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| Formation | 1978 |
|---|---|
| Location | |
Membership | (US) |
| Website | usabaseball |
USA Baseball is the national governing body for baseball in the United States, and is a member of the United States Olympic Committee and the World Baseball Softball Confederation. The organization is responsible for the selection of the United States national team for various international competition, including the senior professional team (World Baseball Classic, Olympic, Premier12, and Pan American Games), the collegiate national team, the various youth national teams (18U, 15U, and 12U), and the women's national team.
Tracing its origins to the formation of the U.S. Amateur Baseball Federation by Leslie Mann in 1932, the modern USA Baseball organization was formed in 1978. Although USA Baseball does not have jurisdiction over Major League Baseball or its affiliates, it is the chief organizer of non-collegiate[a] amateur baseball initiatives through its Sport Development department, including Play Ball and Pitch Smart. USA Baseball also presents the Golden Spikes Award annually to the top amateur baseball player in the country and is responsible for creating the USABat standard.
No player uses uniform number 42 out of respect for the Brooklyn Dodgers Jackie Robinson since 1997.
History
Predecessors
BasebaThe first US national baseball team took the field in the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden. Only one player on the roster, Jim Thorpe, had extensive experience in the two demonstration games that were held, as the majority of players were track and field athletes.
The national governing body is a de facto successor to the USA Baseball Congress, founded in 1934 by ex-MLB outfielder Leslie Mann, who is also regarded in high esteem as founder of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF). That organization helped formalize the establishment of a full time national team program and establish amateur baseball nationally. Under Leslie's guidance, the nascent Team USA, following a 20-game friendship tour of Japan in 1935 took part in the demonstration match at the Summer Olympics in Berlin the next year and participated in the very first Baseball World Cup two years later, only to lose out to England. They took part in a further two more BWCs before the Second World War.
Representation to the BWC would return in 1969, but this time, an all-NCAA team of college athletes took part, having taken part previously in the Pan American Games since the first edition held in 1951. This would be the basis of the current USA Baseball Collegiate National Team, and an early iteration of the team had a test game in the 1964 Summer Olympics in Japan.
Move to North Carolina
1978 would see the formation of a new national baseball organization. As the USA received hosting rights for the 1984 Summer Olympics with Los Angeles as the host, the time would come for the birth of a new group to spearhead baseball efforts in the country.
Originally based in Trenton, New Jersey upon its establishment, USA Baseball - then the US Baseball Federation - moved to Tucson, Arizona in November 1997, where it spent five years before moving one more time to its current home in Cary, North Carolina, in March 2003. With its family-friendly environment, already-rapid growth, and proximity to sports cities Chapel Hill, Durham, Raleigh, and Charlotte, Cary was the perfect destination for the national governing body of baseball.
An agreement was reached with the town to create a complex and headquarters there, and the USA Baseball National Training Complex opened in June 2007. The first event held at the facility was the 2007 USA Baseball Tournament of Stars, which served as the primary identification event for the organization's 18U national team from 2007 to 2018.
National Training Complex
The USA Baseball National Training Complex at Thomas Brooks Park in Cary, North Carolina, opened in 2007. Located within the 221-acre Thomas Brooks Park, the complex includes four baseball fields – a stadium field and three training fields – all with dimensions of 330 feet down the lines and 400 feet in centerfield. All fields are maintained at Major League Baseball standards.
In recognition of more than 30 years of public service and countless accomplishments for the citizens of Cary, the Cary Town Council named the stadium field in honor of former Town Manager William B. Coleman, Jr., upon his retirement on October 17, 2008.
Coleman Field has a press box that includes two suites, an official scorer's room, a sound room, and a press row. Spectator seating is for 1,754 people, including handicapped-accessible seating, and additional grass seating for about 250 people. All fields have access to restroom facilities and a concession building.
The National Training Complex is also home to the flagship USA Baseball Team Store, which is open during all USA Baseball events at the complex.
14U and 16U national teams
From 1997 to 2011, USA Baseball fielded a 16U national team that participated in the International Baseball Federation World Youth Championships, as well as other tournaments, including the COPABE Pan American Youth Championships and the 1999 PAL World Series.
In its 15-year history, the USA Baseball 16U national team experienced unparalleled success on the international stage. Team USA made it to the championship game of every international tournament it appeared in, taking home 11 gold medals – including nine in World Championships – and three silvers. In addition, eight of those teams went undefeated in international play. The program holds an overall historical record of 99–10 against international opponents, including going 54–2 in world championships.
