[4] However, the development of a national team occurred with the early Summer Olympics, which saw baseball debut unofficially in 1904 in St. Louis (though few records exist).

[6] The USA Baseball Congress sent a national team to the Amateur World Series in 1939, 1940 (tying for a silver medal), and 1941, all held in Havana, Cuba.

[7] After 1942, the United States was largely absent from the international baseball scene, as it did not participate in another Amateur World Series until 1969.

[8] Held at Wrigley Field and Comiskey Park in Chicago, the 1959 team was made up of collegiate players, including future Hall-of-Famer Lou Brock.

[9] The United States team made its first official appearance at the Olympics during the 1964 Tokyo Games, managed by longtime University of Southern California coach Rod Dedeaux.

[10] The United States victory at the 1967 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada spurred renewed interest in international competitions.

The following year, it returned to the Amateur World Series in Santo Domingo in 1969, narrowly losing the gold medal to Cuba.

[14] The USA won the gold medal in the first ever World Games, held in Santa Clara, California in 1981, with a collegiate roster including Franklin Stubbs, Oddibe McDowell, Spike Owen, among other future major leaguers.

[15][16][17][18] Nevertheless, at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Team USA won the bronze medal over Nicaragua after finishing with a 6–1 record in pool play and losing to Japan in the semifinals.

At the 2000 Summer Olympics, Team USA had a 6–1 record in pool play, then defeated South Korea in the semifinals, followed by a win over Cuba in the gold-medal game.

That qualifier was controversial due to its format (single-elimination, rather than double-elimination), scheduling, and the fact that only two slots were given to nations from the Americas, while Europe received three.

In Beijing, Team USA had a 5–2 record in pool play, then lost to Cuba in the semifinals, followed by a win over Japan in the bronze-medal match.

[19] The IOC cited the absence of the best players as the main reason for baseball being dropped from the Olympic program following the 2008 games.

Sixteen of the 30 Major League clubs were represented on the 2006 squad, including multiple representatives from the New York Yankees (4), Houston Astros (3), Washington Nationals (3), Atlanta Braves (2), Boston Red Sox (2), Chicago Cubs (2), Colorado Rockies (2), Houston Astros (2), and Texas Rangers (2).

Manager Buck Martinez brought his 17 years of professional experience as a major league catcher, and 1+ seasons as Toronto Blue Jays' (2001–2002) skipper to the U.S. team.

On March 14, in their first match of round 2 against Puerto Rico, in Miami, Florida's Dolphin Stadium, the United States was mercy ruled for the first time in international competition, losing 11–1 in seven innings.

The United States came on strong the following day against the surprising Netherlands (who had already eliminated a tournament super power: The Dominican Republic), jumping out to a 6–0 lead in the fourth inning, and winning 9–3.

With Puerto Rico leading 5–3 in the 9th inning, singles by Shane Victorino and Brian Roberts and walks by Jimmy Rollins and Kevin Youkilis cut the lead to 5–4 for New York Mets third baseman David Wright, who looped a barely-fair single into right that brought in Roberts and Rollins to win the game, 6–5, advancing to the semifinals while eliminating Puerto Rico.

The United States team competed in Pool D of the 2013 World Baseball Classic along with Italy, Canada, and Mexico.

In the Final on March 22, the U.S. once again faced Puerto Rico; the U.S. however, ended up winning 8–0 capturing the first ever World Baseball Classic Title for the United States.

Following the conclusion of the tournament, Eric Hosmer, Christian Yelich, and Marcus Stroman were named to the 2017 All-World Baseball Classic team.

With third-place Mexico as the top finisher from the Americas in that tournament, Team USA missed the chance to immediately qualify for the six spots open for the 2020 Olympic Games.

In their quarterfinal matchup against Venezuela, the Americans were trailing 7–5 in the 8th when Trea Turner hit a go-ahead Grand Slam to win the game 9–7 for Team USA to advance to the semi-finals.

The Americans took an early 1–0 lead on a Trea Turner homerun but could not close the door and lost to Japan, with the final score being 3–2.

The following is a list of professional baseball game results currently active in the latest version of the WBSC World Rankings, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

Note: Jason Moler of Cal State Fullerton was initially named to the squad as one of the catchers, but was replaced by Varitek due to injury prior to the start of the competition.

The U.S. was in group A of the 2007 IBAF World Cup, along with Republic of China, Japan, Mexico, Panama, Italy, Spain and South Africa.

Smoak (first base) was also named to the tournament All-Star Team, along with Jon Weber (outfield) and Terry Tiffee (designated hitter).

Future big leaguers who competed with the U.S. collegiate team in the Intercontinental Cup include Joe Carter, Terry Francona, Mickey Morandini, John Olerud, and Robin Ventura.

Players who took the field for the Collegiate National Team and have gone on to Major League Baseball success include such notables as Jim Abbott, Kris Bryant, Troy Glaus, Todd Helton, Ryan Howard, Barry Larkin, Tino Martinez, Dustin Pedroia, David Price, Huston Street, Mark Teixeira, Troy Tulowitzki, Trea Turner, Jason Varitek, Carlos Rodon, Gerrit Cole, Will Clark and Ryan Zimmerman.