A Look Back at the ’84 Olympic Baseball Tournament

It is quite possible that this year’s Olympic Games in Beijing will be the last that will feature baseball as a medal sport. In 2005, The International Olympic Committee (IOC) voted both baseball and softball out of the Olympic Games for the 2012 Olympics in London but allowed the two sports to reapply for entrance in the 2016 Olympics. With this August being perhaps the final time we will see amateur baseball at the Olympic stage, let’s take a look back at the 1984 Summer Games in Los Angeles, the first time that a baseball tournament was played in the Olympics.

Nineteen eighty-four wasn’t the first time baseball had been played at the Olympics. Baseball first appeared at the Olympics in 1904 in St. Louis, although little was recorded of the event. In 1912, the USA played host Sweden in an exhibition game, and in the 1936 Games in Berlin, two American teams played against each other. During the 1952 Games in Helsinki, Pesäpallo (Finnish Baseball) was played between two teams from Finland. Also, an American team played Australia (1956 in Melbourne) and Japan (1964 in Toyko) in two exhibition matches.

The 1984 Summer Olympics marked the first time that baseball would be held in a tournament-style event. While a tournament would take place, baseball was designated a “demonstration event” by the IOC, so while medals were awarded to the top three teams, they did not count towards their respective country’s medal count (baseball was not deemed an official Olympic sport until the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona). The eight participating teams were: Canada, Chinese Taipei, Dominican Republic, Italy, Japan, Nicaragua, South Korea and the United States. Absent from the tournament was Cuba, a perennial international baseball power. The Cubans, who won the last three Baseball World Cups they had participated in, were replaced by the Canadians. South Korea had won the Baseball World Cup in 1982.

The United States, which had not lost one of the exhibition games previously played in the Olympics, were now considered heavy favorites with the withdrawal of the Cuban team. The American club featured the best amateur players in the country and many future major leaguers, including future stars in first baseman Will Clark, infielder Barry Larkin, infielder Mark McGwire and catcher B.J. Surhoff. The team was also managed by the legendary coach of the University of Southern California, Rod Dedeaux. South Korea and Japan were ranked second and third, respectively, and were expected to be the Americans’ stiffest competition.

The eight teams were split into two pools of four and all games were held at Dodger Stadium. The tournament commenced on July 31^st with the White Division teams playing. Italy scored five runs in the ninth to defeat the Dominican Republic 10-7 in the early game, while the United States edged out Chinese Taipei, 2-1 before a crowd of 52,319.

The Blue Division started play the very next day with a thriller between Canada and Nicaragua. With the game tied at 2-2 in the 12^th, Canada took a one-run lead in the top of the inning, only to blow it and lose 4-3. The game to watch, though, was the nightcap between Japan and South Korea, two of the stronger teams in the tournament. Japan prevailed, winning the game 2-0, with starting pitcher Yukio Yoshida not allowing a hit to a South Korean batter through 6 1/3 innings.

The United States squad walked through the rest of the White Division, turning Dodger Stadium into a slaughterhouse with a 16-1 victory over the Italians and a 12-0 win over the Dominican Republic. Chinese Taipei also won their two games by large margins, posting 13-1 and 10-0 beatings of the Dominicans and Italy, respectively. That meant the USA finished first in the division with Chinese Taipei coming in second place.

The Blue Division was a little more interesting. On day four of baseball action, South Korea evened their record with a 3-1 win over Canada, limiting the Red and White to four hits. Nicaragua came off a great game against Canada only to come up flat and get annihilated 19-1 against Japan. It was the tournaments’ largest blowout. With the win, Japan secured first place over South Korea in the division. On the final day of round robin action, Canada defeated a Japanese team resting many starters, 6-4, leaving a final game between South Korea and Nicaragua to determine the final medal round spot. Nicaragua had a 6-5 lead through seven but gave up two runs in the eighth, losing 7-6 to the South Koreans, despite South Korea making five errors.

The semi-final matchups were set and took place on August 7^, with Japan taking on Chinese Taipei in the afternoon game, and the United States playing the defending international champion South Korea under the lights.

In the first semi-final, Japan drew first blood and took a 1-0 lead through five. Chinese Taipei responded in the top half of the sixth with an unearned run charged to Japanese starter Yoshida to even the score up at one apiece. The game remained tied until the 10^th inning, when Kozo Shoda led off the inning with a sharply hit ball to left. Chinese Taipei leftfielder Li Chih-Chun tripped himself up while attempting to field the ball, allowing Shoda to scoot into second with a double. With one out, Yukio Arai hit a ball up the middle, scoring Shoda, and the Japanese headed to the finals with a 2-1 victory.

A capacity crowd at Dodger Stadium was on hand to give the host team support against the South Koreans in the other semi-final playoff. Oddibe McDowell brought the crowd to its feet with a two-run shot in the third to give the USA an early 2-0 lead. The South Koreans countered with an unearned run in the fourth, and Lee Soon Chui tied the game in the fifth with a solo home run, the first earned run allowed by the American pitching staff in the tournament. USA pulled away in the sixth for good on a Chris Gwynn RBI single to make it 3-2. Later in the inning, third baseman Chris Snyder hit a two-run double to give the United States a three-run lead that they wouldn’t relinquish. Despite mustering only six hits; the USA headed to the goal medal game with a 5-2 victory.

Before the Japan-USA goal medal game, the bronze medal was decided between South Korea and Chinese Taipei. The game remained scoreless until the top of thirteenth when Lin Hua-Wei broke the deadlock with a two RBI triple. Chinese Taipei capped off the three-run inning with a solo shot from Li Chih-Chun. Reliever Tu Fu-Ming held off the South Koreans in the bottom of the inning and Chinese Taipei went home with a bronze medal thanks to a 3-0 victory. A major reason for the victory was the strong pitching performance from starter Chuang Sheng-Hsiung, who held the South Koreans in check, pitching 10 1/3 innings while striking out 13 batters.

The gold medal game was played before 55,235 at Chavez Ravine, many of whom expected to watch the home team drape gold medallions around their necks at the end of the night. Dedeaux sent his ace, John Hooper of Fresno State, to the mound, while the Japanese countered with Atsunori Ito, in an attempt to cool off Team USA’s batters, who were hitting .322 for the tournament while scoring 35 runs.

The night started off well enough for the Americans, who took a 1-0 lead in the third thanks to Shane Mack’s solo home run. The lead was the short-lived, however. The Japanese put up two runs of their own in the fourth and added to their lead in the fifth to make the score 3-1. The crowd was making the same sound as the American bats: silence. Then came the dagger.

Katsumi Hirosawa hit only .125 in Japan’s pre-Olympic tour, and the first baseman was having a hard time at the plate. Hirosawa even lost his everyday job at first base but was inserted back in the line-up by coach Reiichi Matsunaga for the gold medal game. In the eighth inning, with the score still 3-1 for Japan and two runs on base, Hirosawa came up to the plate. On the second pitch of the at-bat, he tattooed Hooper’s offering over the 370 foot sign in left center to give Japan a 6-1 advantage.

USA attempted a comeback in the ninth, but it was too late. Snyder hit a two-run home run to left center to cut the lead to 6-3 but that was as close as the Americans got. Japan stunned the American squad and won the gold medal.

The baseball competition at the 2008 Beijing Olympics begins on August 13 and runs through the 23^rd. Don’t miss it; it just might be the last time we can watch amateur baseball on the big stage.