Baseball at the 1984 Summer Olympics was a demonstration sport. It would become an official sport 8 years later at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Although single exhibition games had been played in conjunction with five previous Olympics, it was the first time that the sport was officially included in the program, and also the first time that the sport was played in Olympics held in the United States. Eight teams competed in Los Angeles, California, in the tournament. Games were held at Dodger Stadium. Cuba originally qualified but withdrew as a result of the Soviet-led boycott.

Teams Eight teams competed in the tournament. – Invited – 1983 Asian Baseball Championship gold medalist, defeat Japan in a playoff – 1983 Pan American Games Fourth place – Replaced Cuba as the highest Americas team – 1983 European Baseball Championship gold medalist – Invited – 1982 Amateur World Series gold medalist – 1983 Pan American Games silver medalist – Host nation Source:

Rosters

Venue Los Angeles Dodger Stadium Capacity: 56,000

Preliminary round There were two pools for the preliminary round. Teams played each of the three other teams in their division.

White Division

Blue Division

Knockout round

Semifinals The semifinals pitted the first-place team of each division against the second-place team of the other division. Thus, the United States (3–0) played against Korea (2–1), which had a tied record with Japan (2–1) but had lost in head-to-head competition against them. The first-place Japanese played against Chinese Taipei (2–1).

Third-place final The third-place final pitted the losers of the semifinals against each, with the winner taking third place and the loser taking fourth.

First-place final Since baseball was a demonstration sport, no official medals were awarded. The winners of the semifinals played each other for first and second place, with the Japanese team prevailing, 6–3.

Statistical leaders

Batting StatisticNameTotal/AvgBatting average* 3 tied with .500Hits Yukio Arai 11Runs Kozo Shoda 7Home runs 3 tied with 3Runs batted in Katsumi Hirosawa 9Strikeouts 13Stolen bases 4Walks Kozo Shoda 5 * Minimum 10 plate appearances

Pitching StatisticNameTotal/AvgWins Akimitsu Ito Fu-ming Tu 2Saves 3 tied with 1Innings pitched 21 Hits allowed Julio Moya 20Runs allowed Secundina Lora 9Earned runs allowed Secundina Lora 8Earned run average* Sheng-Hsiung Chuang 0.00Walks John Hoover 8Strikeouts Sheng-Hsiung Chuang 6Complete games 3 tied with 1 * Minimum 9 innings pitched

Notes

References

Official Report . Official Report of the Games of the XXIIIrd Olympiad Los Angeles, 1984.