1956 Australian Olympic Baseball Team

Baseball was not part of the Olympic program at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. However, Australian officials invited the United States to send a team to compete as a demonstration sport. Many Sheffield Shield cricket players – who were quite successful at baseball as a winter sport – were unable to be selected in the Australian team on the basis that they were deemed to be 'professional' players.

The Australians were the first to field a full team in an exhibition match against the United States, represented by a detachment from the United States Far East Command. The game was played on 1 December 1956 from 12:30 p.m. at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Due to the field being set up between the running tracks, right field was only 225 feet (69 m), so special ground rules were put in place, stating that a ball hit over the running track on the full would be declared a home run, where one that bounced (or rolled) on or over the track would be declared a ground rule double. This rule was put in place to stop baseball cleats damaging the track for the events after the baseball.

As the visiting team, the Americans batted first, scoring two runs off three hits. Australia did not strike back until the bottom of the second inning, when Chalky White of South Australia hit a solo home run off Vane Sutton. Sutton made up for his error in the top half of the third inning, with a grand slam to send the score out to a commanding 6–1. The Americans again put the pressure on Australia in the fifth inning, as two errors led to another two runs to the US, putting them in a comfortable position.

The game was eventually called at 2:40 p.m., after six completed innings and a final score of 11–5. Very few fans were present at the start of the game, but a crowd of nearly 114,000 had arrived by the sixth inning. This was due to the upcoming finals for the 1500 metres, 4 × 400 metres relay, and the finish of the men's marathon. However, the game held the record for the highest attended exhibition baseball game ever, until a 2008 American game in Los Angeles.

Wikipedia [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_at_the_1956_Summer_Olympics]

The Australian uniform, was described in an article in the 'Norseman-Esperance News':
"The cap, tunic and trousers are green with gold piping, with the word AUSTRALIA on the tunic, and the A on the cap also in gold. The long-sleeved sweat-shirt is gold, and the sox are green with three narrow gold hoops. The uniforms for the Australian team were donated by the late Sir Frank Beaurepaire, himself a baseball enthusiast, on behalf of The Olympic Tyre and Rubber Company." [https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/258662368]