‘We Are Trying to Close the Gap, but It Is Very Wide Yet’: The Baltimore Orioles’ 1971 Tour of Japan

Shigeo Nagashima of the Yomiuri Giants and Boog Powell. (Robert Fitts Collection)

 

Matsutaro Shoriki spent four decades dreaming of an international World Series matching the champion team of American baseball and that of the Japanese. He created Japan’s greatest team, sponsored by his newspaper and known over the years as either the Tokyo or Yomiuri Giants, as a means to fulfilling that dream.1

Beginning in the 1950s, serious attempts were made to bring a World Series champion to Japan, but it never quite worked out. Because of the lead time necessary for planning such an event, guesses as to a potential World Series champion had to be made. These proved wrong every time, almost as if a curse. The New York Giants seemed a good possibility in 1953, but Brooklyn instead captured the National League pennant. Two years later, the New York Yankees – a sure bet during the 1950s – accepted an invitation. That turned out to be the year they finally lost to the Dodgers in the fall classic. So Brooklyn was chosen the next year and, of course, lost the 1956 World Series to the Yankees.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, champions twice in three years, were invited after the 1966 season – and lost the World Series, once again dashing the hopes of those wanting to see two champions play in Japan. Two years later the St. Louis Cardinals, winners of the 1967 World Series, were invited to tour in October 1968, and they too lost the subsequent fall classic, to the Detroit Tigers.

Shoriki died in October 1969, and his son took up the cause. Six months after Shoriki’s death, the San Francisco Giants visited Japan for spring training and lost six of nine games against Japanese competition. Despite not facing a World Series champion, the Japanese were gaining confidence that they measured up – 3½ years earlier they had won eight of 18 games against the Dodgers.

The Yomiuri Giants were invited to Florida in the spring of 1971 to play six exhibition games against major-league competition.2 They were the best Japan had to offer – the 1970 season marked the sixth consecutive championship the Giants had captured, with three more still to come.

The roster was impressive, featuring three of the biggest names in Japanese baseball. Foremost was Sadaharu Oh, the legendary left-handed slugger and by far the most famous Japanese player among American fans. He was widely known for his distinctive batting style, highlighted by balancing on his back leg while swinging, a style that drew comparisons to Mel Ott. It reminded others of a flamingo. Oh had hit 40 or more home runs eight straight years through 1970, including 55 in 1964, despite seasons 20 games shorter than in the United States. Through the 1971 season, the 31-year-old Oh had hit 486 career home runs and would play nine more years, ultimately slugging at least 30 home runs for an incredible 19 consecutive years, and 868 home runs for his career.

The most famous and popular player among Japanese fans was charismatic 34-year-old third baseman Shigeo Nagashima. A hero thanks to his dramatic game-winning walk-off, or “Sayonara,” home run in the first game Emperor Hirohito ever attended, Nagashima was exceptional both at bat and in the field, hitting 444 career home runs with a .305 batting average.

The manager of the Giants, Tetsuharu Kawakami, was known as the “God of Batting.” The winner of five batting titles and the first Japanese player to reach 2,000 hits, he took over as manager in 1961, three years after his retirement as a player, and never suffered a losing season at the helm. After winning pennants in 1961 and 1963 but losing the Japan Series both times, Kawakami had captured Japan Series wins in six straight seasons. It was time to measure Japanese baseball against the best – the mighty Baltimore Orioles, American League standard-bearers two years running and defending World Series champions. They were favorites to repeat in 1971 and finally bring the late Matsutaro Shoriki’s dream one step closer to reality.

