Baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics was the third time an Olympic baseball tournament had been held as a full medal sport, and the ninth time it had been part of the Summer Olympic Games in any capacity. It was held in Sydney, Australia from 17 September through to the bronze and gold medal games on 27 September. Two venues were used for the Games: the Sydney Baseball Stadium and Blacktown Olympic Park. For the first time in Olympic competition, professional baseball players were eligible to participate, though no active players from Major League Baseball were available. The United States won the gold medal by defeating Cuba 4–0. Since becoming a medal sport, it was the first time Cuba had not won the gold medal. The gold medal game was also only the second game Cuba had lost in Olympic baseball, having lost to the Netherlands earlier in the tournament. South Korea won their first Olympic baseball medal, beating

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

in the bronze medal match 3–1.

Format

The main tournament featured eight teams. These teams were selected from a series of continental qualifying tournaments, with the exception of

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

who qualified automatically as hosts. As had been the case at the 1996 Games in Atlanta, two teams each qualified from the Americas via the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and surrounding towns and ...

, Asia via the

1999 Asian Baseball Championship File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shootin ...

, and Europe via the

1999 European Baseball Championship The 1999 European Baseball Championship was won by the Netherlands. It was held in Italy. Standings European Baseball Championship European Baseball Championship 1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession ...

. The final spot went to the winner of a deciding series between the African and Oceania champions, as determined by the

1999 All-Africa Games The 7th All-Africa Games were held from September 10, 1999, to September 19, 1999, in Greater Johannesburg, South Africa. 53 countries participated in eighteen sports. Netball was included as a demonstration sport. The South Africans hosted abou ...

and the

1999 Oceania Baseball Championship File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school sho ...

respectively. This playoff was won by South Africa, who swept Guam in a best-of-five series in Johannesburg in December 1999. The eight teams met in a round-robin series, facing each other once. The top four teams from this then met in the finals, with the first and fourth placed teams playing against each other in one semi final, and the second and third placed teams in the other. The losers of these semi finals competed in the bronze medal game, while the winners met in the gold medal game.

Teams

Results

Preliminary round

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Final round

Semi-finals

Bronze medal game

Gold medal game

Final standings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Baseball at the 2000 Summer Olympics 2000 Summer Olympics events

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Men's events at the 2000 Summer Olympics