1984 Olympic Baseball at Dodger Stadium

Dodger Stadium hosted the Olympic baseball tournament in 1984. Japan beat the USA in the championship game. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

 

Though baseball’s history as an “official” Olympic event is short and fragmented (1992-2008, 2020, 2028), the sport was on the roster as an “exhibition” game for various decades.

Although a dozen nations competed in the 1904 St. Louis Olympic Games, the baseball competition only had American teams, making the competition parochial rather than global.1

In 1912 Stockholm’s baseball game featured US athletes from other sports, including Jim Thorpe, and renowned nineteenth-century player George Wright as an umpire.2 The Nazi-sponsored 1936 Olympiad did little to advance the sport, and even less to promote civility as the globe soon plunged into World War II. Officially, about 114,000 spectators witnessed portions of the game between Australians and US military personnel in the Pacific Theatre in Melbourne.3 However, this 1952 exhibition preceded the marquee track-and-field competition, so few purposely came to see the Americans’ 11-5 victory in the cavernous venue.4

The Japanese had acquired a taste for baseball in the twentieth century, but the sport was not “official” for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. A squad of US collegiate players handily defeated the host nation, 6-2.5 Eight future major leaguers6 suited up for the Americans, but afterward the sport would experience a two-decade hiatus, missing the Mexico City (1968), Munich (1972), Montreal (1976), and Moscow (1980) Olympics. During this absence, the game’s popularity grew in the Caribbean, Mexico, Canada, South Korea, Japan, and pockets of Europe. The creation of the International Baseball Association helped position the sport back in the Olympic sights.

The sport’s true competitive debut – as a “demonstration” sport, per the parlance of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), took place in Los Angeles during the 1984 Olympics. The amateur US team featured future big leaguers Mark McGwire, Barry Larkin, Cory Snyder, Will Clark, B.J. Surhoff, Chris Gwynn, and Oddibe McDowell, chosen from 100 eager tryout attendees.7 Major-league teams drafted 20 of these US Olympians in the 1984 and 1985 amateur drafts.

Italy, Chinese Taipei,8 the Dominican Republic, Japan, South Korea, Nicaragua, and Canada joined the United States in the eight-country tournament. Perennial amateur superpower Cuba withdrew from the competition in solidarity with the Soviet Bloc’s boycott of the games, a tit-for-tat response to the United States’ protest of the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan. American manager Rod Dedeaux, longtime skipper of the USC Trojans, acknowledged the threat posed by the Cubans. “They’ve got pitching, power, and defense,” he said.9 They also had a seemingly unfair advantage, as they were amateurs in name only: Castro’s revolution had outlawed “professional” baseball, though few of the Cuban players held other jobs beyond those on the diamond.

The 16 games drew a total of 385,285 spectators.10 The preliminary round was held from July 31 to August 5 at Dodger Stadium, with two daily games. The United States and Taipei dominated the “White Division,” while Japan and South Korea advanced in the “Blue Division.”

On August 6, Team USA (first in the White Division) defeated South Korea (runner-up in the Blue Division), 5-2. McDowell clubbed a two-run home run in the third inning to give the Americans an early lead. South Korea countered with an unearned run in the fourth inning and a home run in the fifth to tie the game. Gwynn’s single and a double by Snyder drove in a trio of runs in the sixth inning to put the Americans ahead for good.11

Japan (first in the Blue Division) bested Chinese Taipei (White Division runner-up), 2-1, in extra innings. A single up the middle by Yukio Arai scored Kozo Shoda, who had doubled.

The Bronze Medal game treated spectators to a thrilling pitchers’ duel. Chinese Taipei scored three runs in the top of the 14th inning to slip by South Korea, 3-0, and win the Bronze. The Gold Medal game attracted 55,235 fans who saw the locals take a 1-0 lead on Shane Mack’s home run.12 The Japanese tagged American starter John Hoover for two runs in the fourth inning and another one in the fifth to take the lead, 3-1. The American offense, which had scored 35 runs in four games, sputtered. A seventh-inning three-run home run by Katsumi Hirosawa made the score 6-1. Snyder’s ninth-inning two-run blast cut the deficit, but the Americans were unable to come from behind.13

Hoover, who did not enjoy a long big-league career, tossed a complete game on the first day against Chinese Taipei but may have been tired in the late innings against Japan. “I was a member of probably the best amateur baseball team ever,” Hoover said. “That alone, being in the Olympics with that team, was unbelievable, overwhelming.”14 Will Clark, though disappointed by the outcome, fondly recalled the experience. “We were not only playing for ourselves, but for the guys who came after us,” he said.”15