The Orioles, fresh off a fall classic victory over the Cincinnati Reds, accepted an invitation in January 1971 for a monthlong tour after the next World Series. The schedule included 18 games, 11 of them against the Yomiuri Giants.3

A couple of weeks after the invitation was accepted, the Japanese sports newspaper Hochi Shimbun commissioned a computer simulation of a theoretical seven-game series between the Orioles and the Giants. The computer results had the Orioles winning four of the seven games, with the Giants winning two and one game ending in a 12-inning tie.4

The Giants and Orioles previewed their postseason matchup during spring training in Miami on March 11, one of the half-dozen exhibition games Yomiuri played in Florida. Players mingled before the game, seven Giants surrounding Brooks Robinson behind the batting cage, including 5-foot-7, 140-pound pitcher Akira Tanaka, who could not resist measuring his hand against that of the Orioles third baseman in comparison.5

The Japanese were particularly impressed by the sight of 6-foot-4 Boog Powell, who was introduced to Sadaharu Oh. During their conversation, Powell leaned his massive frame against Oh and whispered, “Fella, you make more money than I do.” Oh replied, “47 home runs,” his total for the 1970 season.6

Brooks Robinson told reporters that Lee Walls, a former All-Star outfielder who played in Japan in 1965, thought Oh to be one of the five best hitters he had ever seen. Scout Gordon Windhorn, recently retired as a player after six seasons with the Hankyu Braves, recalled his advice to American pitchers facing Oh after they saw his stance and curious one-legged pause during his swing. “You think you can change speeds on him, but you can’t. He’ll just stand there and wait and keep that right leg balanced.”7

For his part, Oh said he enjoyed playing against Americans. “Friendships are very important to me,” he declared. “I also benefit from the spirit of the American players – the way they slide, the way they make double plays. The Japanese are much more conservative.”8

The game played that day was competitive. Both teams scored in the first inning, with the Orioles adding runs in the fourth and sixth to take a 3-1 lead. After some back-and-forth, Baltimore was ahead, 6-3, going into the last frame.9

Sadaharu Oh slapped a run-scoring single in the ninth, his second of the day. Then, with two out and one on, Shigeo Nagashima hit a long fly ball down the line that appeared to have tied the game. “I thought it was a home run,” said Nagashima “But the wind helped it go foul.”10 He was then retired and Baltimore won, 6-4.

The Giants took heart that they had held their own, although several of Baltimore’s stars, including Frank and Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell, played only portions of the game. Tetsuharu Kawakami said of the Orioles, “Their physical superiority seemed indeed overwhelming before the game, but I found later they were not as powerful as I thought.”11 The Giants came away confident that they belonged on the same field, and looked forward to October.

Relations between Japan and the United States grew tense in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and Japan’s sensitivity always surfaced when the United States courted the attention of a rival. In July 1971, President Richard Nixon announced that his secretary of state, Henry Kissinger, had completed a secret trip to the People’s Republic of China that resulted in Nixon being invited to meet with Mao Zedong. The invitation was accepted, with the meeting to take place within a year.12 This sent shock waves through Japan, which feared being abandoned by the United States. A month earlier, it was thought that all differences had been resolved through a negotiation aimed at returning Japanese territories seized during World War II, with Okinawa reverting to Japanese control in 1972.13

But the Japanese government was embarrassed by Nixon’s actions, the lack of forewarning about an earthshaking shift in American foreign policy considered a lack of respect, especially with Japan openly entrenched in a policy – thought to be shared by the United States – banning relations with China.

Then, a month after announcing he was going to Beijing, Nixon announced a 10 percent import surcharge as part of an economic recovery package, further straining relations with Japan.14 Japanese students, unhappy with a continued military presence of the United States on Okinawa beyond 1972, began rallying against the US and the agreement, which delayed Japanese ratification of the deal until late November, after the Orioles had left the country.15

That fall, Emperor Hirohito, in his 45th year on the throne, became the first reigning emperor to travel abroad, returning from Europe a week prior to the arrival of the Orioles. He visited briefly with President Nixon during his first stop, in Anchorage, Alaska, as the Northern Lights danced overhead, punctuating Nixon’s attempt to mend fences.16

 

1971 Baltimore Orioles Goodwill Tour ticket (Robert Fitts Collection)

 

While the 1966 Dodgers visited without Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, the Orioles brought everyone. Frank and Brooks Robinson and Boog Powell were the offensive stars and Baltimore boasted a pitching staff featuring 20-game winners Jim Palmer, Dave McNally, Mike Cuellar, and Pat Dobson. Of course, the curse continued, with the Orioles dropping the 1971 World Series to Pittsburgh in seven games. So once again, the Japanese were frustrated in their attempt to stage an informal world championship series. The 72-person traveling party also included Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, American League President Joe Cronin, and umpire Jim Honochick.17 Pitching coach George Bamberger remained home, having suffered a recent heart attack.18

