R 011538Z APR 09
FM AMEMBASSY BERLIN
TO SECSTATE WASHDC 3736
INFO AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 
AMEMBASSY ATHENS 
AMEMBASSY OSLO 
AMEMBASSY STOCKHOLM 
AMEMBASSY BRUSSELS 
AMEMBASSY ROME 
AMEMBASSY BERN

UNCLAS BERLIN 000389 
 
 
STATE FOR EUR/PGI - REASOR; EUR/PPD - A. WHITE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO SCUL GM
SUBJECT:  DON'T TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALLGAME, DIPLOMATIC EFFORTS, RE: 
BASEBALL 
 
REF:  18 March 09 Email from Lonnie Reasor to EUR DCMs 
 
¶1.  (U) Summary:  Based on RefEmail request, Embassy Berlin spoke to 
sports officials at the German Ministry of Interior and at the 
Berlin office of the German Olympic Committee.  Speaking informally, 
both offices were nonetheless clear that efforts to restore the 
Olympic sport status of America's national pastime would most 
probably not have German support and were unlikely to succeed. 
Neither office expressed specific awareness of IOC decision meetings 
and interim discussions as outlined in RefEmail.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) Embassy Public Affairs was tasked with making contact with 
appropriate German sports officials in connection with subject 
diplomatic efforts on behalf of baseball as an Olympic sport.  The 
Berlin office of the German Olympic Committee was unaware of any 
ongoing meetings regarding the future of baseball as an Olympic 
competition.  EmbOff was given to understand that, at least for the 
German delegation, the matter had already long since been decided - 
baseball and softball will be losing their status as Olympic sports 
- and this decision was only awaiting confirmation by the full IOC 
in Copenhagen in October.  Among other considerations, the German 
clubs that back these sports before the German Olympic Committee 
members had essentially withdrawn their support.  Thus there was no 
one to speak on behalf of baseball within the German sports 
bureaucracy. 
 
¶3.  (U) The Ministry of the Interior's "Referat SP 4" is responsible 
for providing support to top German sports clubs and to Summer 
Olympics sports centers.  As with the German IOC, Ministry officials 
understood that baseball and softball had formally ceased to be 
Olympic sports at the conclusion of the Beijing Olympic Games.  They 
were however generally aware of efforts to have the sports 
reconsidered within the IOC, a matter which would be decided at the 
Copenhagen meeting in October of this year.  However, Ministry 
officials pointed out that Germany would not be a strong supporter 
of baseball as an Olympic competition.  The German Government's role 
in Olympic sports was to encourage and support participation by 
teams organized by the relevant national sporting clubs.  Germany 
had been unable to field a baseball team at the Beijing Games, 
despite the fact that the president of its baseball club network, 
Michael Hartmann, was a sitting Member of Parliament.  Ministry 
officials also asked which U.S. body was behind the current 
initiative to put baseball back into Olympic competition, since they 
understood that professional baseball in the U.S. had been largely 
unwilling to release top players to play at the Summer Olympics. 
This reluctance by professional baseball to commit top players to 
the event, one official felt, was telling and would make reversing 
the IOC's position on baseball very diffcult, whatever else might be 
attempted. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Comment.  Embassy approach to German officials was hampered 
by general unfamiliarity with the German sporting bureaucracy and 
the issues involved with Olympic sports.  While Public Affairs had 
been tasked with making this approach, neither it nor any other 
Embassy section maintains an active sports portfolio or contacts. 
Embassy notes that the good-spirited Departmental request which 
launched this inquiry originated apparently from an official in the 
Office of Counterterrorism.  It thus remained somewhat unclear to us 
whether the request was official, and perhaps even related to CT 
concerns, or might better be described as a good faith voluntary 
effort by State officials in support of America's national game.  In 
either case, if reintroducing baseball as a competitive sport in 
Summer Olympic Games is indeed a U.S. policy initiative, it would 
have been useful to have that policy articulated formally in a 
cleared cable as a demarche, which the Embassy could have presented 
to the German Foreign Office or Ministry of Interior.  Carefully 
considered talking points and a more thoroughly researched 
background to the issues at play would also presumably have 
accompanied the request.  End Comment. 
 
 
KOENIG