Part 2 - LA84 Foundation

11. Competition Management
by Sport
358
11.24
Baseball
Baseball was first staged as a demonstration
sport in the 3rd Olympic
Games at St. Louis in 1904, and since
then had been on the Olympic schedule
as a demonstration sport eight
times.
It has been customary that a demonstration
sport eventually becomes an
official sport in due course. Baseball,
however, has remained a demonstration
sport because it is largely confined
to the North American region.
After deciding to stage baseball competition
at the Seoul Olympic Games
as a demonstration sport, the IOC
Session resolved to introduce baseball
as an official sport beginning with the
25th Barcelona Games in 1992.
In Seoul, the baseball competitions
were held for 10 days from September
19 to 28, with the participation of 160
athletes and 32 officials from eight
countries. The competitions were
staged at the Chamshil Baseball
Stadium in the Seoul Sports Complex.
The United States won the competition,
Japan placed second, and Puerto
Rico third. Korea finished fourth.
11.24.1
Competition
—————————————–
Preparations
Among the international federations
which failed to get their respective
sports included as official sports in the
1988 Seoul Olympics, four federations
— baseball, badminton, bowling and
softball — asked the SLOOC to stage
their sports as demonstration sports.
At the 90th session of the IOC held in
June 1985, the SLOOC obtained IOC
approval of its request for holding
taekwondo and baseball as demonstration
sports, and women's judo as a
demonstration event. In its 91st session
in October 1986, the IOC decided
to adopt baseball and badminton as
official sports beginning with the 25th
Barcelona Games in 1992.
The SLOOC in June 1986 notified the
International Baseball Association of
the IOC approval of baseball as a
demonstration sport for the 1988
Olympics.
The SLOOC then embarked on working
consultations with the IBA on staging
the baseball competitions. The
SLOOC appointed a baseball officer in
its Sports Operation Department II.
In order to collect data on the operation
of baseball competition, and to
look into the operations of international
competitions, the SLOOC sent research
teams to the 14th Asia Baseball Championship
held in Tokyo in August 1987,
the Continental Cup International
Baseball Championship held in
Havana, Cuba in October 1987, and
the IBA Executive Board meeting held
in Montreal, Canada in March 1988.
The Baseball Operations was
organized in March 1988, with the
leadership lineup including Choi
In-chol, president of the Korea Baseball
Association, as commissioner,
Koh Ik-dong, KBA senior executive
director, as secretary-general, and Lee
Yong-sun, baseball officer of the
SLOOC, as director.
Beginning in April, the Baseball Operations,
conducted job education, field
adaptation training and rehearsals.
The staffing of the operations consisting
of five managers and 20 officers,
also included seven staff members of
the SLOOC, 246 support personnel,
409 volunteers, and two temporary
employees. In addition, 20 contract
personnel assisted in the conduct of
the competitions.
The IBA was represented by its president,
secretary-general and two technical
delegates. A seven-member technical
committee supervised the
competitions; two Koreans were
included in the committee. The sixteen
referees included seven Koreans.
The competitions were held at the
Chamshil Baseball Stadium situated in
the Seoul Sports Complex; the ballpark,
measuring 59,500 square
meters, has a seating capacity of
50,000.
The Sangmu Baseball Training Field of
the military Sangmu Sports Unit in
Songnam city, and the Korea Agricultural
Cooperative Ballpark in Koyanggun
were available for training.
The SLOOC offered competitive bidding
to secure the required balls; three
local and one foreign manufacturers
responded to the bidding. The SLOOC
chose the Skyline ball manufactured
by the Dong-A Sports Co. of Korea as
the official ball for the competitions.
Dong-A Sports supplied 400 balls
under the Olympic marketing arrangement.
Almost all of the required equipment
and implements, including home
plates, pitcher plates and bases, were
secured from local manufacturers.
11.24.2
—————————————–
Conduct of the Competitions
The IBA limited the number of baseball
teams for the Seoul Olympic
Games to eight, and set forth the
following method to select the eight
teams:
(1) Host country (Republic of Korea)
(2) Winner of the Los Angeles Games
demonstration competition (Japan)
(3) Winner of the 1986 World Baseball
Championship (Cuba)
(4) Winner of the 1987 Asia Baseball
Championship (exclusive of Korea and
Japan)
(5) Winner of the 1987 European Baseball
Championship
(6), (7) Winner and runner-up of the
1987 America Open
(8) Winner of a competition between
the runner-up of the 1987 European
Baseball Championship and the third
place country of the 1987 America
Open.
When any teams already qualified to
compete in the Olympics obtained
berths again, they were required to
pass the berths to the teams ranked
next. Accordingly, Korea as host,
Japan as the winner of the 1984 Los
Angeles Games baseball competition,
and Cuba as winner of the World
Baseball Championship, were to cede
additional berths to the next-placed
teams, even if they had won their
continental preliminaries.
In the Asia Baseball Championship,
Chinese-Taipei was awarded a berth to
the Seoul Games, since Korea and
Japan had already secured berths.
The Netherlands won the European
championship to qualify for participation
in Seoul. Cuba won the America
Open, but berths to the Seoul competition
went to the second-placed U.S.A.
and third-placed Puerto Rico, since
Cuba had already been qualified to
take part in the Seoul competition.
Accordingly, the contest between the
runner-up of the European championship
and the third place team of the
America Open became a match
between the European runner-up and
the fourth place team of the America
Open; the fourth place Canada
defeated Italy, the European runnerup,
to obtain a berth in the Olympic
competition in Seoul.
Among the eight countries qualified
for participation in Seoul, Cuba stayed
away, and the IBA selected Australia to
take part in the Seoul Olympics in its
stead.
The final list of the participating countries
included the Republic of Korea,
Japan, Chinese-Taipei, the U.S.A.,
Puerto. Rico, Canada, the Netherlands,
and Australia.
By continent, North America had three
teams, Asia three, Europe one and
Oceania one; no teams came from
Africa, South America or the East bloc.
The eight teams were divided into a
White Division and Blue Division for
preliminaries; the first two teams in
each division made up the four teams
for a cross-over tournament to decide
the winning team and runners-up.
The preliminary groups of the eight
teams were as follows:
White Division: Republic of Korea, the
U.S.A., Canada and Australia
Blue Division: Chinese-Taipei, Japan,
Puerto Rico and the Netherlands.
The IBA set the authorized number of
team members to four officials and
20 players.
In the preliminary league, Japan
placed first in the Blue Division with
three wins, followed by Puerto Rico
with two wins and one loss. In the
White Division, the United States and
Korea each recorded two wins and one
loss, but the U.S.A. placed first and
Korea second according to the rule
giving priority to the winner of the
game between teams tied in the
standings.