The Orioles arrived in Japan on October 21, greeted by several hundred fans and dozens of newspaper photographers. The next day they headed out to Korakuen Stadium for their first workout and were surprised by 5,000 rabid Japanese fans, digesting their every move. They seemed most in awe of the 260-pound Powell.19

Each Orioles player received $4,000 plus another $1,000 in spending money; meal tabs at the hotel were picked up by their Japanese hosts.20 Earl Weaver, legendary for his intensity, relaxed many of the rules for the trip. Players were allowed to grow mustaches, banned during the regular season, and to drink at the hotel bar, a domain traditionally restricted to the manager and coaching staff. Brooks Robinson grew a mustache. So did Mark Belanger, Mike Cuellar, Curt Motton, and Andy Etchebarren. By the end of the tour, reliever Eddie Watt sported a full beard. Frank Robinson opted for a Fu Manchu.21

Weaver also relaxed his strictly enforced dress code of coats and ties, and surprised many by drinking and playing cards with his men. “I told the players I would relax the rules … as long as they did not abuse the privileges. I also told them once we put the uniforms on, I expect the same performance and effort as in the regular season.”22

Two days after the team arrived in Japan, 15 of the Orioles wives held a shopping party where outfielder Curt Motton and his wife were staying, Room 1208 at the New Otani Hotel, which became an impromptu store thanks to George Speccks, who billed himself as George the Silk Man. He had been passing out his business card in the lobby, and Motton’s wife, Jackie, took him up on his offer, inviting the other wives to sift through a collection of silks, kimonos, watches, and cameras.

“You can imagine the bedlam in my room with all these girls crowded in,” said Jackie Motton, shaking her head. “We went through thirty bottles of (Coca-Cola) and by the time it was over, I felt like I had thrown some kind of wild party.” She spent more than $250, buying 19 kimonos and happi coats.23 The nonstop hard-sell of George the Silk Man ultimately broke down just about everyone at some point during the tour. If you wanted it, George and his associates would sell it to you.

Korakuen Stadium was the second largest in Japan and home of the Yomiuri Giants, who had played before more than 2.3 million paying customers in 1971, their ninth straight year topping two million, and more than twice the number drawn in Baltimore. The facility had its challenges. The outfield distances were short (295 feet down the lines, 380 to center) and the clubhouse was tiny, with no toilets or showers, so players dressed at the hotel. Catered meals were provided before games, served by tuxedo-clad waiters.24

Before the first game, Bowie Kuhn met with Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato, while Earl Weaver told reporters he hoped to win six to seven of the 11 games against the Giants.25 Kuhn threw out the first ball and read a message from President Nixon, and the Orioles appeared wearing uniforms bearing their names in both English and Japanese.

Baltimore easily won the first two games, knocking Japanese baseball experts back on their heels a bit. Jim Palmer won the opener, 8-4, despite allowing home runs to Yukinobu Kuroe and Koji Ano in the sixth inning. The Giants seemed shaky, committing five errors leading to four unearned runs. Brooks Robinson homered to spark a five-run second inning for Baltimore. Neither Oh nor Nagashima managed to get a hit, while Boog Powell slugged one over the fence for the Orioles.26

The second game matched Orioles veteran southpaw Mike Cuellar against Giants ace Tsuneo Horiuchi. Don Buford robbed Sadaharu Oh of a home run, keeping the Japanese star hitless in the first two contests. Frank Robinson, battling a strained Achilles tendon, homered on a Horiuchi changeup, one of three Baltimore round-trippers during an easy 8-2 win. Robinson praised the umpiring while noting that the strike zone was a bit high. He also suggested that Horiuchi, who allowed six runs in six innings, should rely more on his fastball.27

The Orioles were amused, but at the same time honored by the ceremonial atmosphere surrounding the contests. Before every game, a group of young women in kimonos presented Earl Weaver with a bouquet. During games, tuxedo-clad waiters served coffee and tea in the dugout. Even writers were treated well, provided with hot towels after the fourth inning.

