South Korea swatted aside Cuba on the Olympic stage to dent the Latin Americans' aura of invincibility, but baseball was left to look for a new home after it was cast off from the Games programme.

In what could be the last ever Olympic tournament for the favourite pastime of the two American continents, it was unfashionable East Asians who upset the form book to go undefeated and take the gold medal.

Latin America's best side won a silver to add to their three golds and a silver since the sport entered the Olympic programme in Barcelona in 2002, while the United States, bereft of any Major League Baseball stars, continued their
underachievement with a bronze.

But sports fans will not be hearing the crack of a bat when the Summer Olympics go to London in four years' time.

"When you think of summer, you think of baseball. It's the biggest summer game there is, and I don't care what country you're in," said shortstop Jason Donald, part of the US squad of mostly MLB draftees who are being blooded in the lower-rung leagues.

"It's a pity that baseball will no longer be in the Olympic Games after all the many excellent performances it has given especially in these Games," added Cuban manager Antonio Pacheco after his side lost to the Koreans 3-2 in the final.

A baby-faced 21 year-old Korean hurler, Ryu Hyun-Jin, bamboozled the Cuban sluggers who were put on a diet of five hits and two runs for eight and one-third innings, giving notice to the MLB scouts on the stands having emerged as one of the Games' top-three pitchers in terms of earned run averages.

With the Olympics out, at least in London, the all-amateur Cubans run the risk of being idled.

The MLB has created the World Baseball Classic, where Japan beat Cuba in the final of the inaugural tournament in 2006, in tribute to the growing popularity of the sport outside North and South America.

The next tournament will be in 2009, after which it will become a quadrennial event like the Olympics.

There is also the Baseball World Cup, won by the US last year after beating Cuba in the final. The next one will be hosted by Italy next year.

Asked about the Cubans' post-Olympic plans, Pacheco said "baseball is still the national game of Cuba, and certainly we will participate in the World Cup."