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WorldNet Service Installation Disk - Cybercathlon Games and Interactive Tour of Olympic Museum (1996).ISO
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00821_Field_st24.txt.txt
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1996-06-03
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944b
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31 lines
Baseball, America's national
pastime, became an official
Olympic event in Barcelona in
1992, after years as a
demonstration sport. Although a
game similar to baseball, rounders,
was played in England back in the
1700s, most Americans view
baseball as an indigenous sport,
invented by Abner Doubleday in
Cooperstown, NY in 1839.
While major leaguers in the U.S.
play the game with a wooden bat,
international baseball is played
with an aluminum one. Otherwise,
the rules are basically the same.
Baseball is almost as popular in
Japan and many Latin American
countries as it is in the U.S.
In the 1992 Olympics, the U.S.,
with a team consisting of college
athletes, many of whom were first
round Major League draft choices,
was shut out of the medals by
stronger teams from Cuba, Japan
and Taiwan. Cuba, with 19 world
titles and nine wins at the Pan
American Games, took the Gold.