The 14U national team was created in 2007 and fielded teams for the COPABE Pan American Championships and Pan American Championships Qualifiers until 2011. In that time, the program went undefeated five times in six international tournaments, earning five gold medals and one bronze in its history and finishing with a 39–2 overall record.
In 2011, the two teams were discontinued after the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) changed its youth championships age discipline to 15U. The programs were replaced with the 15U national team and the 14U national team development program.
USA Baseball in the Olympic Games
Baseball was first introduced to the Olympic Games as an exhibition sport at the Los Angeles 1984 Games and returned as a demonstration sport in the Seoul 1988 Games. In 1984, the United States came in second, losing to Japan in the final, 6–3. Four years later, though, Team USA got Olympic redemption as it won the gold medal over Japan with a 5–3 victory.
Baseball was open only to male amateurs in 1992 and 1996. As a result, the Americans and other nations where professional baseball is developed relied on collegiate players, while Cubans used their most experienced veterans, who technically were considered amateurs as they nominally held other jobs, but in fact trained full-time. In 2000, pros were admitted, but Major League Baseball refused to release its players in 2000, 2004, and 2008, and the situation changed only a little: the Cubans still used their best players, while the Americans started using minor leaguers. The IOC cited the absence of the best players as the main reason for baseball being dropped from the Olympic program.[1][2][3][4]
In contrast, Nippon Professional Baseball has allowed its players to compete in the Olympics, and paused its 2021 season for the duration of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics (held in 2021).[5]
At the IOC meeting on July 7, 2005, baseball and softball were voted out of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, United Kingdom, becoming the first sports voted out of the Olympics since polo was eliminated from the 1936 Olympics.[6] The elimination excised 16 teams and more than 300 athletes from the 2012 Olympics. The two slots left available by the IOC's elimination were subsequently filled by golf and rugby sevens in 2016. This decision was reaffirmed on February 9, 2006.[7] In the stands during the 2008 bronze medal game between the U.S. and Japan, IOC head Jacques Rogge was interviewed by MLB.com's Mark Newman and cited various criteria for baseball to earn its way back in: "To be on the Olympic program is an issue where you need universality as much as possible. You need to have a sport with a following, you need to have the best players and you need to be in strict compliance with WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency). And these are the qualifications that have to be met. When you have all that, you have to win hearts. You can win the mind, but you still must win hearts."[8] It was officially decided in August 2009 at the IOC Board meeting in Berlin that baseball would also not be included in the 2016 Summer Olympics.[9]
On April 1, 2011, the IBAF and the International Softball Federation announced they were preparing a joint proposal to revive play of both sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics.[10]
In August 2011, Olympic news source Around the Rings reported that the ISF and IBAF would not rush into an Olympic proposal, and that the IBAF was working on forming a temporary commission to analyze the prospect of a joint proposal. "In the past, baseball and softball were running alone, and the result was that baseball and softball stayed out," IBAF president Riccardo Fraccari said in reference to their decades-long push for Olympic inclusion.
On September 8, 2013, the International Olympic Committee voted to reinstate wrestling, defeating the combined baseball-softball bid for the 2020 Summer Olympics.[11]
Under new IOC policies that shift the Games to an "event-based" program rather than sport-based, the host organizing committee can now also propose the addition of sports to the program alongside the permanent "core" events.[12][13] A second bid for baseball-softball to be included as an event in 2020 was shortlisted by the Tokyo Organizing Committee on June 22, 2015.[14] On August 3, 2016, during the 129th IOC Session in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the IOC approved the Tokyo Organizing Committee's final shortlist of five sports, which included baseball, to be included in the program during the 2020 Summer Olympics.[15][16][17] Baseball will not be included in the 2024 Paris Olympics, but it is expected that it will be included along with softball, in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics due to baseball's popularity in the United States.[18]
USA Baseball started using minor league athletes for the first time in 1999 with the 2000 Olympic Team being one of the first professional national teams to represent the U.S. in international competition. Led by Manager Tommy Lasorda and featuring players Ben Sheets, Ernie Young, and Brad Wilkerson, Team USA went 8–1 in the tournament en route to the Olympic gold medal. The 2000 Olympic Team was later named the USOC Team of the Year.
After failing to qualify for the Athens 2004 Games, the U.S. returned to the Olympics in 2008, finishing with a 6–3 record and claiming the bronze medal with an 8–4 defeat of Japan.
World Baseball Classic 2023
The World Baseball Classic is a national team tournament that is staged every four years. The most recent one in 2023 included many amazing points from USA's Trea Turner. They lost the championship against Japan: JPN 3–2 USA.
