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Baseball at the Summer Olympics

Baseball at the Summer Olympics had its unofficial debut at the 1904 Summer Games and has been contested in 12 Olympiads (including its centennial in 2004 Athens). Since then, 17 different nations have appeared in Olympic baseball competition, with 3 of those nations, Cuba, Italy and Japan, appearing in all 4 medal editions of the tournament. Baseball has a long history as an exhibition/demonstration sport in the Olympics. However, for 1992 Barcelona the International Olympic Committee (IOC) granted the sport medal status. Olympic baseball is governed by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF).

At the IOC meeting in July 11, 2005, baseball and softball were voted out of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Great Britain, becoming the first sport voted out of the Olympics since Polo was eliminated from the 1936 Olympics. The event was last played in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing with South Korea taking the gold. The elimination will excise 16 teams and more than 300 athletes from the 2012 Olympics. The two slots left available by the IOC's elimination were not filled by new sports, so both baseball and softball can reemerge as events in the 2016 Olympics, provided no new sports are added to the games and both receive enough votes to be included. This decision was reaffirmed on February 9, 2006.

Speculation over reasons for removal of baseball and softball from the Olympic games include, but may not be limited to:

IOC anger at American Major League Baseball "for refusing to suspend the season and allow Major League Baseball players to participate in the Olympics

"Conspiring" by IOC President Jacques Rogge

The "domination of American women in softball"

"A lack of fan support"

The way Major League Baseball tests and punishes its players for drugs

The unpredictable length of baseball games

A pro-Europe bias of the IOC

An anti-American bias of the IOC.

History

Although little was recorded, Olympic baseball first appeared in 1904 St. Louis. Eight years later in 1912 Stockholm, a United States team played against host Sweden, winning 13-3. In 1936 Berlin, two United States teams played each other. The 1952 Helsinki event was a modified form of the sport, Finnish baseball, played by two Finnish teams. Australia played a one-game exhibition against the United States in 1956 Melbourne and Japan did the same in 1964 Tokyo. With a crowd of nearly 114,000 spectators, this game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground held the record for the highest attended baseball game ever until a 2008 American exhibition game in Los Angeles.

After a twenty-year hiatus, Olympic baseball (labeled an exhibition sport/event by the IOC) returned but with tournament formatting (1984 Los Angeles). In 1988 Seoul, it was termed a demonstration sport. Japan defeated the United States in the inaugural tournament finale in 1984. However, in 1988, the United States won over Japan.

Baseball became an official sport at the 1992 Summer Olympics, with the familiar eight team tournament. Players were required to be amateurs. The tournament consisted of a round-robin, in which teams played each of the other teams, followed by semifinals and finals. The format of the competition has remained the same since then, with the only major change being that starting in 2000 players were not required to be amateurs.

Medalists

1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta
2000 Sydney
2004 Athens
2008 Beijing

Medal table

1	align=left	3	2	0	5
2	align=left	1	0	2	3
3	align=left	1	0	1	2
4	align=left	0	1	2	3
5	align=left	0	1	0	1
5	align=left	0	1	0	1

Qualification

The host nation is always guaranteed a place in the Olympic baseball tournament. The other seven places are generally determined by continental qualifying tournaments. For the 2008 Games, the Americas receive two places, Europe receives one place, and Asia receives one place.

The final three places are given to the top three nations at an eight-team tournament held after the continental tournaments. Qualification for this tournament is determined by those continental tournaments. The third and fourth place American teams, second and third place European teams, second and third place Asian teams, first place African team, and first place Oceania team compete in that tournament.

This qualification tournament is new for 2008. It was created after heavy criticism of the previous qualification standard. In previous Olympics, only two teams from the Americas were able to qualify for the Olympics, despite the fact that the vast majority of the top baseball-playing nations in the world come from this region. Europe, whose baseball nations are substantially weaker, also entered two teams.

Competition

Olympic baseball is nearly identical to most professional baseball. Aluminum bats were disallowed after 1996 Atlanta. There is also a mercy rule that is invoked if a team is winning by 10 or more runs after 7 innings (or 6.5 innings if the home team is leading). For Sydney 2000, rosters were expanded to 24 players.

The tournament consists of a round-robin preliminary round in which each team plays all 7 of the other teams. Only the top four teams advance to the medals round. In that round, semifinals are played between the 1st/4th place teams and the 2nd/3rd place teams. The semifinal losers then play a bronze medal game, with the winner earning the medal and the loser receiving 4th place. The semifinal winners play in the final, which awards the winner a gold medal and the loser a silver medal.

Participating nations

The following 16 nations have taken part in the baseball competition one or more times. The numbers in the table refer to the final rank of each team in each tournament.