Baseball in Asia - Olympic Baseball

Olympic Baseball

Sometimes, baseball matches played during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904 are listed as demonstrations at the Olympic Games held in the same year. However, most historians do not regard them like this; actually any sports competition held in St. Louis has received a predicate 'Olympic'.

The first real Olympic appearance of baseball is in 1912, as a team from Västerås played against competitors from the U.S. track and field team at the Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. The United States beat the Swedish team, which played with some Americans borrowed from the opponent, 13–3. A second game was played later, which included decathlon star Jim Thorpe as a right fielder. USA won again, 6–3.

Baseball also made an appearance at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, American players facing a French team (the Ranelagh Club) in an exhibition game. The game lasted only four innings due to poor field conditions, the Americans leading 5-0 at the time. The American media was quick to claim a victory both for the American team and for baseball as a sport.

For the 1936 Olympics, the German hosts had invited the United States to play a demonstration match against Japan. As Japan withdrew, the US sent two 'all-star' teams, named the 'World Champions' and the 'U.S. Olympics'. For a layman crowd of 90,000 (sometimes reported as 125,000), the World Champions won 6–5.

There were plans for including baseball at the 1940 Olympics originally scheduled for Japan, but these plans were abandoned after Japan had to withdraw its bid because of its war in Manchuria.

After World War II, a Finnish game akin to baseball, pesäpallo, was demonstrated at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. Four years later, another demonstration of baseball took place at the Olympic in Melbourne, Australia. A team made up of servicemen from the U.S. Far East Command played Australia. Although initially with few spectators, during the match the crowd for the other athletic events entered the stadium, adding up to 114,000 spectators, which is reportedly still the biggest crowd to any baseball game ever. The match was won by the USA, 11–5.

In 1964, the Olympic Games took place in Tokyo, Japan, where baseball was quite popular. A team of American college players—with eight future major league players—was fielded against a Japanese amateur all-star team. The Americans continued their Olympic winning streak, as they triumphed 6–2.

In 1981, baseball was granted the status of a demonstration sport for Los Angeles 1984, and rather than a single match, a full tournament would be organised. With the strong Cuban team absent due to the Soviet-led boycott the field consisted of: United States, Japan, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Canada, Taiwan, Italy and Nicaragua. The final was contested between Japan and the US, and the guests won 6–3, ending the American Olympic victory row.

Another demonstration tournament was held in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea. Again, Cuba, the team that won all major international championships since 1984, boycotted the Games. In a field consisting of United States, Japan, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Canada, Taiwan, Netherlands and Australia, Japan and the US again reached the final. Helped by 4 RBIs and 2 homers from Tino Martinez, the United States won 5–3.

At the 1986 IOC congress, it had been decided that the first official Olympic baseball tournament would be held in Barcelona, Spain in 1992.

At the 117th IOC Session, delegates voted to remove baseball and softball from the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. While both sports' lack of major appeal in a significant portion of the world was a factor, Major League Baseball's unwillingness to have a break during the Games so that its players could participate (like the National Hockey League does during the Winter Olympic Games) also played a role in the decision. MLB officials have pointed out that a two-week break in mid-season would necessitate a major reshuffling of its schedule: either the season would have to begin in March and/or the World Series would run into November. (The dozen or so games could be made up by playing doubleheaders, but both the players' union and the owners are against this.) Others saw the move as an anti-American slap delivered by the Europeans on the IOC. Women's softball was particularly hit hard by this ruling as there are few other venues where female softball players have a chance to show their talents in front of such a large audience.