About Baseball (Olympic sport since 1992)
棒球概述（1992年成为奥运会正式比赛项目）

　　Baseball’s stature in the history of the United States is perhaps reflected more clearly in a simple dictionary rather than in the seven-centimetre-thick baseball encyclopaedia.
　　或许一本简单的字典比7厘米厚的棒球百科全书更能反映出棒球运动在美国历史上的地位。

　　There, you can find the word Ruthian, meaning "of mammoth proportions", as in a home run by Babe Ruth back in the 1920s. There, you can find Lou Gehrig’s disease, as the incurable degenerative illness amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been better known since Lou Gehrig, Ruth’s team-mate, died from it in the 1940s. In the United States, baseball and the English language are interwoven.
　　字典中“Ruthian”一词的意思是“占巨大比例的”，而该词的来源是20世纪20年代的棒球巨星贝贝·鲁斯（Babe Ruth）,他击出的本垒打占其全部击球的很大比例。还有“Lou Gehrig’s disease”，这个短语指的是”肌萎缩性侧索硬化症”,鲁斯的队友卢·格里格（Lou Gehrig）患这种导致身体器官衰退的不治之症，于20世纪40年代去世。在美国，棒球和英语是结合在一起的。

　　However, just as the game did not begin as a wholly US enterprise, it did not end the 20th century as one either. Baseball’s all-time home-run champion is a man named Sadaharu Oh, who hit 868 during a legendary career in baseball-mad Japan. The national team of Cuba overpowered the Baltimore Orioles of the US major leagues 12-6 in a 1999 exhibition game.
　　不过，就像棒球最初不完全是美国的独家运动一样，在20世纪末，美国已经不能在这项运动上称霸了。棒球历史上个人的本垒打纪录（868支）是由传奇性的华裔日籍球员王贞治（Sadaharu Oh）在日本这个极其热爱棒球的国家中创下的，而美国职业棒球大联盟的劲旅巴尔的摩金莺队（Baltimore Orioles）在1999年的一场表演赛中曾以6-12负于古巴国家队。

　　American baseball became a full medal sport in Barcelona in 1992.
　　美式棒球于1992年巴塞罗那奥运会上成为正式比赛项目。