Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympics

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Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing was held from August 13 to August 23. All games were played at Wukesong Baseball Field, a temporary venue constructed at the Beijing Wukesong Culture & Sports Center. For the third time in Olympic competition, professional baseball players were eligible to participate, though no active players from Major League Baseball were available.

Baseball
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Pictogram used to identify baseball at the 2008 Games
VenueWukesong Baseball Field
DatesAugust 13–23, 2008
Teams8
Medalists
 South Korea
 Cuba
 United States
← 2004
2020 →

This was the last Olympic baseball tournament before the International Olympic Committee voted to remove baseball from the program in the 2012 Olympics. Along with softball, baseball was rejected for inclusion in the 2016 Summer Olympics at the IOC's meeting in October 2009. However, following a 2016 IOC vote, baseball was again included for the 2020 Games.

This was also the first time that the IBAF's new extra-innings rule was officially in effect, allowing each team to start with two base runners from the 11th inning on. South Korea won the gold medal in a 3–2 final victory against Cuba. The United States won bronze.

Venues

Beijing
Wukesong Baseball Main Field Wukesong Baseball Field 2
Capacity: 12,000 Capacity: 3,000

Medalists

Gold Silver Bronze
 South Korea
Hyun-Jin Ryu
Ki-Joo Han
Jin-Man Park
Hyuk Kwon
Taek-Keun Lee
Dae-Ho Lee
Seung-Hwan Oh
Jung-Keun Bong
Young-Min Ko
Jong-Wook Lee
Keun-Woo Jeong
Min-Jae Kim
Kab-Yong Jin
Jin-Young Lee
Won-Sam Jang
Seung-Jun Song
Kwang-Hyun Kim
Yong-Kyu Lee
Dong-Joo Kim
Min-Ho Kang
Hyun-soo Kim
Seung-Yeop Lee
Tae-Hyon Chong
Suk-Min Yoon 		 Cuba
Ariel Pestano
Yoandry Urgellés
Alfredo Despaigne
Luis Rodríguez
Alexei Bell
Yadier Pedroso
Jonder Martínez
Adiel Palma
Luis Navas
Giorvis Duvergel
Alexander Mayeta
Eriel Sánchez
Rolando Meriño
Héctor Olivera
Michel Enríquez
Yuliesky Gourriel
Vicyohandry Odelín
Pedro Luis Lazo
Eduardo Paret
Norberto González
Norge Luis Vera
Frederich Cepeda
Elier Sánchez
Miguel La Hera 		 United States
Brett Anderson
Blaine Neal
Matt Brown
Nate Schierholtz
Jeremy Cummings
Michael Koplove
Terry Tiffee
Kevin Jepsen
Brian Duensing
Dexter Fowler
Brandon Knight
Mike Hessman
Casey Weathers
Jason Donald
Jayson Nix
Taylor Teagarden
Stephen Strasburg
Jake Arrieta
Lou Marson
Matt LaPorta
Trevor Cahill
Brian Barden
John Gall
Jeff Stevens

Competition format

Eight teams are competing in the Olympic baseball tournament, and the competition consists of two rounds. The preliminary round follows a round robin format, where each of the teams plays all the other teams once. Following this, the top four teams advance to a single elimination round culminating in the bronze and gold medal games.

Qualification

Event Date Location Vacancies Qualified
Host nation  China
American Qualifying Tournament Aug 25 – Sept 7, 2006 Havana 2  United States
 Cuba
European Championship Sept 7 – Sept 16, 2007 Barcelona 1  Netherlands
Asian Baseball Championship Nov 27 – Dec 3, 2007 Taichung 1  Japan
Final Qualifying Tournament Mar 7 – Mar 14, 2008 Taichung and Douliou 3  Canada
 South Korea
 Chinese Taipei[1]
TOTAL 8

^1 Chinese Taipei is the official IOC designation for the state officially referred to as the Republic of China (ROC), commonly known as Taiwan.

Team squad

Team Qualification criteria Appearance
Canada 1st place of Final Qualifying Tournament  2nd
China Automatic as host nation of the Olympics  1st
Chinese Taipei 3rd place of Final Qualifying Tournament  3rd
Cuba 2nd place of American Qualifying Tournament  5th
Japan 1st place of Asian Baseball Championship  5th
South Korea 2nd place of Final Qualifying Tournament  3rd
Netherlands 1st place of European Championship  4th
United States 1st place of American Qualifying Tournament  4th

Group stage

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)

Pos Team Pld W L RF RA RD PCT GB Qualification
1  South Korea 7 7 0 41 22 +19 1.000 — Advance to knockout round
2  Cuba 7 6 1 52 23 +29 .857 1
3  United States 7 5 2 40 22 +18 .714 2
4  Japan 7 4 3 30 14 +16 .571 3
5  Chinese Taipei 7 2 5 29 33 −4 .286 5
6  Canada 7 2 5 29 20 +9 .286 5
7  Netherlands 7 1 6 9 50 −41 .143 6
8  China (H) 7 1 6 14 60 −46 .143 6
Source: [citation needed]
(H) Hosts
Notes:
  1. Chinese Taipei defeated Canada 6–5.
  2. Netherlands defeated China 6–4.
Team G W L RS RA WIN% GB Tiebreaker
 South Korea 7 7 0 41 22 1.000 – –
 Cuba 7 6 1 52 23 .857 1 –
 United States 7 5 2 40 22 .714 2 –
 Japan 7 4 3 30 14 .571 3 –
 Chinese Taipei 7 2 5 29 33 .286 5 1–0
 Canada 7 2 5 29 20 .286 5 0–1
 Netherlands 7 1 6 9 50 .143 6 1–0
 China 7 1 6 14 60 .143 6 0–1

August 13

August 14

August 15

August 16

August 17

August 18

August 19

August 20

Knockout stage

 
SemifinalsGold Medal Match
 
      
 
2008-08-22 - Beijing
 
 
 Japan2
 
2008-08-23 - Beijing
 
 South Korea6
 
 South Korea3
 
2008-08-22 - Beijing
 
 Cuba2
 
 United States2
 
 
 Cuba10
 
Bronze Medal Match
 
 
2008-08-23 - Beijing
 
 
 Japan4
 
 
 United States8

Semifinals

Bronze medal match

Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
 Japan 1 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 6 1
 United States 0 1 3 0 4 0 0 0 X 8 9 0
WP: Brett Anderson (1-0)   LP: Kenshin Kawakami (0-1)
Home runs:
JPN: Masahiro Araki (1), Norichika Aoki (1)
USA: Matt LaPorta (2), Matt Brown (2), Jason Donald (1)

Gold medal match

23 August 2008 18:00
WKB Main Field
Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 R H E
 South Korea 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 3 4 0
 Cuba 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 5 1
WP: Hyun-Jin Ryu (2-0)   LP: Norberto González (0-1)   Sv: Tae-Hyon Chong (2)
Home runs:
KOR: Seung-Yeop Lee (2)
CUB: Michel Enríquez (2), Alexei Bell (2)

Final standings

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