The third game, scheduled for Sapporo, was rained out, so the Orioles went bowling instead, Mike Cuellar proving king of the lanes.28 That day also brought news that Baltimore’s director of player personnel, Harry Dalton, had been hired by the California Angels to become their general manager.29

Pat Dobson dominated the next game, played in Sendai on October 27 before a capacity crowd of 26,000, the Orioles winning easily for the third straight time, 10-1. The weather was bracing, the temperature falling below 50 degrees as players huddled on the bench around a charcoal heater.30 Dobson struck out eight batters while allowing only three hits, one of them a home run by Sadaharu Oh with two out in the ninth, his first hit against the Orioles. Mark Belanger drove in four runs with a pair of triples.31

The fourth game, in Koriyama, was the first not ending in a Giants loss. Tsuneo Horiuchi was much more effective in his second start, lasting nine innings in a game that ended in a 3-3, 10-inning tie. The Giants knocked Jim Palmer out of the box in the fourth, loading the bases with none out. Reliever Grant Jackson limited the damage, allowing only one run to score, and the Giants led, 3-0. Horiuchi finally allowed a run in the seventh, and Chico Salmon homered in the eighth to bring Baltimore within a run. It appeared Horiuchi would hold on for the win after retiring the first two batters in the ninth. But Andy Etchebarren, who had earlier driven in the Orioles’ initial tally with a single, hit a first-pitch home run to tie the game.32

The fifth contest, played in Osaka in front of 50,000 against a team of Japanese all-stars, was to have been televised in the United States via Wide World of Sports, but the game was postponed one day because of rain. Mike Cuellar once again dominated, striking out 12 in a four-hit, 4-1 win. A pair of walks and a single in the first inning led to the only run for the all-stars, after which Cuellar retired 16 straight. “I had good control,” explained the screwball artist, famous for his inability to throw hard, before joking, “and my fastball was jumping.” The Orioles scored two runs in the first against Japan’s top strikeout pitcher, Hanshin Tigers left-hander Yutaka Enatsu, thanks to an error and Boog Powell’s single. Hisashi Yamada, a 22-game winner for the Hankyu Braves, relieved Enatsu in the fourth and pitched four hitless innings.33

Dave McNally, who had won 21 games despite elbow problems that had cost him five weeks of the 1971 season, made his only tour appearance in the sixth game, also in Osaka, against a combined Yomiuri Giants-Nankai Hawks team.34 Nankai pitcher Sanshiro Nishioka did not allow a hit during the first four innings, but later surrendered solo home runs to Dave Johnson and Brooks Robinson for the game’s only scores while McNally pitched seven shutout innings. Masanori Murakami, who had played for the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965, relieved Nishioka and held Baltimore without a hit in the sixth and seventh innings. That same day, more than 50,000 attended Jingu Stadium in Tokyo as Keio University defeated Waseda for the Tokyo Big Six University baseball championship.35

Japan was changing, becoming modernized. Orioles publicist Bob Brown and team trainer Ralph Salvon, who had served during the early 1950s as GIs in Sapporo, site of the upcoming Winter Olympic Games, hardly recognized the place. Hiroko Kamioka, an aide in the foreign press wing of the Olympic organizing committee, explained, “Very few foreigners come here because our city is so un-Japanese,” explaining that Sapporo was a relatively new city.36

Rapid redevelopment came at a price. Pollution was a serious problem, with smog obscuring the sky in larger cities. “In Delaware, where you live,” a young man asked Wilmington News Journal columnist Al Cartwright, “can you see the stars?” When Cartwright replied in the affirmative and asked the reason for the question, the young man explained, “I envy you. Most times I look at the skies at night, I cannot see the stars. Other nights, I see one, or two.” Cartwright counted only two stars that night when he looked. An executive for Coca-Cola told Cartwright, “The Japanese have made no effort to direct anything but their economic development and they have sacrificed their environment with this neglect.” Cartwright walked through the streets of Koriyama and likened it to taking a stroll through a carburetor. He recounted the deaths attributed to the pollution, due to what was called “Tokyo Asthma.”37

