Baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics

Baseball will be featured at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, for the first time since the 2008 Summer Olympics.[1] Six national teams will compete in the tournament. Israel, Japan (host), Mexico, and South Korea have qualified so far. Baseball/softball is one of five sports that were added to the program of the 2020 Summer Olympics only; there is no guarantee it will return in 2024.

Baseball
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
VenueYokohama Stadium, Yokohama
Fukushima Azuma Stadium, Fukushima City
Dates28 July – 7 August 2021
No. of events1
Teams6

It was originally scheduled to be held in 2020, but on 24 March 2020, the Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2]

Qualification
Main article: Baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Qualification

Six national teams will qualify for the Olympic baseball tournament. The sport is under the auspices of the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). Japan automatically qualified, as Japan is the host nation.

Israel qualified, by winning the September 2019 Europe/Africa continental tournament.

Two teams qualified through the 2019 WBSC Premier12 tournament in November 2019. South Korea qualified as the best-placed team from the Asia/Oceania region (other than Japan, which already qualified as host), while Mexico qualified as the best-placed team from the Americas. Another American team will qualify through an Americas continental tournament that was originally scheduled to take place in March 2020, but which was postponed to a date to be determined because of the coronavirus pandemic.[3]

The final spot will be awarded in a world final qualification tournament.[4]

EventDateLocationVacanciesQualified
Host nation 3 August 20161 N/A 1  Japan
Africa/Europe Qualifying Event 18–22 September 2019 Bologna / Parma 1  Israel
2019 WBSC Premier12 2–17 November 2019 Tokyo2 2  Mexico
 South Korea
Americas Qualifying Event TBD (postponed)[5] Arizona 1
Final Qualifying Tournament TBD (postponed)[6] Taichung / Douliu 1
TOTAL6

1Baseball was included into the 2020 Olympics during the IOC session on 3 August 2016.
2The WBSC Premier12 was played in Japan, Mexico, South Korea, and Taiwan, with the final in Tokyo.

Competition schedule

[7]

Legend
GSGroup stage FFinals
Wed 28Thu 29Fri 30Sat 31Sun 1Mon 2Tue 3Wed 4Thu 5Fri 6Sat 7
GSFF

Team squads

Competition format

The small number of teams in the tournament resulted in an unusual competition format being adopted that will feature 16 games. There will be an opening group round-robin round, and a modified double-elimination bracket.[8]

For the group round, there will be two pools of three teams each. Each team will play the other two teams in its pool once. A total of six games will be played in the group round.[9]

In the knockout round, the first three games will feature teams that each finished in the same position in their respective pools (A1 vs B1, A2 vs B2, A3 vs B3). The loser of the A3 vs. B3 game will be eliminated (with only one loss). Otherwise, play will continue in double-elimination format until there is one team left in each of the winners and losers brackets. Those two teams will play in the gold medal game (a single game; the losers bracket representative does not need to beat the winners bracket representative twice). The last two teams eliminated from the losers bracket will play in the bronze medal game. In total, 10 games will be played in the knockout round:[9]

  1. A3 vs B3 (loser eliminated)
  2. A2 vs B2
  3. Winner of #1 vs Winner of #2
  4. A1 vs B1
  5. Loser of #2 vs Loser of #3 (loser eliminated)
  6. Loser of #4 vs Winner of #5 (loser to bronze medal game)
  7. Winner of #3 vs Winner of #4 (winner to gold medal game)
  8. Loser of #7 vs Winner of #6 (winner to gold medal game, loser to bronze medal game)
  9. Bronze medal game: Loser of #6 vs Loser of #8
  10. Gold medal game: Winner of #7 vs. Winner of #8

Thus, the best two teams from group play face each other in the quarterfinals, with a possible rematch later in the tournament (including the gold medal game, if the winner also wins its next game and the loser wins its next two).

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4
#1
 A3
#3
 B3
 
#2
 
 A2
#7
 B2
 
 
 
#4
 
 A1
 B1
 
#10 (Gold medal)
 
 
#5
 
 Loser #2
#6
 Loser #3
 
 Loser #4
 
#8
 
 
 Loser #7
 
 
 
#9 (Bronze medal)
 
   Loser #6
   Loser #8
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References
  1. "Baseball/Softball". Retrieved 12 July 2018.
  2. "Joint Statement from the International Olympic Committee and the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee". International Olympic Committee. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
  4. "WBSC announces hosts, dates of Tokyo 2020 Olympic Baseball/Softball Qualifiers". 20 January 2019.
  5. "Americas Olympic Baseball qualifier postponed". World Baseball Softball Confederation. 12 March 2020.
  6. "Final Olympic Baseball Qualifier postponed to a date TBD". World Baseball Softball Confederation. 25 March 2020.
  7. "Baseball/Softball Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. Retrieved 8 March 2020.
  8. Competition format
  9. Row with US TV holds up publication of Tokyo 2020 aquatics schedule but baseball granted extra matches
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