2021 Olympics Fan Guide: Everything you need to know about baseball

Baseball is being played in the Olympics this summer for the first time since 2008 and, while there won’t be any ‘Dream Teams,’ there are still plenty of intriguing storylines

Baseball is back on the Olympic stage.

For the first time since 2008, six countries — host Japan, the United States, Mexico, South Korea, Israel, and the Dominican Republic — will compete for Olympic gold in Tokyo this summer. The sport was dropped from the program in both London in 2012 and Rio in 2016 but was brought back into the fold for the baseball-mad Tokyo.

Manager Mike Scioscia leads an American team that contains a mix of Major League veterans, minor leaguers, and young prospects waiting for their chance to shine. Team USA, joined in Group B by Israel and South Korea, begins play on July 30 at Yokohama Stadium.

Here is a comprehensive guide to the tournament: what is the format? Who is playing? And why should you tune in?

2021 Olympics: Baseball rules

There are only six qualified countries in the Olympic baseball field, making it the most exclusive sport in Tokyo along with softball. The teams are divided into two groups — Japan, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic in Group A, and the United States, Israel, and South Korea in Group B. The three teams in each group will play each other once.

A team doesn’t have to win their group to advance to the knockout round, but the group winners will have an easier path to the Gold Medal game. They’ll advance straight to round two in the bracket, while the other four teams — no team will get eliminated in the group stage — play in round one.

Even a loss in the knockout round won’t eliminate a team from Gold Medal contention. There is a repechage bracket that gives a losing team a second chance to advance. Match No. 1 will have the two third-place teams from each group, with second-place countries competing in Match No. 2. The winner advances to round two, while the loser in the respective games will drop down to play each other in the repechage.

The group winners will play each other in round 2; the team that loses will then play whoever won the first repechage game. The team that survives the knockout bracket will meet the winners of the repechage for the Gold Medal on Aug. 7 at Yokohama Stadium. It can take as few as four games to reach the final game or as many as six for the teams in the repechage. The Bronze Medal game, also on Aug. 7, will consist of the semi-final runners-up.

2021 Olympics: Baseball athletes and teams to know

Todd Frazier played more than 1,200 games in an 11-year big-league career and made two All-Star game appearances. But nothing compares to the experience he’s having representing his home country and wearing the Stars and Stripes on his jersey.

“Playing for your country, it’s the coolest thing in the world,” he said after helping the United States qualify for Tokyo, going 4-4 with a home run in a 4-2 win over Venezuela in June.

Frazier is the cornerstone of the American roster, but he didn’t expect to be here. He began the season on the Pirates roster and played 13 games for them this season. Then, on May 13, he was designated for assignment. He then got a call from USA Baseball CEO Paul Seiler inviting him to join the team for Olympic qualification. Frazier jumped at the opportunity, even playing a few games for the Sussex County Miners of the independent Frontier League to get ready.

MLB doesn’t take a break to allow the best players to play in the Olympics, so those responsible for putting together the roster have to rely on players not currently on a Major League team. But Frazier is far from alone in having plenty of big-league experience on Team USA. He’s joined by Edwin Jackson, who played for 14 different clubs in a 17-year career, as well as left-hander Scott Kazmir, a three-time All-Star who started two games for the Giants this season after not appearing in a Major League game for five years. There is also a ready-made closer: David Robertson saved 137 games in his 12-year MLB career.

Of the 24 players on Team USA, 13 have experience playing in the Majors. There are also 11 players who have never advanced out of the minors, including 20-year-old Blue Jays prospect Simeon Woods-Richardson. There are some who will feel right at home in Tokyo; pitcher Brandon Dickson played four games for the Cardinals in 2011-12 but then spent the next eight years in Japan. Scott McGough (six games out of the bullpen for the Marlins in 2015) has played in Japan since 2019.

The teams competing against the United States will have their own share of MLB talent on their rosters. Masahiro Tanaka returned to Japan this season after seven years with the Yankees and will try to keep the Gold Medal in his home country. Ian Kinsler won the World Baseball Classic with Team USA in 2017 but will represent Israel (he has Jewish ancestry on his father’s side) in Tokyo. The Dominican Republic will have Jose Bautista, who hit more than 40 homers in a season three times in the Majors, as well as Melky Cabrera.

2021 Olympics: The elevator pitch for baseball

Baseball, a staple at the Olympics from 1992-2008, will become a rarity from now on. Tokyo will be the last chance to see a group of players compete for their countries until Los Angeles in 2028; the sport is not part of the program for Paris 2024.

The Tokyo Olympics will show off a nation whose passion for the game is unmatched, who has sent such stars as Shohei Ohtani to the Majors. While there likely won’t be any fans in attendance at Yokohama for the tournament after Tokyo entered a state of emergency, the pride Japan has in the sport will still be on display.

The Olympics are an opportunity for stars, both American and international, to be made. The bronze-medal winning American roster in 2008 had Stephen Strasburg and Jake Arrieta; Strasburg was the No. 1 overall pick in the draft a year later and went on a premier pitcher in the Majors, while Arrieta won a Cy Young Award.

Bejing in 2008 saw a 21-year-old left-hander from Korea named Hyun Jin Ryu pitch eight innings and lead his country to the gold medal; he signed with the Dodgers a few years later and is now the ace of the Blue Jays staff. Yu Darvish was also just 21 when he pitched for Japan; he, too, would jump to the Majors. In past years, players such as Roy Oswalt and Troy Glaus began their journey to big-league stardom by first representing the United States at the Olympics. Perhaps there is another future All-Star who will use Tokyo as a building block to his own career.

In the 13 years since the last baseball Olympic gold medalist was crowned, the World Baseball Classic has largely filled the void for international competitions in the sport. But, with a fanatical fanbase in Japan, veteran players trying for one last chance at glory, and youngsters still in the early years of their career looking to make a name for themselves, Tokyo 2020 is a chance for baseball to regain its Olympic Glory.