As a follow up to yesterday’s story, Insidethegames.com brought to my attention an article on their website about the IBAF’s active attempts to convince the organizers that baseball should be a demonstration sport at London 2012.  Hyde Park may yet stage an Olympic baseball tournament, albeit one without medals and official Olympic status. 

There’s no telling whether it will succeed, but at least the IBAF are doing all they can to bring baseball to London in four years’ time and hopefully to achieve their ultimate aim of having the sport (and softball) reinstated for the 2016 Games.

There’s an intriguing little note on page 29 in the sports section of the Daily Telegraph today (I can’t find the actual story online) which states:

“Baseball could yet feature at the London Olympics. The sport was voted off the schedule for the 2012 Games, but the International Baseball Federation are fighting to have it restored as a medal event for 2016 and, at least, an exhibition event in London”

I’ve no idea why the Telegraph have picked up on this story today. Possibly the recent Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament has put it back on the agenda? The IBAF website contains no new details about it and I’ve yet to come across a recent document that may have brought the idea to the Telegraph’s attention.

The optimist in me would like to think that the newspaper, which was firmly behind the 2012 bid, has heard some insider news suggesting that it may happen. More likely though is that they have simply caught wind of the plans and needed to fill a little gap in the page at short notice.

British baseball fans were offered a glimmer of hope last May when the recently-elected IBAF president, Harvey Schiller, publicly stated that the Federation would be campaigning for baseball to be installed as a ‘demonstration sport’ in 2012. At the time, after the initial burst of excitement, most of us considered the idea to be a non-starter. Firstly, the International Olympic Committee doesn’t seem particularly keen to give baseball any favours. Secondly, demonstration sports ceased to be a part of the Games after the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. And last but not least, the general idea of having demonstration sports in the past was to allow the host nation to introduce the world to one of their own sports. Indeed, baseball got it’s first Olympic exposure thanks to being a demonstration sport at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Put the three points together and it’s hard to imagine that any sort of Olympic baseball event will be a part of the London Games.

Of course, if I’m proved wrong, I will be absolutely delighted!  Best not to get our hopes up though, I think.

The Dodgers and the Padres made Major League history in the early hours of this morning, playing the first of two exhibition games at the home of the 2008 Olympics. Their trip has coincided with the conclusion of the Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament, in which eight teams battled it out to follow MLB’s lead and earn the right to play baseball in China.

For a blog that partly likes to look beyond the confines of MLB (great though it is) to the wider baseball world, my lack of comments on the tournament while it was in progress might have seemed a bit odd.

The truth is, I deliberately ignored the event. Writing about it as the games were being played would have painfully rammed home the fact that Great Britain were not competing in it, despite qualifying for the competition due to their silver medal finish in the 2007 European Championship. You should all know the story by now: Team GB qualified but had to withdraw due to lack of funding. Germany took Britain’s place and travelled to Chinese Taipei to represent Europe alongside Spain.

The IBAF Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament involved eight teams, all playing each other once in a round robin format. The two European sides were joined by Australia, Canada, the hosts Chinese Taipei, Korea, Mexico and South Africa with the top three teams set to advance to to the Beijing Olympics.

Canada went into the tournament as one of the favourites and they didn’t disappoint. With a roster stocked full of current or former Minor Leaguers, and three former Major Leaguers in Stubby Clapp, Steve Green and Ryan Radmanovich, the Canadians finished at the top of the table with a 6-1 record. Day four was the turning point. After opening their tournament with victories over Mexico and South Africa, they took a heavy 10-5 loss in game three against Australia. Down 5-4 in the top of the ninth in game four against the host nation, Canada’s tournament was firmly in the balance. They rallied to take the contest into extra innings, came through with a 6-5 victory and then followed it up with a comfortable 11-0 win over Spain. Beating Korea 4-3 guaranteed them a place in the top three and a hard-fought final day victory over Germany secured them top spot.

For Korea, that loss against Canada was the only blemish on what was otherwise a perfect campaign. They opened the tournament by winning their first five games at a combined score of 53-9 and rebounded from their single defeat to beat Chinese Taipei 4-3 in a tense final game. Korea’s offense was relentless, with their two main Giants leading the way: Joo Chan Kim of the Lotte Giants (of Korea) and Seung Yuop Lee of the Yomiuri Giants (of Japan). The pitching staff more than played their part as well, finishing with a combined ERA of just 1.55 over the seven games.

While the local fans would have been disappointed to lose to their Korean rivals, the Chinese Taipei team gave them plenty of reasons to cheer. Any tournament is always enriched when the host nation performs well and Chinese Taipei did just that, causing a minor surprise by finishing with a 5-2 record and taking the final qualifying spot. Heading into the event, most observers probably would have predicted a fourth or fifth placed finish for the local side, with Australia and Mexico being the other two teams likely to finish above them. Yet Chinese Taipei played a very solid and consistent game and, spurred on by their home support, took advantage of Australia and Mexico’s maddeningly unpredictable performances.

After their silver medal in the 2004 Olympics, Australia were naturally one of the favourites to qualify for Beijing, but the Aussies kept taking one step forward and then one step back. An opening victory over Germany was followed by an absolute pounding by Korea (16-2 and ended by the ‘mercy killing’ rule in the middle of the seventh inning). Their response to this heavy defeat was to knock ten runs in against Canada, only to lose 7-4 to Mexico in their fourth game and to then be shut out in a decisive 5-0 defeat at the hands of Chinese Taipei. Mexico’s victory over the Aussies was the start of a four game winning streak for the Latin Americans, but this had been preceded by an 0-3 start to the tournament and a final 4-3 record was only good enough for fourth place.

As for the two European representatives, they entered the event as firm underdogs and simply found the competition to be a level above their own ability. Germany won the ‘minnows mini-league’ by defeating both Spain and South Africa to finish 2-7, while Spain avoided the wooden spoon thanks to a 2-1 victory over the South Africans. It’s difficult to say whether Great Britain would have fared any better had they been able to take their rightful place in the tournament. There appears to have been a distinct division between the top five and bottom three teams and Team GB may have struggled to bridge the gap. Sadly, they were denied the chance to find out.

With the final qualification spots having been won, we now know that Canada, Korea and Chinese Taipei will join China, Japan, the U.S., Cuba and the Netherlands in the Beijing Olympics baseball tournament. This event will of course be the final such event for the foreseeable future after baseball and softball were dropped from the Olympic programme. Once again, the competition will make painful viewing for British baseball fans still lamenting the decision that will deny the sport a chance to shine in London in four years time. Our only hope is that the 2008 event is a resounding success and helps to convince the International Olympics Committee that the sport should be reinstated for 2016.

For more information on the Qualifying tournament, head over to the IBAF website as well as Mister-Baseball.com.

I just happened to come across an article published yesterday on the BBC website about Great Britain’s withdrawal from the Olympic qualifier in Taiwan.  The tournament starts tomorrow and it’s sad to think that Team GB had earned the right to be there, only for this opportunity to be taken away due to lack of funding.  There’s not a great deal of optimism in the article, although it does note that our silver medal at the 2007 European Baseball Championship means we qualify for the 2009 World Championship (funded by the IBAF).