Cartwright also found himself in the midst of leftist protests over the US-Japan agreement regarding the return of Okinawa to Japan that provided for a continued American military presence there. The columnist witnessed an immense, belligerent crowd that later was responsible for the tossing of Molotov cocktails into a restaurant, resulting in an explosion that leveled the building. Students wore white headbands and carried huge flags as they jogged along – some 100,000 strong in eight locations – the demonstration carried out in sympathy with a general strike taking place in Okinawa that turned violent, leaving one policeman dead and more than 80 people injured.38

Against this political backdrop came the seventh game, at Toyama Ball Park against the Giants. The game proved historic, with Pat Dobson becoming the first to throw a no-hitter against Japanese professionals on a postseason tour.39 The Japanese press suggested that Dobson’s performance put an exclamation point on the dominance of the Orioles. “The no-hitter underscored the overwhelming supremacy of the Orioles over Japan’s winningest team in the post-season ‘World Series’ being staged here,” lamented an unnamed Japan Times reporter.40

Dobson threw 115 pitches, striking out seven while walking three in the first no-hitter of his professional career. Shigeo Nagashima drew a pair of walks but was erased by a double play each time. Dobson clinched his historic moment by striking out the first two batters in the ninth and retiring Isao Shibata on an infield grounder.41 The right-hander’s performance overshadowed a fine effort turned in by Tsuneo Horiuchi, who allowed only two runs on six hits, Boog Powell’s home run accounting for the only scoring.42

Dobson betrayed surprise regarding his achievement. “It’s funny but I had a bad cold and didn’t get much sleep the night before. I’ve also had some tendinitis of the shoulder and I didn’t think I had a thing warming up.” Dobson went on to say, “I didn’t pitch any differently than during the season. … But I did have a good fastball today and I really don’t think the Japanese can handle a good fast one.”43 He did admit to one “anxious moment.”

“That was in the seventh inning,” he said. “I walked the leadoff batter, Isao Shibata. The next guy pops up. And then up comes Oh! Oh grounded out, advancing Shibata to second. That was two down. But I still had to face Nagashima. I went 3-and-0 against him, but he popped up to end the inning and that was that. Oh has the best swing of any of the Japanese players – not too many bad swings.” Dobson then reminded everyone, “He hit a homer off me, a slider down the middle, in the third game of our exhibition tour at Sendai.”44

Jim Palmer followed Dobson’s effort with a third straight Baltimore shutout, a 7-0 win against a team of Japanese all-stars. Brooks Robinson and Elrod Hendricks homered for the Orioles. Yutaka Enatsu pitched the final two innings and struck out six, but allowed four hits, all for extra bases, and two runs. Palmer’s biggest jam came in the bottom of the first with runners at the corners and one out, but he struck out Nagashima and got Oh to pop out. The right-hander also walked the bases loaded in the sixth, but escaped without allowing a run.45 Afterward, Earl Weaver commented, “Nobody looks good against good pitchers. The Japanese are not playing bad baseball. If they could put up four pitchers like we have, they’d do all right.”46

Despite their dominance, the Orioles were feeling the effects of the extensive travel schedule, something they had not anticipated. Many in the party had mistakenly assumed the various cities listed on the itinerary were near Tokyo. “When you find out in the middle of summer you’re going to play in Sendai, you don’t rush to the map to find out where it is,” sighed Frank Cashen. “We should have. I didn’t think there would be this much travel.”47

Reporter Ken Nigro recounted the long trips between towns, hosted by a man he dubbed “Henry the Tour Guide,” who could never be stumped when it came to his knowledge of the area. Nigro also spoke of bored players. “There were those endless arguments by the players to pass the time away. Like who was the greatest pro basketball player and what time was it back in Baltimore.”48

Cab rides were an adventure, with Japanese drivers racing at full speed no matter the circumstance. Coach Jim Frey recalled making a serious mistake in asking his driver to hurry. “I wished I had kept my mouth shut. He was going in, around, everywhere but over.” Frey, who had always considered Venezuelan cabs a death-defying thrill-ride, quipped, “These guys here might have them beat.”49 Ken Nigro thought the reason for speed was that Japanese taxi drivers were not tipped, so they maximized their income by carrying the greatest number of passengers possible each day. It was soon discovered that destinations written out in Japanese by hotel clerks should be in hand before heading out, although even this did not work every time.50

