Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on two separate diamonds within the

Helliniko Olympic Complex The Hellinikon Olympic Complex is a closed, partially demolished sports complex, situated at Hellinikon in the south Athens, approximately 16 kilometres from the Olympic Village. It was built on the site of the former Hellinikon International Air ...

, from 15 to 25 August. For the second time in Olympic competition, professional baseball players were eligible to participate, though no active players from

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

were available. The competition consisted of a preliminary round with each team playing all the other teams once, for a total of seven games. The top four teams at the end of this round advanced to the medals round. The medals round consisted of two semifinal games with the winners advancing to the gold medal game. The losing teams of the semifinals would play in the bronze medal game.

Team squads

Controversy

Despite being the home of baseball and the defending gold medalists, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

did not make it to Athens after losing a qualifying game to

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, 1–0. The Americas Tournament, which decided which two teams from North America, South America and the Caribbean went to Athens, was single-elimination, when almost all other baseball tournaments are double-elimination. Canada eventually defeated Mexico to advance to the Olympics. The qualifying rounds were also scheduled in such a way that the United States could not even use minor-leaguers and had to rely on collegians instead. Many American ballplayers made it to Athens anyway, as members of the nascent Greek team, which featured only one player actually born in Greece. Others took issue with the fact that three of the eight slots in the Olympics (including the hosts) were European, while the Americas and Asia (with much stronger baseball nations) got only two slots apiece. The absence of such teams as the USA, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and South Korea led to much media discussion. The 2008 tournament changed the qualifying procedure; the United States qualified, as did Cuba and the host country, China.

Bracket

Results

Preliminary round

The top four teams (Japan, Cuba, Canada and Australia) advanced to the semifinals. To determine the seed ranking of teams tied in the standings, the result of the two teams' game against each other was used. Japan therefore received first place due to the win over Cuba. In the semi-finals, Japan (#1) played Australia (#4) and Cuba (#2) played Canada (#3). The higher ranked team in each game was the home team. ;August 15

;August 16

;August 17

;August 18

;August 20

;August 21

;August 22

Semifinals

Bronze medal match

Final

Final standing

References

External links

Official result book – Baseball
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baseball At The 2004 Summer Olympics 2004 Summer Olympics events 2004 Summer Olympics 2004 Summer Olympics Men's events at the 2004 Summer Olympics