Baseball (Game #2), Men

Baseball was the only sport which is considered by some to have been a demonstration sport at the 1912 Olympics. Many sources describe the competition as a single game between an American side and a Swedish one, but there was also a second game held that is not often mentioned. The original schedule called for two games, beginning on the evening of July 10, during the track & field athletics competition. The first game was to be between two US teams, East vs. West, with the winner then taking on Västerås Bäsboll Klubb.

The American Olympic Committee, however, forbade the US players from taking part in any exhibition until they had finished competing in their primary events. The game date then shifted to the morning of Monday, 15 July, with Västeras playing a combined US team. The US intersquad game was postponed to 16 July. It was held at the Östermalm Idrottsplats (Athletic Park).

The second game received little press coverage in the states. The 17 July edition of The New York Times, however, described a game held the day after the USA-Sweden game (16 July). In this contest, two teams of American players squared off with the East squad topping the West, 6-3. Jim Thorpe, who later played Major League Baseball for a few years, played in the second game, playing right field and hitting a double in two trips to the plate.