Baseball in the Olymics

No, I'm not advocating baseball go back into the Olympics. It's been tried, and just isn't working. What I didn't know was the amount of times it had been tried prior to 1984. It seems that wasn't the first time baseball was played in the Olympics. It might have been unofficial, and it might not have lasted. But it was baseball. I was surprised at how many times it was played:

Baseball had been played in 3 previous Olympics before 1936; 1904, 1912, and 1928. These were basically pick-up games played with the track and field athletes, and were just exhibitions to show the game of baseball to the other participating countries.

Sadly, much like modern times, baseball didn't last. I guess it just isn't meant to be. Personally, as stated many times, I'm okay with this. Other want it, others don't, most don't care. I guess it doesn't really matter anyhow, since baseball is out.

From Kevin at DMB History World Series Replay comes the story of the 1936 Olympics and the baseball game that took place between an American team and a Japanese team:

Unfortunately the Japanese baseball team backed out of the scheduled game, and the US had to play an intra squad game. The teams would be called the US Olympics and the World Champions.

I'm not making fun of that statement. It just goes to show that baseball and the Olympics are a match made in sporting heaven. Every time they've tried, something has gotten in the way:

The game proved such a success that the International Olympic Committee approved baseball for the 1940 Olympics in Japan. Unfortunately WW II wiped out those Olympics, and baseball would not be a part of another Olympics until 1984.

This falls under the category of what might have been. OF course, World War II put about 1 billion people into the category.

I'm not a big believer in what if?, but I'll bet if baseball had gotten a foothold in the Olympics in the '40's, it would still be in, regardless of what Bud wants. Sadly, we'll never know.