TAKE THEM OUT TO THE BALL GAME : Soon to Become Olympic Medal Sport, Baseball Grows in World Popularity

India had been playing baseball for a couple of years when Robert Smith, president of the International Baseball Assn., traveled to New Delhi in 1986.

“India’s national team put on an exhibition game for myself and a couple of Korean leaders who were with me,” Smith said.

“The pitcher was throwing off a flat surface--they don’t use a mound--and they didn’t know how to use a pickoff move, or how to pitch out of a stretch.

“So, when a right-handed pitcher got a runner on first base, in order to hold him on, he would just look over to first base and throw to the plate as fast as he could. It was the funniest-looking thing.

“We stopped the game and a former pitching coach who was with us went down on the field and taught them the pickoff move, and the difference between pitching out of a windup and a stretch.”

India is just one of 76 countries playing baseball, one way or another. Other countries in the early development stages are Sri Lanka, Sweden, Nigeria, Pakistan and Bolivia.

The baseball powers continue to be Japan, Cuba, South Korea, Taiwan and the United States, which have qualified to play in the 8-team tournament at the 1988 Olympic Games. Also competing will be Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, and Canada.

Baseball will be a demonstration sport at Seoul, South Korea, this fall, and a medal sport in the 1992 Olympic Games at Barcelona, Spain.

Cuba, which qualified by winning the 1987 Pan American Games championship--its fifth straight title--has until Tuesday to decide whether it will participate in the Olympics. A possible boycott by North Korea, which Cuba may align with, has left Cuban officials undecided.

Cuba also joined the Eastern Bloc in boycotting the 1984 Summer Olympics.

If Cuba does not go to Seoul, Italy is the first alternate, followed by Nicaragua, Mexico and Australia.

Cuba is the top-ranked team in the world over the last decade, having recorded an .882 winning percentage in 93 games in 9 world tournaments. The United States ranks second at .713 for 108 games in 11 tournaments, with Japan third at .676 for 108 games in 11 tournaments.

Each country qualified for the 1988 Games by winning or placing high in international competition. Japan, for instance, won the tournament at the 1984 Olympics. The U.S. and Puerto Rico finished second and third, respectively, behind Cuba in the 1987 Pan American Games. Taiwan won the 1987 Asian Games, and the Netherlands won the 1987 European championship.

Canada, which finished fourth in the 1987 Pan Am Games, defeated Italy, which had finished second in the 1987 European Championships, in a playoff game for the eighth spot.

South Korea is included because it is the host country, although it probably would have qualified anyway. South Korea is ranked fourth in the world over the last decade, with a .666 winning percentage in 102 tournament games.

Next on the agenda for the IBA and the International Softball Federation are a push to get women’s softball recognized, as the counterpart to men’s baseball, in the 1992 Olympic Games. The issue will be decided in Seoul.

“Holland and Italy have led the way with women playing softball and men baseball,” Smith said. “Softball can be a medal sport at the 1992 Olympics, without being a demonstration sport first, and that’s what we are shooting for.”

Demonstration sports are only used if the host country determines that would be necessary to succeed financially, or to determine popularity. In the 1984 Olympics, baseball averaged a daily attendance of 48,000 during an 8-day tournament, which Smith said definitely helped it become a medal sport.