| Other Titles: | Demonstration sport |
| City: | Melbourne |
| Country: | Australia |
| Dates: | December 1, 1956 |
| Num Teams: | 2 |
| Venues: | Melbourne Cricket Ground |
| Champion: | USA |
| Second: | AUS |
| Medal Type: | olympic |
| Games: | 1 |
| Prevseason: | 1952 |
| Nextseason: | 1964 |
Baseball at the 1956 Summer Olympics was a demonstration sport at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. Though it was nominally the "foreign" demonstration sport of that Olympiad, Australia had a long history of baseball dating back to at least 1889. The Australians fielded the senior national team in an exhibition match against the United States, represented by a detachment from the United States Far East Command. Many Sheffield Shield cricket players – who were quite successful at baseball as a winter sport – were unable to be selected on the basis that they were professional players.[1]
Held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the game was notable for its high turnout; at the time, it was thought to be the largest audience for a baseball game in history, though the exact number of spectators remains in question.[2] [3]
The game was played on 1 December 1956 from 12:30p.m. at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.[4] Due to the field being set up between the running tracks, right field was only 225feet, so special ground rules were put in place, stating that a ball hit over the running track on the full will be declared a home run, where one that bounces (or rolls) on or over the track shall be declared a ground rule double. This rule was put in place to stop baseball cleats damaging the track for the events after the baseball.
As the visiting team, the Americans batted first, scoring two runs off three hits. Australia did not strike back until the bottom of the second inning, when Chalky White of South Australia hit a solo home run off Vane Sutton. Sutton made up for his error in the top half on the third inning, with a grand slam to send the score out to a commanding 6–1. The Americans again put the pressure on Australia in the fifth inning as two errors led to another two runs to the US, putting them in a comfortable position.[5] The game was eventually called at 2:40p.m., after six completed innings and a final score of 11–5, with the Americans batting first.[6]
Very few fans were present at the start of the game, but thousands more had arrived by the sixth inning. This was due to the finals for the 1500 metres, 4 × 400 metres relay, and finish of the men's marathon. The stadium announcer claimed that it was the largest audience for a baseball game anywhere in the world up to that point. However, the actual number of spectators is unclear, largely because the baseball game was just one event at the Cricket Ground that day, and ticket sales were not counted separately for each event. The most reliable number, according to National Baseball Hall of Fame, is 86,425, which was the official number of gate receipts collected that day.
After the Olympics, the U.S. team would go on to play several exhibition games against local amateur teams in Australia, playing the Claxton Shield squads of South Australia, Queensland, Victoria, and New South Wales.[7] [8] [9]
| Melbourne, Australia | |
|---|---|
| Melbourne Cricket Ground | |
| Capacity: 120,000 | |
Manager: Col. Leonard Weissinger, USAF
Coach: SSgt. Walter Koziatek, USAF
Manager: Reg Darling