Japan did its best to keep baseball in the Olympic program. That made the decision by the International Olympic Committee to drop the sport from the 2012 London Games that much harder to take.
Japan sent its top professional players to the Athens Olympics where they took home the bronze medal.
Since baseball was first introduced as a medal sport at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, Japan's national team has won three medals.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.