Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

at the

1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held from 10 to 24 October 1964 in Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo had been awarded the organization of the 1940 Summer Olympics, but this ho ...

was a demonstration sport and consisted of a single game. It was the fifth time that a baseball exhibition had been held, and was the last time that only one game was played.

Game

The U.S. team of

college baseball College baseball is baseball that is played on the intercollegiate level at institutions of higher education. In comparison to football and basketball, college competition in the United States plays a smaller role in developing professional pl ...

players—which included eight future

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

players and was coached by

Rod Dedeaux Raoul Martial "Rod" Dedeaux (February 17, 1914 – January 5, 2006) was an American college baseball coach who compiled what is widely recognized as among the greatest records of any coach in the sport's amateur history. Dedeaux was the head bas ...

—defeated a Japanese amateur all-star team, 6–2.Cava, p. 13 Approximately 50,000 fans watched the game. The game was played on October 11, 1964, at

Meiji Jingu Stadium The is a baseball stadium in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. It opened in 1926 and holds 37,933 spectators. Property of the Meiji Shrine, it is the home field of the Tokyo Yakult Swallows professional baseball team. It also hosts college baseball, inc ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

. Future major league players on the U.S. team were pitchers Alan Closter, Dick Joyce, and Chuck Dobson; catchers

Jim Hibbs James Kerr Hibbs (born September 10, 1944) is an American former professional baseball player whose eight-year career was punctuated by a brief, three-game trial with the California Angels of Major League Baseball. Hibbs was a catcher and out ...

and

Ken Suarez Kenneth Raymond Suarez (Born April 12, 1943) is an American former professional baseball player. He played as a catcher in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1966 to 1973. The , . right-handed hitter is best remembered for a suit he filed against ...

; outfielder

Shaun Fitzmaurice Shaun Earle Fitzmaurice (born August 25, 1942) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Mets in 1966. Biography Fitzmaurice played college baseball for the Notre Dame Fighti ...

; first baseman

Mike Epstein Michael Peter Epstein (born April 4, 1943), nicknamed "Superjew", is an American former professional baseball player for the Baltimore Orioles, Washington Senators / Texas Rangers, Oakland Athletics, and California Angels of Major League Bas ...

; and second baseman

Gary Sutherland Gary Lynn Sutherland (born September 27, 1944), nicknamed "Sudsy", is an American former professional baseball middle infielder. He played college baseball at the University of Southern California and later played 13 seasons in Major League Baseb ...

. Fitzmaurice hit a home run on the first pitch of the game. Most of the other players on the roster went on to play baseball professionally in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

. Prior to the game, players held their own "opening ceremony", as they had not been included in the official opening of the Olympiad, due to baseball's status as a demonstration sport. Additionally, the U.S. baseball team was housed at a

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

rather than in the

Olympic Village An Olympic Village is an accommodation center built for the Olympic Games, usually within an Olympic Park or elsewhere in a host city. Olympic Villages are built to house all participating athletes, as well as officials and athletic trainers. Afte ...

. Outside of the Olympics, contemporary news reports note that the U.S. baseball team played a series of exhibition games in Japan and South Korea.

United States roster

Pitchers * George Bosworth (Hope) * Bill Brasher (UCLA) * Alan Closter (Iowa State) * Chuck Dobson (Kansas) * Dick Joyce (Holy Cross) * Walter Peterson (USC) *

Keith Weber Anthony "Keith" Weber (April 27, 1942 – February 18, 2011) was a quarterback and pitcher for the University of Missouri, most notable for holding the NCAA record for lowest earned run average (ERA), at 0.56 for his college career. Biography We ...

(Missouri) Catchers *

(Stanford) *

Bud Hollowell Buddy Ryan "Bud" Hollowell (January 1, 1943 – May 16, 2014) was an American professional baseball player and minor league manager. After his athletic career, he became an educator and author. Athletic career Hollowell was born and raised in Lo ...

(USC) *

(Florida State) Infielders * Tommy Keyes (Mississippi) * Larry Sandel (USC) *

(USC) * Jim Vopicka (Illinois) Outfielders * Brian Edgerly (Colgate) *

(California) *

(Notre Dame) * Bob Karlblom (Augustana) * Don Novick (NYU) Coaches *

(USC, head coach) * Dutch Fehring (Stanford, asst.) * Lee Eilbracht (Illinois, asst.) Source:

Game

United States roster

Sources

References

Further reading