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| Olympic baseball and softball on television: can you find it? |
BBC television channels 1, 2 and 3 will be wall-to-wall Olympics starting with the Opening Ceremony at lunchtime on Friday, August 8.
BBC interactive channels (press the red button on your remote) will be showing 2450 hours of coverage from every Olympic sport (up from 1000 hours in Athens).
So how much Olympic baseball and softball will we be able to see?
Well, a fairly exhaustive (but maybe we missed something) perusal of the BBC Olympic schedules suggests that there will be nothing on BBC 1, 2 and 3 (unless there’s a quick mention in a round-up programme), and that only two games from each sport will be available, either live or via tape-delay, on interactive channels.
For baseball, that will be one semi-final from 3.30-6.30 pm on Friday, August 22 and the Gold Medal game from 3.15 to 6.15 pm on Saturday, August 23. The Olympic Baseball Tournament will run from August 13-23.
For softball, BBC interactive (BBCi) will show the Bronze Medal game from 10.00 am to noon on Wednesday, August 20 and the Gold Medal game from 5.00 to 7.30 pm on Thursday, August 21. The Olympic Softball Tournament will run from August 12-21.
Anyone who wants to look harder (and let us know if you find anything) is welcome to do so. Go to http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/olympics/default.stm, then click on TV Schedule in the menu on the left and delve away.
There will also be images from the softball Gold Medal game on Eurosport in their daily summary broadcast on August 21 from 18.30-19.30 British time (but check listings to confirm) and images from the baseball Gold Medal game at a similar time on August 23.
Results and reports from Olympic baseball and softball will of course be available on various websites, including www.international.softball.com, www.ibaf.org, www.olympic.org and http://en.beijing2008.cn.
But a special Olympic website channel on YouTube, although available in 77 different countries, has been “geoblocked” – ie, is not accessible – in the UK or in Europe.
OLYMPIC BASEBALL
Below is the schedule for the Olympic baseball tournament (times shown are UK times).
Wednesday 13 August
03.30: Taipei v Netherlands
04.30: China v Canada
11.00: South Korea v USA
12.00: Cuba v Japan
Thursday 14 August
03.30: Netherlands v USA
04.30: South Korea v China
11.00: Cuba v Canada
12.00: Chinese Taipei v Japan
Friday 15 August
03.30: China v Taipei
04.30: USA v Cuba
11.00: Canada v South Korea
12.00: Japan v Netherlands
Saturday 16 August
03.30: USA v Canada
04.30: Cuba v Chinese Taipei
11.00: China v Netherlands
12.00: Japan v South Korea
Monday 18 August
03.30: Canada v Japan
04.30: Chinese Taipei v South Korea
11.00: Netherlands v Cuba
12.00: USA v China
Tuesday 19 August
03.30: Netherlands v Canada
04.30: South Korea v Cuba
11.00: Japan v China
12.00: USA v Chinese Taipei
Wednesday 20 August
03.30: Cuba v China
04.30: Netherlands v South Korea
11.00: Canada v Chinese Taipei
12.00: Japan v USA
Friday 22 August
03.30: Semi-finals
Saturday 23 August
03.30: Bronze Medal Game
11.00: Gold Medal Game
OLYMPIC SOFTBALL
Below is the schedule for the Olympic softball tournament (times shown are UK times).
Tuesday 12 August
02.30: Taipei v Canada
05.00: USA v Venezuela
10.00: China v Netherlands
15.00: Japan v Australia
Wednesday 13 August
02.30: China v Venezuela
05.00: USA v Australia
10.00: Japan v Taipei
15.00: Canada v Netherlands
Thursday 14 August
02.30: China v Australia
05.00: Canada v USA
10.00: Netherlands v Japan
12.30: Chinese Taipei v Venezuela
Friday 15 August
02.30: China v Canada
05.00: USA v Japan
10.00: Australia v Taipei
12.30: Venezuela v Netherlands
Saturday 16 August
02.30: Japan v China
05.00: USA v Chinese Taipei
10.00: Netherlands v Australia
12.30: Venezuela v Canada
Sunday 17 August
02.30: Taipei v China
05.00: Japan v Venezuela
10.00: Australia v Canada
12.30: USA v Netherlands
Monday 18 August
02.30: Netherlands v Chinese Taipei
05.00: China v USA
10.00: Canada v Japan
12.30: Venezuela v Australia
Wednesday 20 August
02.30, 05.00: Semi-finals
10.00: Bronze Medal Game
Thursday 21 August
11.30: Gold Medal Game
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