The ninth game, against the Giants at Toyano Ball Park in Niigata City, ranked among the best of the tour. After Merv Rettenmund homered in the first inning, the Giants took the lead with a pair of runs in the second off Mike Cuellar, ending the Baltimore pitching staff’s scoreless innings streak at 37. The Giants added another run in third, but Don Buford brought the Orioles back with a three-run homer in the fifth. Trailing by a run, the Giants knotted the score in the eighth when reliever Tom Dukes threw wildly on a ball hit back to the mound, allowing Toshimitsu Suetsugu to score the tying run. The game was called because of darkness after 10 innings, tied 4-4.51

The Orioles returned to Tokyo for the 10th game, against the Giants, with Grant Jackson starting in place of the ailing Dave McNally. The game was a wild one. Eight home runs were hit – four by each team – during a 9-9 tie. Shigeo Nagashima collected three hits, including his first homer of the tour, and the Giants led 5-0 in the sixth. Nagashima’s homer was the first of three straight off Grant Jackson and Dick Hall. The Orioles tied the game with a five-run seventh against Tsuneo Horiuchi, who had shut them out over the first six innings, and reliever Katsuya Sugawara. Nagashima singled in a run to give the Giants a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the seventh, but Powell hit his second homer of the game, a three-run shot in the eighth inning, capping a 4-for-5, 5-RBI day. After the Giants retied the score, Paul Blair homered in the 10th to put the Orioles up 9-8. But Isao Shibata’s home run off Tom Dukes in the bottom of the inning knotted the game again and the contest was called at that point.52 Powell addressed his performance, explaining, “I’m a free swinger and if it’s anywhere where I can hit it, I’m going to be swinging.” He added, “Well, we like to play baseball. Regardless of whether we lost the World Series or not, it’s a nice opportunity for us and we have a lot at stake, we have our reputations.”53

Pat Dobson followed up his no-hitter in the 11th game, against the Giants, with a two-hit shutout, an easy 7-0 win that was sealed with a five-run first against Giants rookie left-hander Hisao Niura. Frank Robinson hit a three-run homer while Brooks Robinson hit two long shots in a game mercifully shortened by rain to five innings.54

The Orioles finally lost in Kyoto – after eight wins and three ties – against a combined team of that year’s Japan Series combatants, the Yomiuri Giants and Hankyu Braves. Jim Palmer was battered for three home runs in four innings, including a blast by Sadaharu Oh. The Orioles further suffered when reliever Pete Richert had to leave the game after taking a groundball to the face. Hisashi Yamada, a 22-6 pitcher for Hankyu during the regular season, threw a complete game for the victors. Yamada said he changed from fastballs to curves and changeups after a Boog Powell home run. “My fastballs are not fast for them,” he lamented.55

The Orioles visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum prior to the tour’s 13th game. After experiencing the sobering display, infielder Jerry DaVanon remarked, “Something like this doesn’t give you much of a stomach to play baseball.”56 The game itself resulted in a 4-2 win for the Orioles over a team combined from the Giants and the Hiroshima Carp. Baltimore turned five double plays, including a game-ending twin killing. Don Buford hit a two-run homer and scored another run, while Mike Cuellar pitched into the ninth inning and Tom Dukes got the save.57

The 14th game of the tour proved heartbreaking for Tsuneo Horiuchi, who went the entire route in a 2-0, 11-inning loss. It was a contest full of defensive heroics. Grant Jackson tripled in the eighth inning. Paul Blair then walked and was picked off first base by Horiuchi. While Blair was trapped in a rundown, Jackson attempted to score but was thrown out at the plate. The Orioles answered that play when Blair made an outstanding catch to rob Koji Ano of a potential walk-off home run in the 10th. Elrod Hendricks drove in the first run, and Horiuchi threw a wild pitch for the second.58

