Baseball at the 2004 Summer Olympics

Baseball at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Helliniko Olympic Complex
Dates	15–25 August 2004
Teams	8
Medalists
Cuba  Australia  Japan
← 2000 2008 →

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

Gold	Silver	Bronze
Cuba (CUB) Eduardo Paret Ariel Pestano Michel Enríquez Yoandry Urgellés Danny Betancourt Adiel Palma Norge Luis Vera Alexei Ramírez Vicyohandri Odelín Frederich Cepeda Antonio Scull Luis Borroto Frank Montieth Yorelvis Charles Norberto González Osmani Urrutia Eriel Sánchez Carlos Tabares Jonder Martínez Roger Machado Danny Miranda Manuel Vega Pedro Luis Lazo Manager: Higinio Vélez	Australia (AUS) Jeff Williams Gavin Fingleson Brett Tamburrino Rodney van Buizen Andrew Utting Trent Oeltjen Nick Kimpton Ryan Rowland-Smith Dave Nilsson Ben Wigmore Brett Roneberg Glenn Williams Rich Thompson Wayne Ough Brendan Kingman Paul Gonzalez Tom Brice Craig Lewis Graeme Lloyd John Stephens Craig Anderson Chris Oxspring Phil Stockman Adrian Burnside Manager: Jon Deeble	Japan (JPN) Kosuke Fukudome Michihiro Ogasawara Norihiro Nakamura Shinya Miyamoto Makoto Kaneko Kenji Johjima Yoshitomo Tani Naoyuki Shimizu Hitoki Iwase Hiroki Kuroda Yuya Ando Daisuke Miura Daisuke Matsuzaka Koji Uehara Hisashi Iwakuma Tsuyoshi Wada Arihito Muramatsu Yoshinobu Takahashi Atsushi Fujimoto Takuya Kimura Masahide Kobayashi Kazuhiro Wada Ryoji Aikawa Hirotoshi Ishii Manager: Kiyoshi Nakahata

Team squads

Team	Qualification criteria	Appearance
Australia	Winner of Oceania Champion vs Africa Champion (South Africa)	3rd
Canada	Second place at Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Panama	1st
Chinese Taipei	Second place at Asian Championship	2nd
Cuba	First place at Americas Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Panama	4th
Greece	Automatic as host nation of the Olympics	1st
Italy	First place at European Olympic Qualification Tournament	4th
Japan	First place at Asian Championship	4th
Netherlands	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.^{[citation needed]} Many American ballplayers made it to Athens anyway, as members of the nascent Greek team, which featured only one player actually born in Greece.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]} The absence of such teams as the USA, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and South Korea led to much media discussion.^{[citation needed]}

The 2008 tournament changed the qualifying procedure; the United States qualified, as did Cuba and the host country, China.

Bracket

	Semifinals				Gold Medal Match
	Australia	1
	Japan	0
					Cuba	6
					Australia	2
	Canada	5
	Cuba	8
					Bronze Medal Match
					Japan	11
					Canada	2

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.

Pos	Team	Pld	W	L	RF	RA	RD	PCT	GB	Qualification
1	Japan	7	6	1	49	20	+29	.857[a]	—	Advance to knockout round
2	Cuba	7	6	1	41	17	+24	.857[a]	—
3	Canada	7	5	2	39	17	+22	.714	1
4	Australia	7	4	3	49	30	+19	.571	2
5	Chinese Taipei	7	3	4	24	28	−4	.429	3
6	Netherlands	7	2	5	29	55	−26	.286	4
7	Greece (H)	7	1	6	24	49	−25	.143[b]	5
8	Italy	7	1	6	19	58	−39	.143[b]	5

August 15

August 16

August 17

August 18

August 20

August 21

August 22

Semifinals

Bronze medal match

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Japan	2	0	4	1	0	0	0	4	0	11	13	0
Canada	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	0	0	2	5	0
WP: Tsuyoshi Wada (2–0)   LP: Mike Johnson (1–2) Home runs: JPN: K. Jojima in 1st, 2 RBIs CAN: J. Ware in 5th, 1 RBI

Final

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Cuba	0	0	0	2	0	4	0	0	0	6	13	1
Australia	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	2	7	0
WP: Adiel Palma (3–0)   LP: John Stephens (0–2)   Sv: Danny Betancourt (1–0–2) Home runs: CUB: F. Cepeda in 4th, 2 RBIs AUS: P. Gonzalez in 5th, 1 RBI

Final standing

See also

• Softball at the 2004 Summer Olympics

References

External links

• Official result book – Baseball