Baseball at the 1988 Summer Olympics

Baseball has often been a demonstration sport at the Olympics, as it was also demonstrated in 1912, 1936, 1956, 1964, and 1984. In 1992 baseball became an official Olympic sport, and was on the Olympic Program from 1992-2008, after which it was discontinued, along with softball. There is some impetus for the two sports to return to the Olympic Program at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan.

The 1988 demonstration had eight teams which started with a round-robin tournament and then advanced to semi-finals. The tournament was weakened by the absence of Cuba, which joined a small boycott of the 1988 Olympics in support of North Korea. Cuba was the world’s greatest amateur team in the 1980s, and unfortunately, they had also boycotted the 1984 Olympics and the 1984 baseball demonstration. The 1988 baseball games were played at the Jam-sil Ya-gu-jang, or Jamsil Baseball Stadium, at the Seoul Sports Complex.