Baseball at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on two separate diamonds within the Helliniko Olympic Complex, 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 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.
Medalists GoldSilverBronzeEduardo ParetAriel PestanoMichel EnríquezYoandry UrgellésDanny BetancourtAdiel PalmaNorge Luis VeraAlexei RamírezVicyohandri OdelínFrederich CepedaAntonio ScullLuis BorrotoFrank MontiethYorelvis CharlesYulieski GourrielNorberto GonzálezOsmani UrrutiaEriel SánchezCarlos TabaresJonder MartínezRoger MachadoDanny MirandaManuel VegaPedro Luis LazoManager: Higinio VélezJeff WilliamsGavin FinglesonBrett TamburrinoRodney van BuizenAndrew UttingTrent OeltjenNick KimptonRyan Rowland-SmithDave NilssonBen WigmoreBrett RonebergGlenn WilliamsRich ThompsonWayne OughBrendan KingmanPaul GonzalezTom BriceCraig LewisGraeme LloydJohn StephensCraig AndersonChris OxspringPhil StockmanAdrian BurnsideManager: Jon DeebleKosuke FukudomeMichihiro OgasawaraNorihiro NakamuraShinya MiyamotoMakoto KanekoKenji JohjimaYoshitomo TaniNaoyuki ShimizuHitoki IwaseHiroki KurodaYuya AndoDaisuke MiuraDaisuke MatsuzakaKoji UeharaHisashi IwakumaTsuyoshi WadaArihito MuramatsuYoshinobu TakahashiAtsushi FujimotoTakuya KimuraMasahide KobayashiKazuhiro WadaRyoji AikawaHirotoshi IshiiManager: Kiyoshi Nakahata
Team squads
TeamQualification criteriaAppearance Winner of Oceania Champion vs Africa Champion (South Africa) 3rd Second place at Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Panama 1st Second place at Asian Championship 2nd First place at Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Panama 4th Automatic as host nation of the Olympics 1st First place at European Olympic Qualification Tournament 4th First place at Asian Championship 4th Second place at European Olympic Qualification Tournament 3rd
Controversy Despite being the defending gold medalists, the United States did not make it to Athens after losing a qualifying game to Mexico, 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
PlaceTeam 4.5.6.7.8.
Statistical leaders Source:
Batting StatisticNameTotal/AvgBatting average* Shinya Miyamoto.440Hits Shinya Miyamoto11 Glenn WilliamsRuns Atsushi Fujimoto7 Kosuke Fukudome Yoshinobu TakahashiDoubles Jim Buccheri4Triples9 tied with1Home runs Yurendell DeCaster3 Brett RonebergRuns batted in Gavin Fingleson9 Ariel Pestano Rodney Van BuizenWalks Cheng-Min Peng7Stolen bases Cheng-Min Peng3On-base percentage* Pete Laforest.542Slugging percentage* Pete Laforest.778OPS* Pete Laforest1.320 * Minimum 2.7 plate appearances per team game
Pitching StatisticNameTotal/AvgWins Hiroki Kuroda2 Adiel Palma Ryan Rowland-SmithSaves Pedro Lazo2Innings pitched Chien-Ming Wang13.2Earned run average*9 tied with0.00Strikeouts Chang Chih-chia18Walks allowed* Chris Begg0 Norberto González Hirotoshi IshiiBAA* Chris Oxspring.042 * Minimum 0.8 innings pitched per team game
See also Softball at the 2004 Summer Olympics
References
External links Official result book – Baseball