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Exhibition Baseball Americana

U.S. Coach Harry Wolter’s (1887–1970) Olympic participation medal, 1936 Summer Olympic Games, Berlin. Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (096.00.00)
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Baseball in Berlin

Two American amateur teams demonstrated baseball at the 1936 Olympics in the hope that it would be a regular medal event in 1940. But according to American reporters, the 100,000 spectators in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium were “bored, dazed and baffled” by what they saw, and by the fourth inning “the parade for the exits had become a stampede.” A short demonstration at the 1964 Olympics was more successful, when baseball-mad Japan hosted.