Baseball, Men

Baseball was demonstrated at the 1956 Olympics with a single game matching an American versus an Australian team. The American team was made up of military players stationed in the Far East, known as the Far East Command (FEC) All-Stars. The game was held on Saturday, 1 December, starting at 1210. The teams played only six innings with the American team winning, 11-5, having taken a 6-1 lead after three innings. The American starting pitcher, Vane Sutton greatly helped his cause when he also hit a grand slam home run in the third inning.

The game started out with 80,000 fans in attendance but had a final attendance of over 100,000, the largest ever to see a baseball game, although they were mostly there for the athletics events that were to follow the demonstration.

The US team played the Olympic demonstration as part of a tour of Australia running from 25 November to 18 December. They had played two games against a New South Wales side prior to the Olympics, and played another 10 after the Games. Some games were played against an Australian team, while others were against New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia teams. In all, the American team only lost one game, that to Australia on 5 December, 2-1.

This game has frustrated us somewhat as Olympic historians. Although we know some scoring details, no box score for the game has ever been found despite major efforts to locate one, so we are uncertain as to the details of who played in the game.