Baseball, for the third straight Summer Olympics, was a medal sport after achieving medal status in the 1992 Barcelona Games and then featuring in the 1996 Atlanta Games. The 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia was the first Olympic tournament that allowed professional baseball players to participate and the United States team, led by Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, finished the preliminary round with a 6-1 record that earned them a semi-final matchup with South Korea.

Coming into the tournament, Cuba had an 18-game Olympic Games winning streak, including back-to-back gold medals in 1992 and 1996. Cuba would extend that streak to 21 games before losing to The Netherlands in the preliminary round. After the US defeated South Korea 3-2 in the semi-final and Cuba defeating Japan 3-0 in the other semi-final, the Gold Medal game was set. Cuba had already defeated the Americans 6-1 in the preliminary round, but the Yanks got their revenge defeating the favored Cubans 4-0 to earn the Stars & Stripes first ever gold medal in baseball.

Offered here is a collection of lineup cards and a practice schedule from the United States Baseball team’s 2000 Olympics. The first item is an practice schedule page for the semi-final game that measures 8 ½ x 14 inches. The top of this page has the Olympic rings and “USA Baseball” with the date “MONDAY – SEPTEMBER – 26th. @ SYDNEY OLMPIC PARK”. It also has “TODAY’S LINEUP” with “1. ABERNATHY – 2B 2. WILKERSON – CF 3. NEILL – LF 4. YOUNG – RF 5. COTTON – D/H 6. KINKADE – 3B 7. MIENTKIEWICZ – 1B 8. JENSEN – C 9 EVERETT – SS P. OSWALT”. It requires all of the players to report for stretching at 5:45 PM and batting practice from 6:00/6:45. The bottom of the page reads “TOMORROW” “TBA DEPART APT’S/MESS HALL – FOR “BUS DEPOT” TBA BUS DEPARTS A-7 GATE FOR – SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK 7:30 PM GAME VS – CUBA @ - SYDNEY OLMPIC PARK.” This page has been signed by Lasorda in blue marker towards the bottom of the page. This has an MLB Authenticated hologram (JD540948).

The second item is the lineup card from the semifinal game against Korea played on September 26th, 2000. The top of this 8 ½ x 14-inch card has the “USA Baseball” logo with the USA lineup on the left and the Korean lineup on the right. The players from the US are handwritten in blue marker with their respective positions handwritten in blue marker next to the pre-printed lineup numbers. The reserves have also been handwritten in blue, along with the available pitchers. The Korean lineup has been handwritten in green, blue and red markers. Lasorda has signed the bottom of this card in blue marker. This comes with an MLB Authenticated hologram (JD540949). Also included are five pink, blue, green and yellow carbon copies of the lineups. This entire collection comes with a LOA from Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda.

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