Baseball
Japan's victory in the 2007 Asian Baseball Championship qualified the Japan national baseball team for Olympic competition. Japan, along with Cuba, has appeared in every Olympic baseball tournament since the sport was elevated to official status. Japan has reached the semifinals each year and taken one silver and two bronze medals, but has yet to win the Olympic championship.
- Roster
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Pitchers:
Catchers:
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Infielders:
Outfielders:
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Group stage
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Group table
| Team | G | W | L | RS | RA | WIN% | GB | Tiebreaker |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Korea | 7 | 7 | 0 | 41 | 22 | 1.000 | - | - |
| Cuba | 7 | 6 | 1 | 52 | 23 | .857 | 1 | - |
| United States | 7 | 5 | 2 | 40 | 22 | .714 | 2 | - |
| Japan | 7 | 4 | 3 | 30 | 14 | .571 | 3 | - |
| Chinese Taipei | 7 | 2 | 5 | 29 | 33 | .286 | 5 | 1-0 |
| Canada | 7 | 2 | 5 | 29 | 20 | .286 | 5 | 0-1 |
| Netherlands | 7 | 1 | 6 | 9 | 50 | .143 | 6 | 1-0 |
| China | 7 | 1 | 6 | 14 | 60 | .143 | 6 | 0-1 |
Semifinal
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 2 | |||||||||||
| South Korea | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4 | X | 6 | 10 | 1 | |||||||||||
| WP: Kwang-Hyun Kim (1-0) LP: Hitoki Iwase (0-3) Home runs: JPN: None KOR: Seung-Yeop Lee (1) |
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Bronze medal game
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Japan | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 6 | 1 | |||||||||||
| United States | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 8 | 9 | 0 | |||||||||||
| WP: Brett Anderson (1-0) LP: Kenshin Kawakami (0-1) Home runs: JPN: Masahiro Araki (1), Norichika Aoki (1) USA: Matt LaPorta (2), Matt Brown (2), Jason Donald (1) |
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Read more about this topic: Japan At The 2008 Summer Olympics
Famous quotes containing the word baseball:
“The salary cap ... will be accepted about the time the 13 original states restore the monarchy.”
—Tom Reich, U.S. baseball agent. New York Times, p. 16B (August 11, 1994)
“I’ve gradually risen from lower-class background to lower-class foreground.”
—Marvin Cohen, U.S. author and humorist. Baseball the Beautiful, Links Books (1970)
“Compared to football, baseball is almost an Oriental game, minimizing individual stardom, requiring a wide range of aggressive and defensive skills, and filled with long periods of inaction and irresolution. It has no time limitations. Football, on the other hand, has immediate goals, resolution on every single play, and a lot of violence—itself a highlight. It has clearly distinguishable hierarchies: heroes and drones.”
—Jerry Mander, U.S. advertising executive, author. Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, ch. 15, Morrow (1978)