Baseball at the 1912 Summer Olympics

File:BASEBALL MATCH USA v SWEDEN.jpeg

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.

{{linescore

| Date = July 15,

| Time = 10:00

| Location = Ostermalm Athletic Grounds

| Other =

| Road = {{bb|USA|1912}} | RoadAbr = USA

| R1 = 4 | R2 = 1 | R3 = 0 | R4 = 0 | R5 = 8 | R6 = X | RR = 13 | RH = 10 | RE = 2

| Home = {{bb|SWE}}{{efn|Olympedia, a reference site administered by the International Olympic Committee, considers the Swedish squad that played on July 15 to be a "mixed team" as it featured American players.{{cite web |title=Baseball (Game #1), Men |url=https://www.olympedia.org/results/900019 |website=Olympedia |publisher=IOC}}}} | HomeAbr = SWE

| H1 = 0 | H2 = 0 | H3 = 0 | H4 = 2 | H5 = 0 | H6 = 1 | HR = 3 | HH = 7 | HE = 5

| WP = Richard Byrd (1−0)

| LP = Benjamin Adams (0−1)

| SV =

| RoadHR =

| HomeHR =

| Attendance =

| Umpires = George Wright

| Notes =

| BoxURL =

}}

File:Jim Thorpe, New York NL, at Polo Grounds, NY (baseball) 2 cropped.jpg

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.

{{notelist}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite journal | author = Cava, Pete |date=Summer 1992 | title = Baseball in the Olympics | journal = Citius, Altius, Fortius | volume = 1 | issue = 1 | pages = 7–15 | url = https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll10/id/3005/rec/4 }}
• [http://www.la84foundation.org/6oic/OfficialReports/1912/1912.pdf Official Report]. 1912 Stockholm Olympic Games. 1912.

{{EventsAt1912SummerOlympics}}

{{Baseball at the Summer Olympics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baseball at the 1912 Summer Olympics}}

Category:Events at the 1912 Summer Olympics

1912

Category:1912 in baseball

1912

Category:Olympic demonstration sports