Baseball at the Summer Olympics had its unofficial
debut at the
1900 Summer Games
and its official sport at the
1992
Summer Olympics.
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 7, 2005, baseball and
softball were voted
out of the 2012 Summer Olympics
in London
, England
, 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.
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 remained the same after that, with the only
major change being that starting in
2000 players were not required to be
amateurs.
Medalists
Medal table
| 1 |
|
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
| 2 |
|
1 |
0 |
2 |
3 |
| 3 |
|
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
| 4 |
|
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
| 5 |
|
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
Qualification
The host nation was always guaranteed a place in the Olympic
baseball tournament. The other seven places were generally
determined by continental qualifying tournaments. For the
2008 Games, the
Americas received two places, Europe received one place, and Asia
received one place.
The final three places were given to the top three nations at an
eight-team tournament held after the continental tournaments.
Qualification for this tournament was 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
competed in that tournament.
[139837]
This qualification tournament was 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 came from this
region. Europe, whose baseball nations were substantially weaker,
also entered two teams.
Competition
Olympic baseball was nearly identical to most professional
baseball. Aluminum bats were disallowed after 1996 Atlanta. There
was also a
mercy rule that was invoked if
a team was winning by 10 or more runs after 7 innings (or 6.5
innings if the home team was leading). For Sydney 2000, rosters
were expanded to 24 players.
The tournament consisted of a round-robin preliminary round in
which each team played all 7 of the other teams. Only the top four
teams advanced to the medals round. In that round, semifinals were
played between the 1st/4th place teams and the 2nd/3rd place teams.
The semifinal losers then played a
bronze
medal game, with the winner earning the medal and the loser
receiving 4th place. The semifinal winners played in the final,
which awarded the winner a
gold medal and
the loser a
silver medal.
Elimination as Olympic sport
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"
- The "domination of American women in softball"
- 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
Participating nations
The following 16 nations took 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.
| Nation |
1992 |
1996 |
2000 |
2004 |
2008 |
Years |
|
|
7 |
6 |
2 |
|
3 |
|
|
|
|
4 |
6 |
2 |
|
|
|
|
|
8 |
1 |
|
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
5 |
|
6 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
|
7 |
|
1 |
|
7 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
4 |
|
3 |
2 |
4 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
|
8 |
3 |
|
1 |
3 |
|
|
5 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
4 |
|
|
4 |
|
|
|
1 |
|
5 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
|
|
8 |
|
|
1 |
|
8 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
|
2 |
|
|
5 |
5 |
3 |
|
4 |
3 |
1 |
|
3 |
4 |
|
| Total Nations |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
8 |
|
References
- "Strike 3 for Olympic Baseball: No Baseball or
Softball at 2012 London Games; MLB's Fault?" CBS News online. 9 February 2006. Retrieved
15 August 2008.
- "From a political point of view, it seemed that baseball was
being punished for the way it drug tested athletes and punished
offenders. From a competition point of view, there was frustration
that Major League Baseball refused to pause its season and release
its best players to represent their countries." David Lengel.
"Baseball and softball deserve to remain Olympic
sports." Sportblog. The Guardian. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
- "Rogge has basically conspired against the sports to get them
removed." "They'rrre out! Olympics drop baseball, softball"
NBC Sports.
9 July 2005. Retrieved
15 August 2008.
- KC Allen. "Baseball, Softball Cancelled for 2012
Olympics." Bleacher Report. 14 August 2008. Retrieved 15 August 2008.
- "The IOC has used baseball's unpredictable length as one
argument against its includsion as an Olympic sport." Dan Steinberg
"Beijing Sports Smog." WashingtonPost.com 14 August 2008. Retrieved
15 August 2008.
- Mark Zuckerman. "On Baseball: No crying over Olympic baseball."
The Washington Times.
12 August 2008.
Retrieved 15 August
2008.
- "[The IOC decision] deals with anti-American sentiment." Carrie
Johnson. "Coach critiques Olympic committee." The
Oracle. 17 July
2008. Retrieved 15
August 2008.
External links
See also
Wikis
Quiz
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