The Magic Number for Baseball Is 1992--as an Olympic Sport

Baseball was added to the Olympics on Monday beginning with the 1992 Games, and the International Olympic Committee gave North Korea a deadline for accepting a compromise to co-host the 1988 Olympics.

Teams from at least six nations will participate in baseball, a demonstration sport in Los Angeles in 1984, Vitaly Smirnov, chairman of the IOC’s program commission, announced.

He said the IOC’s 91st session asked for a complete review of possible eligibility dilemmas with professional players and said the tournament might have to be played on converted soccer fields if the host city doesn’t have baseball diamonds.

The 86-member IOC unanimously endorsed a stand taken last month by its Executive Board, giving North Korea until next Sept. 17 to formally accept the proposal to move table tennis, archery and parts of soccer and cycling from the hosting city of Seoul to the north.

Last year, North Korea said it wanted to co-host the Games, and said it would lead a boycott of the Seoul Olympics if its demands were not met.