The Sweden national baseball team is the national

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

team of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. The team competes in the bi-annual

European Baseball Championship The European Baseball Championship is the main championship tournament between national baseball teams in Europe, governed by the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB). History Italy won the inaugural European Baseball Championship in , and ...

, where Sweden on two occasions has claimed the

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receives ...

History

Baseball has been played in Sweden since at least 1904, but it wasn't until 1952 that the first game was played by a national team. In that year Sweden played against

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

and lost, 4–9. Ten years later Sweden's national federation became members of the

Confederation of European Baseball A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

, and the national team took part in its first

, where Sweden lost all four games by a combined score of 16–55. In the next tournament two years later Sweden managed to win its first ever game in the European Championship, 5–0 over

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. Sweden played its first official game on home soil in 1974, a 9–1 win over

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

in the qualifications for the European Championship that were held the following year. In 1981 Sweden took home bronze at the European Championships in the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

(only four teams took part). This achievement was duplicated in 1993, when Sweden hosted the tournament for the first time. Sweden played in the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

for the first time in 1994 and also participated in 2005 and 2009, but always finished near the bottom. In 2009 Sweden was one of eight host countries.

International tournament results

Olympic games

Sweden played host to the first ever international exhibition baseball match to be held at the Olympic Games. The players of the

Västerås Västerås () is a city in central Sweden on the shore of Mälaren, Lake Mälaren in the province of Västmanland, west of Stockholm. The city had a population of 127,799 at the end of 2019, out of the municipal total of 158,653, over 100,000 mo ...

Baseball Club represented their home nation in the game against a team composed of members of the United States Olympic delegation. In addition, three

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("Pitch (baseball), pitches") the Baseball (ball), baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of out (baseball), retiring a batter (baseball), batter, ...

s and a

catcher Catcher is a position in baseball and softball. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catc ...

were recruited from the American delegation to help fill the Swedish roster. Sweden has not succeeded in qualifying during any of the years the sport has been officially included in the Olympics, nor has it participated in any further baseball exhibitions at the Olympics since 1912.

World Cup

Sweden participated in the

on three occasions. *

1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...

: 15th (of 16) *

2005 2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...

: 16th (of 18) *

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

: 19th (of 22)

European Baseball Championship

Sweden has participated in the

on 29 occasions, every time since 1962.

References

National baseball teams in Europe

Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

Baseball in Sweden 1952 establishments in Sweden National sports teams established in 1952 {{Sweden-sport-team-stub