1964 Olympics

Baseball was a demonstration sport at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan. A team of collegiate all-stars representing the United States was played a game versus an Japanese amateur all-star team. It was the fifth time that a baseball exhibition had been held, and the last time that only one game would be played. It was also the second Tokyo Olympics that was scheduled to feature baseball, as the 1940 Olympics were canceled.

The Games's organizers invited Rod Dedeaux, the baseball coach at University of Southern California to select an amateur team for the exhibition. Dedeaux had previously toured Japan in 1955 with his USC team. The American team featured eight future major leaguers:

• Al Closter, Iowa State University - pitcher
• Dick Joyce, College of the Holy Cross - pitcher
• Chuck Dobson, University of Kansas - pitcher
• Jim Hibbs, University of Southern California - catcher
• Ken Suarez, University of Florida - catcher
• Shaun Fitzmaurice, University of Notre Dame - outfielder
• Mike Epstein, University of California - first baseman
• Gary Sutherland, University of Southern California - second baseman

Also on the team was Keith Weber.

While baseball was a demonstration sport the American squad was not considered part of the official United States Olympic team. So, the team stayed in a YMCA and then a local hotel instead of at the Olympic village. Prior to the demonstration game, the Americans toured Japan competing against a Far East All-Star team.

The game took place on October 11 at Meiji-Jingu Stadium. On the first pitch of the game, Fitzmaurice hit a home run to left-centerfield. The United States won the game 6 to 2 in front of approximately 50,000 fans.