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Baseball at the 1912 Summer Olympics
Demonstration sport
Tournament details
CountrySweden
City Stockholm
Venue(s) Ostermalm Athletic Grounds
DatesJuly 15–16, 1912 (1912-07-15 – 1912-07-16)
Teams2
Final positions
Champions  United States
Runner-up  Sweden
Tournament statistics
Games played1
←  1904
1936 →

Baseball had its first appearance at the 1912 Summer Olympics as a demonstration sport. [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.

Game result

Sweden bats against the U.S. team

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

Box score

United States Pos. AB H 2B 3B SB R E vs. Sweden Pos. AB H 2B 3B SB R E
Vaughn Blanchard 1B 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 Benjamin Adams (USA) P 3 1 0 0 0 0 1
George Bonhag 1B 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 C. Axell CF 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
Richard Byrd P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Harlan Holden (USA) P 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
J. Ira Courtney 3B 3 2 1 0 0 2 0 E. Johansson LF 1 1 0 0 1 1 0
Ira Davenport C 3 2 0 0 2 2 0 Landahl 2B 3 1 0 0 0 0 2
Howard Drew RF 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Y. Larson RF 3 1 0 0 0 1 0
Carroll Haff P 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 Frank Nelson (USA) P 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
George Horine LF 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 Wesley Oler (USA) C 4 1 0 0 0 0 0
Frank Irons LF 2 1 0 0 0 0 0 Sapery SS 4 0 0 0 0 0 0
John Paul Jones 2B 3 1 0 0 2 1 0 Torsleff LF 2 1 0 0 0 1 0
Fred Kelly CF 3 1 0 0 0 1 1 Welin 1B 3 0 0 0 0 0 1
Abel Kiviat SS 4 2 0 1 1 2 0 Wikman 3B 3 1 1 0 0 0 0
Walter McClure P 0 0 0 0 0 1 0
Norman Patterson CF 1 0 0 0 0 0 0
Lawrence Whitney RF 1 0 0 0 0 1 0
United States 27 10 1 1 5 13 2 Total Sweden 30 7 1 0 1 3 5

Exhibition match

Jim Thorpe, pictured in 1913 with the New York Giants, played in the second exhibition game.

On the next day Tuesday, 16 July 1912 in the evening, two teams composed of an all-American line-up played a 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) and would go on to play in MLB with the New York Giants.

Box score

US East "Olympics" Pos. AB R H PO A E vs. US West "Finland" Pos. AB R H PO A E
Benjamin Adams CF 2 0 0 1 0 0 Richard Byrd P/RF 3 0 0 1 1 0
Platt Adams P 4 1 0 1 2 0 J. Ira Courtney SS 3 0 0 1 1 0
George Bonhag 1B 4 0 0 8 0 1 Ira Davenport LF 4 0 1 1 0 1
Charles Brickley C 3 0 0 14 2 0 Carroll Haff LB 4 0 0 7 0 0
Howard Drew RF 3 1 1 0 0 0 George Horine CF 4 1 1 3 0 0
Harlan Holden LF 4 1 0 2 0 1 Frank Irons 2B 4 0 1 0 4 1
John Paul Jones 2B 2 0 1 0 1 0 Fred Kelly 3B 3 2 2 2 1 3
Abel Kiviat SS 3 1 2 1 2 2 Edward Lindberg C 4 0 0 12 2 1
Eugene Mercer 3B 4 1 1 0 1 0 Walter McClure RF/P 4 0 2 0 1 0
Wesley Oler CF 2 1 1 0 0 0
Jim Thorpe RF 2 0 1 0 0 0
US East "Olympics" 33 6 7 27 8 4 Total US West "Finland" 33 3 7 27 10 6

Notes

  1. ^ Baseball was one of various sports appearing on schedules for the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis; records or results of baseball games played during that Olympiad are lacking.
  2. ^ Olympedia, a reference site administered by the International Olympic Committee, considers the Swedish squad that played on July 15 to be a " mixed team". [1]

References

  1. ^ "Baseball (Game #1), Men". Olympedia. IOC.