The 15th game, played in Fukuoka against a combined Giants/Nishitetsu Lions team, was a wild contest. The Orioles led, 8-4, on home runs by Frank Robinson, Elrod Hendricks, and Mark Belanger, as Pat Dobson proved less effective than earlier in the tour – after allowing one run in three starts, he made it only to the fifth after walking the first two batters that inning. Yokinobu Kuroe then greeted Tom Dukes with a three-run homer. The Japanese tied the game in the eighth, sending it to extra innings. Elrod Hendricks singled to give the Orioles a lead in the 10th, but Sadaharu Oh homered with two out in the bottom of the inning to tie the game, 9-9, which is how it ended.59

Game 16 saw the Giants surge to a 5-0 lead, but the Orioles rallied, tying it on Frank Robinson’s home run, scoring Boog Powell, who had tripled over the head of the center fielder, creating quite a sight as he chugged around the bases, his momentum creating suspense as to whether he would have trouble stopping. After Koji Ano gave the lead back to the Japanese, 6-5, Andy Etchebarren put Baltimore ahead with a two-run shot in the sixth. The Japanese tied the game in the seventh, thanks to a Mark Belanger error. Tom Shopay’s sacrifice fly in the ninth drove in the winning run. Jim Palmer allowed seven runs, five earned, in seven innings. Nagashima homered off Palmer during a four-run third.60

The next to last game, against a combined Giants/Chunichi Dragons lineup, was played at Nagoya, and the Orioles lost for only the second time. Fatigue was setting in and Baltimore was blasted, 9-1. Brooks Robinson opened the floodgates with a second-inning error that led to two runs. In the sixth, the Japanese scored four times on six consecutive hits to open up a 7-1 lead. Earl Weaver took out Grant Jackson and replaced him with infielder Jerry DaVanon, which angered the Japanese press. DaVanon, after reportedly receiving pitching instruction “for only two days,” completed the final 2⅔ innings, allowing a pair of runs. Frank Robinson did not play, and Brooks Robinson left the game in the sixth after being spiked on a tag play at third. Mitsuo Inaba, who had boasted a 6-0 record as a Dragons rookie, allowed only one hit – a Boog Powell home run – in six innings for the win.61

Dragons manager Wally Yonamine said afterward, “I hope Japanese fans are aware the Orioles were not playing major league baseball today. We were also just lucky.”62

The Japanese press complained that the use of DaVanon, who had never pitched before, was disrespectful. “Up until now,” complained an unnamed Yomiuri executive, “the Orioles have created a very good impression. That’s one of the reasons they are drawing so well. The fans know they are going to see a major league caliber of playing. The previous teams did not put their best into it. Up until now, the Orioles have.” Earl Weaver pushed back. “We’re just out of gas,” he argued. “I’m sorry the Japanese feel the way they do but there is nothing we can do about it. If they don’t like it … well, they can lump it.”63

The day before the final game, those in the Orioles party were instructed not to leave the hotel because of two million demonstrators expected to take over the streets in continued protests over the Okinawa Reversion Agreement.64 Any anxiety felt over the situation was shunted aside. “Nobody in our party encountered any kind of hostile feelings anywhere, even during the demonstrations in Tokyo,” said traveling secretary Phil Itzoe.65

As the tour neared its conclusion, Bowie Kuhn announced that he was taking the first steps toward an “International” World Series between the American and Japanese champions. “I wouldn’t care to make a guess as to what year this might come about,” cautioned Kuhn. “There are a number of problems, but I believe the problems can be solved.” He said he had a great meeting with Japanese baseball commissioner Nobumoto Ohama, reaching agreement on a feasibility study.66

The final game, on November 19, was played before the smallest crowd of the tour, a shade under 18,000. Tom Dukes allowed four hits in the first six innings and Dick Hall held the opposition hitless over the final three frames. Davey Johnson hit a two-run home run and Elrod Hendricks closed out the 5-0 win with a solo shot, his fourth of the trip, as kids poured out of the stands to greet him at the end of the game. Tsuneo Horiuchi suffered his fourth loss without a win, although he had pitched well overall. Hendricks’ circuit clout moved him past Boog Powell for hitting honors with a .400 batting average. Powell, who slammed six home runs, batted .397 for second-best.67 Managers Earl Weaver and Tetsuharu Kawakami named Brooks Robinson and Tsuneo Horiuchi as the Most Valuable Players of the tour.68

