Discontinued Olympic Sports

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Baseball

Baseball has had a long history of competition in various forms at the Olympic Games. Early on it was included as a demonstration sport only, with it not getting full sport status until 1992.

Baseball was first played at the 1904 Games in St Louis, although little was recorded of this event (see comment below). In 1912 at Stockholm, an American team played against the host country Sweden, winning the game 13-3. In 1936 Berlin, two American teams played each other. The 1952 Helsinki event was a modified form of the sport, Finnish baseball, played by two Finnish teams.

At the 1956 Melbourne Olympic Games, baseball was one of two demonstration sports. Australia played a one-game exhibition against the United States. The other demonstration sport thgis year was Australian Rules Football. Japan played a one-game exhibition against the United States in 1964 Tokyo.

After Tokyo, there was a break of 20 years before baseball returned to the Olympics. For the first time, in 1984, the sport was played in a tournament format, though still as a demonstration event. In this event, Japan defeated the United States in the final. In 1988, the same two teams met in the final, with Team USA the winner. Baseball became an "official" sport at the 1992 Olympics, with the familiar eight team tournament.

Comments

I received this email from Gary:

"For some reason documentation of the 1968 Mexico Olympic demonstration event of baseball is hard, maybe impossible to find!  I know that it occurred because I was a member of the tournament winning US team.  Danny Litwhiller (University of Michigan) and Frank Sancet (University of Arizona) headed up our coaching staff.  Both were legends in the college ranks. We beat Cuba twice during the tournament.  I'm very proud to say that with two out in the bottom of the ninth I had a walk off the field base hit to win the first one.  The second game against Cuba was really something.  We were beating the Cuban handily when many of their players stormed the stands. The entire stadium erupted in a melee in no time. As you probably know, the 1968 games were very violent and our tournament was no exception."

and an email from Phil:

"Although an amateur baseball tournament was SCHEDULED in September 1904 at Francis Field in St. Louis, there seems to be no documentation that this tournament was ever actually held, in either the official Olympic history or in any of the St. Louis newspapers for that month. Do you have any such documentation or evidence that the 1904 Olympic baseball tournament was ever actually held? "

Related Pages

• Olympic Demonstration Sports
• Baseball at the Summer Olympics
• All about the sport of Baseball

Olympic Games Clipart