National teams
Professional National Team
Established 1999 the Professional National Team section (USAB-PNT) is the flagship and seniormost of all the national teams of USA Baseball. Since 1999, USA Baseball has been selecting teams of professional-level Minor and Major League (MLB) players to represent the United States in various international competitions, including the World Baseball Classic. It constitutes the elitest and most prestigeous of all the team programs and its rosters have occasionally come from the teams mentioned below.
The first professional national team that the organization selected participated in the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg. The team went 5–2 in the tournament, eventually making it to the gold medal game, where it lost to Cuba 5–1 to claim the silver medal.
Also among the first teams of minor league players that USA Baseball fielded was the 2000 U.S. Olympic Baseball Team, managed by Tommy Lasorda at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Behind a stellar performance on the mound by Ben Sheets, the team of minor league players defeated Cuba for the gold medal. In 2008, a Davey Johnson-led U.S. team featuring Dexter Fowler, Matt LaPorta, and Stephen Strasburg, took home the bronze medal from the Beijing Games. The USA returned to Olympics baseball in 2021 but lost to Japan for silver.
In 2011, USA Baseball fielded one team of professional minor league players to compete in both the World Cup and Pan American Games. The Pan American team posted a 10–6 record and took home the silver medal from Lagos de Moreno, Mexico. Joe Thurston and Brett Jackson led the team offensively, and Andy Van Hekken and Drew Smyly contributed strong pitching performances.
The World Cup team was named co-bronze medalist of the IBAF Baseball World Cup, which was played in Panama. The U.S. shared the honor with Canada after their bronze-medal game was rained out.
In 2015, USA Baseball fielded two professional national teams, once again made up of minor league players, for the Toronto 2015 Pan American Games and the WBSC Premier12. The U.S. claimed the silver medal in both events. The Pan American Games roster featured Albert Almora, Jr., Tyler Pastornicky, Paul Sewald, and Zach Eflin, while the Premier12 team was led by Matt McBride, Adam Frazier, and Anthony Vasquez.
USA Baseball once again fielded a collegiate-minor league national team in 2019 for the WBSC Premier12. The event is a qualifier for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and was to be held in November.[19]
| Year | Tournament |
|---|---|
| 2017 | World Baseball Classic |
| 2009 | XXXVIII Baseball World Cup |
| 2007 | XXXVII Baseball World Cup |
| 2005 | CONCEBE Regional Olympic Qualifier |
| 2000 | Sydney 2000 Olympic Games |
World Baseball Classic National Team
Following the removal of baseball from the Olympic program in 2005, the World Baseball Classic (WBC) was proposed by MLB, the Major League Baseball Players Association, and other professional baseball leagues and their players associations around the world. Subsequently, the tournament was created and the first installment was played in 2006. Unique to the event is the use of MLB players on the rosters, marking the first team in USA Baseball history to feature MLB-level athletes.
For the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic, Team USA featured stars such as Chase Utley, Derek Jeter, and Chipper Jones. In the second installment of the WBC in 2009, with Dustin Pedroia, Jimmy Rollins, and Jeter donning the red, white, and blue, the U.S. team finished fourth, losing to Japan in the semifinals.
The 2013 WBC team was managed by Joe Torre and led by David Wright, Joe Mauer, and Rollins. Team USA advanced to the second round of the tournament before falling to Puerto Rico.
Most recently, Team USA had its best showing in the tournament so far, taking home the 2017 WBC gold medal. Managed by Jim Leyland and featuring Marcus Stroman, Christian Yelich, Adam Jones, Eric Hosmer, Buster Posey, and Brandon Crawford, the U.S. went 6–2 en route to the title. The team opened the tournament with a dramatic 3–2 walk-off victory in extra innings over Colombia and took down the defending champions Dominican Republic – with the help of an iconic catch from Jones that robbed Manny Machado of a home run in the second round to advance to the semifinals.
Following a rain-soaked 2–1 victory over Japan, Team USA went head-to-head against Puerto Rico, which had beaten the U.S. 6–5 earlier in the tournament, in the final, and put together an 8–0 win. Stroman got the start and took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of the contest, giving up just one hit and one walk in his six innings of work. The offense backed up Stroman's outing with a 13-hit showing that led to eight runs, five of which came with two outs, to secure the shutout victory and USA Baseball's first WBC championship.
Stroman was named the MVP of the tournament, while Hosmer (1B) and Yelich (OF) were both named to the WBC All-Tournament team.[20]
ALL-TIME TEAM USA WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC RESULTS: