Aussie leads baseball's Olympic bid When baseball's honchos planned their pitch to return to the Olympics, they banked not on MLB superstars Derek Jeter or Alex Rodriguez but a 30-year-old Victorian. The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), a body recently formed to push for the sports' reinclusion at the 2020 Games, made their case to the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday in Russia. It was a successful presentation, with baseball/softball joining wrestling and squash on the IOC's final shortlist for the one spot on offer in 2020. A final decision will be made in September after a full membership vote in Buenos Aires. The WBSC enlisted two players to help them woo the IOC bigwigs, Venezuelan softballer Maria Soto and Justin Huber, the acting chief executive of Baseball Victoria and former major leaguer. "I've played in front of packed-out stadiums around the world, and walking into the executive boardroom today was about as nervous as I've ever got," Huber told AAP from St Petersburg. Addressing the group headed by IOC boss Jacques Rogge, Huber spoke from the heart about the importance of the Olympics to him and the vast majority of baseballers. That's something that's been questioned of us and we really wanted to make that point. This is the pinnacle of our career, he said. I was actually picked on the national team before the Athens Games (where Australia won a silver medal), I was going to be the starting catcher. Unfortunately I suffered a knee injury a week before the Games and couldn't go. So this has been a sour point in my career. To be an ambassador for the next generation ... it's soul-lifting to be honest. Baseball was scratched from the Olympic program after the 2008 Beijing Games, with the absence of top-line talent one of the main reasons. While professionals were first allowed to participate in the 2000 Olympics, MLB didn't allow players on 40-man major league rosters to compete in Sydney. Huber, who played for three MLB franchises, said most players were desperate to compete at the Olympics. "The proof is in the involvement of the world's best players in recent tournaments," he said, referencing the fact New York Yankees Jeter (US) and Robinson Cano (Dominican Republic) had represented their nations in the MLB-backed World Baseball Classic. Squash Australia president John Lee welcomed the IOC's decision. "We still have a lot of work to do, but I want to congratulate the bid committee for the excellent campaign they have run to date," Lee said. Wrestling federation president Nenad Lalovic said: "We got a second match to fight, but be careful because we are still fighters."