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Baseball Main Events
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Baseball Main Events The game of baseball is played at both amateur and professional level. Young and enjoy the game with equal enthusiasm all over the world, especially in the US. Youth leagues are popular for playing a tailored version of professional baseball. There are many baseball events at local and state levels but the world Baseball series and Olympic events mark as the stalwart baseball events recognized worldwide. World Cup Baseball The first series of world cup championship began in 1938. Teams competed from the US and UK in a match of 5 games. Britain won the very first world cup with a lead of 4-1 to become the first ever to hold the trophy. Right after the world cup series, the International Baseball Federation (IBF) was established in 1938. Ever since, we have seen World Cups to be played at uneven intervals. It is interesting to note that professional baseball players generally do not play in World Series as the contest collide with regular league competition games. Following is the list of World Cup Baseball held till 2005
Olympic Baseball There is a myth about the first Olympic baseball to have been played in St. Louis in the year 1904. Historians are sceptical about the accuracy as most sport events held at St. Louis were titled Olympic event. The first recorded Olympic event dates to 1912. A baseball team from Vasteras competed against US team at the Olympics games in Stockholm in Sweden. The US team beat Sweden in two games, with Jim Thorpe as a right fielder. During the Olympics held in 1936, the German hosts invited the United States to demonstrate a match against Japan. For a amateur crowd of 125,000, the World Champions team from US won by a lead of 6-5. In the Olympics of 1940, the original plan to include baseball was discarded as Japan withdrew due to war in Manchuria. Another baseball demonstration took place in 1954 at Melbourne Olympics in Australia. A team consisting of the U.S. Far East Command servicemen played in Australia. During the match, the audience gathered for the other athletic events summed up to a striking crowd of 114,000 spectators. US won the match by 11-5. Olympic events in Tokyo took place in 1964. Baseball was very popular in Japan and a team consisting of American college baseball players along with eight major league players fielded against Japanese all-star team. They won the championship by 6-2. Again in 1981, the contest took place between teams from United States, Japan, South Korea, Dominican Republic, Canada, Taiwan, Italy and Nicaragua. Japan and the USA reached the finals and the Americans won by 6-3. Another demonstration tournament in Seoul, South Korea in 1988 and Cuba, the dominant team winning all major international championships since 1984, again boycotted the Games just like in 1981. The tournament was held between teams from United States, Japan, South Korea, Puerto Rico, Canada, Taiwan, Netherlands and Australia, Japan and the US again reached the final. The United States won by 5-3. The 1986 IOC congress decided in a meeting that the first official Olympic baseball tournament be held in Barcelona in 1992. It was decided at the 117th IOC Session to remove baseball and softball from the 28 existing Olympic sports to be held in 2012 at London. A major fraction of world does not play baseball, but the driving factor was also the reluctance of Major League Baseball to have breaks during the games. A list of organized leagues in the US: Youth Leagues
High School
Collegiate Level List of Collegiate Summer Baseball Leagues
Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States;
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