Dedeaux focused on the greater picture. “We caught the imagination of the whole baseball world in ’84,” he said. “I always felt that winning or losing was secondary to the fact that we showcased baseball to the world. The name of the game was selling international baseball.”16

Displaced from their ballpark, the Dodgers played 13 games on the road (7-6). They returned with a 59-59 record but finished four games under .500, their first losing season since 1979. The organization graciously thanked “the International Olympic Committee, the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee and its thousands of volunteers, the fans who supported Olympic Baseball at Dodger Stadium, and (to) the amateur baseball officials and players from throughout the world” for creating “baseball’s greatest moment in the history of the Olympic Games.”17 Baseball was the only Olympic competition held at Dodger Stadium.

The major-league-baseball connection did not end after the Games. Peter Ueberroth, lauded for his stellar organizational job, was selected as the sixth commissioner of baseball. He held the job from October 1, 1984, to April 1, 1989, when Bart Giamatti succeeded him.

Baseball remained an exhibition sport for the 1988 Seoul Olympics. Cuba, winner of the 1985 International Cup, the 1986 World Baseball Championship, and the 1987 Pan American Games, again sat out the Olympics, this time in support of North Korea’s boycott. Future major leaguers Robin Ventura, Jim Abbott, Andy Benes, Tino Martínez, and Ben McDonald led the Americans. In a rematch, the United States beat Japan for the Gold Medal while Puerto Rico knocked off host South Korea for the Bronze.

Baseball became an official sport in 1992 (Barcelona), and Cuba won the Gold Medal. The Caribbean nation would revalidate its prize in 1996 (Atlanta).18

The 2000 Games (Sydney) were the first to allow professional players, though no active US major leaguers participated. Managed by Tommy Lasorda, the US team avenged its prior defeat to Cuba, but four years later, when the preliminary tournaments conflicted with the regular baseball season, the United States failed to qualify for the Games. South Korea won the 2008 Gold Medal, the last one contested as an official Olympic sport until the 2020/2021 Beijing Games.19

While Major League Baseball and team owners have allowed big-league players to participate in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), the tournament’s typical schedule interrupts only spring training, not the regular season. Although the National Hockey League has set a precedent of pausing its regular-season schedule for global competition, it is unlikely that Major League Baseball will follow suit for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, though it is possible that clubs will allow their top minor-league prospects to compete.

TONY S. OLIVER is a native of Puerto Rico currently living in Sacramento, California, with his wife and daughter. While he works as a Six Sigma professional, his true love is baseball and he cheers for both the Red Sox and whoever happens to be playing the Yankees. He is fascinated by baseball cards and is currently researching the evolution of baseball tickets. He believes there is no prettier color than the vibrant green of a freshly mown grass on a baseball field.

 

Notes

1 Pete Cava, “Baseball in the Olympics,” 1991, https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll10/id/3005/rec/4.

2 Cava.

3 The game was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Capacity limits have changed through the years, with a record 143,500 in attendance for Billy Graham and crowds in excess of 90,000 for cricket matches in the twentieth century. However, it is high unlikely that many watched the baseball game, as the true event that day was track and field.

4 Cava.

5 Cava.

6 The eight players: Alan Closter, Dick Joyce, Chuck Dopson, Jim Hibbs, Ken Suarez, Mike Epstein, Shaun Fitzmaurice, Gary Sutherland.

7 Los Angeles 1984: Dodger Salute to Olympic Baseball, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDiCv7i_m9g.

8 “Chinese Taipei” is the name used by the Republic of China (Taiwan) in international sporting competitions.

9 Cava.

10 Ross Newhan, “A Silver Lining: Talented ’84 U.S. Baseball Team Didn’t Get the Gold, but the Sport Proved to Be an International Winner,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 1992, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-07-22-sp-4198-story.html.

11 Brendan Macgranachan, “A Look Back at the ’84 Olympic Baseball Tournament,” Seamheads.com, July 11, 2008, https://seamheads.com/blog/2008/07/11/a-look-back-at-the-84-olympic-baseball-tournament/.

12 Macgranachan.

13 Macgranachan.

14 Newhan.

15 Newhan.

16 Newhan.

17 Paid advertisement, Los Angeles Daily News, August 12, 1984: 13.

18 Eric Goodman, “Baseball 101: Olympic History,” NBC Olympics, March 15, 2021, https://www.nbcolympics.com/news/baseball-101-olympic-history.

19 The 2020 Beijing Olympic Games were delayed until 2021 because of the COVID-19 global pandemic.