Top players want World Series ring, not medal

DETROIT (Reuters) - When the first pitch of the Olympic baseball tournament is thrown on August 13, New York Yankees' Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez will be in Minnesota, Seattle Mariners' Ichiro Suzuki in Anaheim and Red Sox' Daisuke Matsuzaka in Boston.

Major League Baseball's standouts will not be in their national team uniforms competing for the last gold medal before the sport is axed from the Olympics for the 2012 Games.

With the Major League Baseball season in full swing, it is a World Series title not an Olympic gold that most of the world's top players and baseball fans will be focused on, leaving the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with a minor league tournament on the world's biggest sporting stage.

It is MLB's refusal to shut down and allow baseball's best to take part in the Olympics along with its slack approach to combating performance-enhancing drugs that prompted the IOC in 2005 to vote baseball and softball off the Summer Games roster.

Eager to expand its brand into emerging markets like China, MLB insists it is keen to have baseball remain on the Olympic program but thumbed its nose at the IOC by forging ahead with its own showcase event, the World Baseball Classic which does feature all the world's top players.

"To be honest, not sending our top athletes because of the timing of most Summer Olympics (has hurt us)," said Bob Watson, Team USA general manager and Major League Baseball vice president. "Our sport has not shut down for a period to do this.

"Bottom line, baseball needs to be in the Olympics ... baseball is a game that is really interested in growing itself around the world."

While baseball was born in the United States, Americans have enjoyed only limited success on the international stage and suffered the ultimate embarrassment when the team failed to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Since baseball became part of the Summer Games in 1992 ,the U.S. have won just one gold medal (2000) while Cuba have dominated the Olympic diamond claiming top spot in 1992, 1996 and 2004.

Despite defections, Cuba remain the team to beat in Beijing while Japan, the U.S. and Canada should also figure in the gold medal hunt.

Japan, which has a long baseball tradition and a vibrant national league, emerged as world baseball power with a victory at the 2006 World Classic and is expected to field a team rich in major league prospects.

U.S. coach Davey Johnson had to wait until July 16 to name a squad made up of players not on any Major League Baseball team's 25-man rosters.

South Korea, Taiwan, the Netherlands and China, who will be making their first and probably last appearance in Olympic baseball, round out the eight-team tournament.

(Editing by Robert Woodward)