Prior to the establishment of the WBSC, the IBAF was the sole entity recognized by the International Olympic Committee as overseeing the sport, and as the designated organizer and promoter of major international tournaments like the Baseball World Cup (originally the Amateur World Series) and the Intercontinental Cup.

The first-ever international baseball event was a series of exhibition games that took place during the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, United States.

[1] Conflicts of World War II prompted the IOC to cancel the Summer Games that had been scheduled to take place in Tokyo in 1940 and in London in 1944, thereby halting baseball's tour as a demonstration sport.

The BFA wasted little time in organizing its first continental tournament, as it celebrated the Asian Baseball Championship in December of that same year in Manila, Philippines.

The exposure of baseball to an international audience continued at the 1956 Summer Olympics, which saw approximately 114,000 spectators slowly fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground to witness Australia vs.

Following the 1968 Summer Olympics, a selection of premier U.S. college players defeated the Cuba national team twice in Mexico City to win the International Amateur Baseball Tournament (though it was not officially a demonstration sport).

Juan Isa expanded FIBA's reach to include Europe, inviting the Netherlands and Italy to the Amateur World Series for the first time in 1970.

[4] The Caribbean federations — Venezuela, Panama, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Cuba, and the Dutch Antilles — remained with FIBA.

[3] However, this was denied by Roger Panaye, president of the European Amateur Baseball Confederation (CEBA): FIBA was never more than a Caribbean affair with Cuba as chief spokesman.

The group organized an IBAF congress the following year in Los Angeles in order to establish an Olympic Baseball Committee.

Through these efforts, baseball was again categorized as a demonstration sport and an eight-team tournament was organized at Dodger Stadium, as part of the official Summer Olympic Programme.

The United States used a minor league selection to beat Cuba in the gold medal game at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia.

Cuba regained the world title, defeating Australia for the gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

[8] On April 1, 2011, the IBAF, under first-year President Riccardo Fraccari, and the International Softball Federation announced that they were studying how to prepare a joint proposal in order to revive play of both sports at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

[9] As part of that proposal, in April 2013, the two organizations began the process of merging into a new combined federation that will govern both sports,[10] the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC).