Baseball at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Baseball at the 1912 Summer Olympics

Demonstration sport
Tournament details
Country	Sweden
City	Stockholm
Venue(s)	Ostermalm Athletic Grounds
Dates	July 15–16, 1912 (1912-07-15 – 1912-07-16)
Teams	2
Final positions
Champions	United States
Runner-up	Sweden
Tournament statistics
Games played	1
← 1904 1936 →

Baseball had its first appearance at the 1912 Summer Olympics as a demonstration sport. It would become an official sport 70 years later at the 1992 Summer Olympics.^[a] A game was played between the United States, the nation where the game was developed, and Sweden, the host nation. The game was held on Monday, 15 July 1912 and started at 10 a.m. on the Ostermalm Athletic Grounds in Stockholm; the U.S team won after six innings.

A second exhibition match was played between two American teams the next day, which notably included multi-sport Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe, a Major League Baseball player and future American Football Hall of Famer.

The Americans were represented by various members of the American Olympic track and field athletics delegation, while the Swedish team was the Västerås baseball club, which had been formed in 1910 as the first baseball club in Sweden.

Four of the Americans played for Sweden, as the Swedish pitchers and catchers were inexperienced. One area of concern was that the Swedes were unfamiliar with breaking balls; nevertheless, the Swedes were able to hold their own until the fifth inning, registering one extra-base hit. One Swede eventually relieved Adams and Nelson, the American pitchers.

Six innings were played, with the Americans not batting in the sixth and allowing the Swedes to have six outs in their half of the inning.

The game was umpired by George Wright, a retired American National League baseball player.

Since baseball was a demonstration sport, no official medals were awarded.

July 15, 10:00 at Ostermalm Athletic Grounds

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	R	H	E
United States	4	1	0	0	8	X	13	10	2
Sweden[b]	0	0	0	2	0	1	3	7	5
WP: Richard Byrd (1−0)   LP: Benjamin Adams (0−1) Umpires: George Wright

On the next day Tuesday, 16 July 1912 in the evening, two teams composed of an all-American line-up played an exhibition match against each other. This game included Jim Thorpe, who would win two gold medals in the 1912 games (one in classic pentathlon and the other in decathlon); Thorpe, a noted college athlete, had briefly played minor league baseball in the Eastern Carolina League (which would later cause the IOC to strip him of his medals; they were reinstated in 1983, thirty years after his death) and would go on to play in MLB with the New York Giants.

• Cava, Pete (Summer 1992). "Baseball in the Olympics". Citius, Altius, Fortius. 1 (1): 7–15.
• Official Report. 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games. 1912.