The last episode of the Olympic Baseball Rewind series, presented in collaboration with the Olympic Channel, is the last baseball game played in the Olympics: the gold medal game of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad Beijing 2008.
Defending Olympic champions Cuba knocked out USA in the semi-finals to reach the gold medal matchup, while Korea topped rival Japan.
Cuba and Korea took the field at Wukesong Baseball Field on 22 August 2008, after Japan had defeated the United States, 8-4, to earn the bronze medal.
Manager Antonio Pacheco picked as Cuba's starter veteran left hander Norberto Gonzalez, who had worked brilliantly out of the bullpen against Chinese Taipei and Canada during round-robin play.
Kyung Moon Kim chose also a left-hander. The starter for Korea was 21-year old Hyun-Jin Ryu, who had won KBO Rookie of the Year and MVP awards in 2006 and the Pitching Triple Crown (most wins and strikeouts, lowest Earned Run Average-ERA) in 2007. Ryu would go on to sign a six-year contract with the Major League Baseball (MLB) Los Angeles Dodgers worth US$ 36 million.
Home plate umpire Carlos Rey (Puerto Rico) called 'play ball' in front of a crowd of 9,859.
The Olympic Rewind Series featured six softball and 11 baseball games. An Olympic Rewind special issue will include one more softball game: Japan-China from the Athens 2004 Games. Stay tuned for further details.
OLYMPIC Rewind-Baseball
The OLYMPIC Rewind-Softball series features past games from the 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008 Games.
