USA Baseball qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics by bringing home the gold medal in the American Olympic Qualifying Event in August. The team defeated Cuba in the gold medal game, but the top two teams qualified, so the gold was just a bonus. Baseball became the first sport in which Americans earned a spot in the '08 Games.

To get to this point, USA Baseball, in conjunction with Major League Baseball, hosted the 2005 CONCEBE Baseball Regional Olympic Qualifying Tournament that was held November 15-19 in Phoenix, Arizona. This was the first ever baseball event with Olympic-qualifying implications for the 2008 Olympic Games held in the United States.

Six countries from North and Central America competed in Arizona, with the top four finishers advancing to the American Olympic Qualifier in Havana, Cuba, in August, 2006.   The six countries that competed in Arizona were: Canada, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States.

Player eligibility consisted of Major League Baseball affiliated players who were not on the 25-man rosters as of August 31, 2005.  Team USA downed Canada in the final, 5-2, to finish the tournament as the only unbeaten team.  The United States (5-0), Canada (3-2), Nicaragua (3-2) and Panama (2-3) advanced to the 2006 Americas Continental Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Havana.

USA Baseball and MLB already work in tandem to select Team USA for both the World Baseball Classic and the Olympic Games.

Davey Johnson has managed the team throughout, with Reggie Smith as the hitting coach, Rick Eckstein as the third base coach and Marcel Lachemann as the pitching coach. 

Storylines

The 2008 Beijing Olympics, as of now, are the last that baseball is slated to be a part of, as they were dropped from the Olympics after Beijing in an IOC vote last year.

The earliest it can win reinstatement is 2009, when the International Olympic Committee considers the sports program for the 2016 Games.

The International Baseball Federation said Friday that it has set up a commission "to evaluate and resolve the problems connected with baseball's return to the Olympic program." The move came after a meeting in Rome of international baseball officials from 22 countries.

Raffaele Pagnozzi, secretary of the Italian and European Olympic Committees, said he expected baseball to be readmitted "very soon."

Baseball has been an Olympic sport since 1992, but will not be part of the 2012 London Games.