10. Baseball/Softball
Both baseball and softball were Olympic events until 2008, after which they were unceremoniously removed from the programme. The reason? For the former, at least, executives from Major League Baseball were unwilling to allow their best players to represent their countries in the middle of the season, despite the NHL and NBA doing so for ice hockey and basketball respectively, leading to many teams being made up of amateurs and students. The sport has no other tournament where teams from around the world compete (though a new tournament involving the worlds best nations will debut in 2015), so a compromise with the league to allow the worlds best to compete for medals would surely be beneficial to fans across the globe. Sure, the sport mayve been dominated in the past by a select few nations (the United States and Cuba, predominantly), but the same is true of China for the likes of table tennis and badminton, and they seem set to remain Olympic events for the foreseeable future. There is no logical explanation for the exclusion of softball, which is particularly popular with female athletes, a group that the IOC is continuously trying to expand the involvement of, most recently by supporting the inclusion of womens boxing in the games. The reinstatement of both, therefore, would be a step in the right direction, bringing both recognisable faces and talented up-and-comers to an event that should rightfully showcase their abilities to the world.