The IOC may have decided to take baseball and softball off the list of official sports, but president Jacques Rogge has left the door open for America’s pastime to return in 2016 – provided the folks at Major League Baseball play along.

“We would love to have as many stars of the major leagues as possible,” Rogge told reporters in Beijing as he took in the bronze-medal game between the United States and Japan, which Team USA won 8-4. If a deal can be worked out with MLB to take an extended All-Star break, as the NHL does for the Winter Olympics, baseball could be voted right back into the Games next year.

It could all boil down to location. The NHL is considering pulling out of the Olympics after the 2010 Games in Vancouver. Chicago is rumored to be in line for the 2016 Games, which would make a midseason break easier to manage. So much for the global village.