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The host nation is always guaranteed a place in the Olympic baseball tournament. The other seven places are generally determined by continental qualifying tournaments. For the 2008 Games, the Americas receive two places, Europe receives one place, and Asia receives one place.

The final three places are given to the top three nations at an eight-team tournament held after the continental tournaments. Qualification for this tournament is determined by those continental tournaments. The third and fourth place American teams, second and third place European teams, second and third place Asian teams, first place African team, and first place Oceania team compete in that tournament.

This qualification tournament is new for 2008. It was created after heavy criticism of the previous qualification standard. In previous Olympics, only two teams from the Americas were able to qualify for the Olympics, despite the fact that the vast majority of the top baseball-playing nations in the world come from this region. Europe, whose baseball nations are substantially weaker, also entered two teams.

Competition

Olympic baseball is nearly identical to most professional baseball. Aluminum bats were disallowed after 1996 Atlanta. There is also a mercy rule that is invoked if a team is winning by 10 or more runs after 7 innings (or 6.5 innings if the home team is leading). For Sydney 2000, rosters were expanded to 24 players.

The tournament consists of a round-robin preliminary round in which each team plays all 7 of the other teams. Only the top four teams advance to the medals round. In that round, semifinals are played between the 1st/4th place teams and the 2nd/3rd place teams. The semifinal losers then play a bronze medal game, with the winner earning the medal and the loser receiving 4th place. The semifinal winners play in the final, which awards the winner a gold medal and the loser a silver medal.

Participating nations

The following 16 nations have taken part (or will take part) in the baseball competition one or more times. The numbers in the table refer to the final rank of each team in each tournament. Eight teams have qualified for the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Nation	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	Years
Australia		7	6	2		3
Canada				4	Q	2
China					Q	1
Chinese Taipei	2			5	Q	3
Cuba	1	1	2	1	Q	5
Dominican Republic	6					1
Greece				7		1
Italy	7	6	7	8		4
Japan	3	2	4	3	Q	5
Korea		8	3		Q	3
Netherlands		5	5	6	Q	4
Nicaragua		4				1
Puerto Rico	5					1
South Africa			8			1
Spain	8					1
United States	4	3	1		Q	4
Total Nations	8	8	8	8	8