, "I want to lead the U.S. Olympic baseball team."
Roberts said, "I'm currently the manager of the Dodgers (based in LA). There is no one suitable for the role anymore," he said, expressing unconventional confidence.
Baseball sports will be revived in the Olympics. According to the World Baseball Softball Federation (WBSC), baseball events will be held from July 13 to 19, 2028, local time.
The Los Angeles Games are likely to participate in the major leagues for the first time in Olympic history. It plans to allow major leaguers to participate by lengthening the All-Star Game break. At this rate, Roberts and Shohei Ohtani are expected to face off between the players.
Roberts said, "I went to school here (UCLA, University of California, Los Angeles). For me, who leads the Dodgers, I don't have to worry about taking the helm of the Olympic team."
The baseball event that gave South Korea the gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics was excluded from the official event at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics. It was the 2020 Tokyo Olympics that baseball was revived in the Olympics again. At the time, baseball was adopted as an official event at the Tokyo Games in 2021 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Then, baseball was excluded from the official event again at the 2024 Paris Olympics. And after two competitions, baseball will return to the LA Olympics. Earlier, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made a final decision to include baseball in the detailed events at the LA Olympics.
The opening ceremony of the Los Angeles Olympics is scheduled for July 14, 2028. The first game of baseball will be held on the 13th, a day earlier than this. Then, there will be no game on the day of the opening ceremony on the 14th. A total of six teams can participate in baseball events at the LA Olympics. The venue for the tournament is Dodger Stadium, the home stadium of the Los Angeles Dodgers, which won its second consecutive World Series title.
Meanwhile, the Olympic baseball event will be divided into two groups of three teams and will be held for three days. The games will be played at 11 a.m. and 7 p.m., respectively. The first of the three teams in each group will go straight to the semifinals. The second and third places will then play a quarterfinal match with the third and second places in the other group, respectively. Here, the two winning teams will face the first place in the semifinals (the semifinals). And the winner of the semifinal will have a match for the gold medal in the long-awaited final. If you win the semifinals and finals after winning two games in the group stage and ranking first, you can win the gold medal by playing only four games.
Roberts represented the United States at the 1999 Pan American Games as a player and won a silver medal. Through this competition, the United States made it to the finals of the 2000 Sydney Olympics, but Roberts became a major leaguer the following year and did not experience the Olympic stage. In addition, it is evaluated that his background, born to an African-American father and a Japanese mother, is in line with the symbolism of LA, the so-called "Melting Pot."
<© STARNEWS. All rights reserved. No reproduction or redistribution allowed.>
*This content was translated by AI.
