Baseball

The competition

One men's tournament

The format

A first round round-robin format between all eight teams. The top four advance to the knock-out phase in semi-finals (First versus fourth, second versus third) and a final. The winner of the final takes gold, the loser takes silver and the two semi-final losers then play off for the bronze.

Milestones

1839: Abner Doubleday invents baseball in New-York.

1845: Alexander Cartwright defines the first rules.

1903: Establishment of the World Series.

1912: Demonstration sport at the Olympic Games in Stockholm. Likewise in Berlin (1936), Melbourne (1956), Tokyo (1964), Los Angeles (1984) and Seoul (1988).

1992: Cuba win the first Olympic tournament. The USA finished fourth and were deprived of fielding professional players.

1996: Professionals are allowed to compete in international competitions after the Atlanta Games.

2001: Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants breaks the record for home runs in one season with 73, three more than Mark McGwire in 1998.

Stars

Nolan Ryan (United States): A nightmare for hitters. The fastball throwing Texan holds the all-time record for strike-outs with 5,714 ending his career toward the end of the 1990's.

Babe Ruth (United States): A legend. The star of the New York Yankees helped his team win three World Series' and hit an average of 40 home runs per season over 12 years. One of the legends of baseball.

Hank Aaron (United States): The star of the Atlanta Braves beat Babe Ruth's home run record blasting number 715 in 1974. At the end of his 23-year career between 1954 and 1976, his record stands at 755 and has yet to be broken.