It had been a bitter pill for the Giants, who played the Orioles 11 times, managing only three ties and no wins. Among the eight losses were four by shutout, including Dobson’s no-hitter. Sadaharu Oh was extremely impressed with the Orioles. “At one time I felt I could play with the Americans,” he explained. “But after facing Baltimore, I think it would be difficult. They are very, very strong.” Oh added, “We are trying to close the gap but it is very wide yet.”69

Earl Weaver was asked whether he was satisfied with the Orioles’ performance. “We did better than I thought we would,” he responded, in a diplomatic tone. “The Giants are really good players. They’re as good as many clubs in the American League.” When asked when the Japanese could compete, Weaver graciously said, “They could compete in the American League right now – and they wouldn’t be last. If Washington, Milwaukee, Cleveland, the Yanks and California had played in Japan this year, the outcome would have been nine to nine.” He denied that the size of the Japanese made it hard for them, pointing to Don Buford, who hit with power despite being just 5-feet-7. Weaver insisted, “Takada, Nagashima, Shibata, Oh and others are as tough as many players in the U.S.”70

The final game in Japan proved to be the last for Frank Robinson in an Orioles uniform. The 36-year-old had been the subject of near-annual trade rumors that never came to fruition. But with Don Baylor and Merv Rettenmund in need of playing time, and the team’s roster beginning to age after winning four pennants and two World Series, Robinson had a feeling that this time the rumors might be more than that.71 His hunch was validated two weeks later when he was dealt to the Los Angeles Dodgers along with Pete Richert for four players, including Doyle Alexander.

“I am sure a lot of fans are going to be puzzled about who these new players are and will hate to see Frank Robinson depart,” said Orioles vice president Frank Cashen. “I can only assure them that we traded him with great reluctance, because of what he has meant to Baltimore in so many, many ways. It was a difficult decision.” Earl Weaver acknowledged, “We are out on a limb, sticking our neck out a little.”72 While praising the Orioles for his time there and honoring his request to go to the West Coast if traded, Robinson conceded, “It’s not a moment to be overjoyed for me. It is a little tough.”73

Despite the one-sided results, the Japanese considered the visit a positive one. “The Orioles created a very good impression,” noted one Yomiuri executive. Showing that the momentary rift about Weaver’s use of Jerry DaVanon had healed, the executive added, “They played seriously … to win, and that’s one of the reasons so many people came out.”74

Baltimore finished with a record of 12-2-4, the best since the St. Louis Cardinals went 14-2 in 1958. The Orioles remained a solid team during the remainder of the 1970s, winning two American League Eastern Division championships but losing in the playoffs to the Oakland Athletics both times. They made it back to the World Series in 1979, losing as they had eight years earlier to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games. They won another World Series in 1983 and then returned to Japan in 1984.

Having played 213 games in 1971, dating from the beginning of spring training, through the postseason, and on into Japan, the Orioles were exhausted and ready to call it a season. Almost to a man, no one wanted to repeat the trip, but that did not indicate displeasure. “There is not one player here,” said Earl Weaver, “who won’t remember this trip as a great thrill in their life.”75

Dave McNally concluded, “You can’t be treated any nicer than they treated us. But great as it was, it’s always great to get home.”76

DENNIS SNELLING is a three-time Casey Award finalist for Best Baseball Book of the Year, including for The Greatest Minor League: A History of the Pacific Coast League and Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador, which was runner-up for the award in 2017. He was a 2015 Seymour Medal finalist for Johnny Evers: A Baseball Life. Snelling is an active member of the Dusty Baker and Lefty O’Doul SABR chapters in Northern California. He lives in Rocklin, California.

 

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1 Robert Whiting, The Chrysanthemum and the Bat (New York: Avon Books, 1983), 221.

2 Associated Press, “Japan Champs Visit for Six-Game Tour,” Tampa Times, February 25, 1971: 4C.

3 “Orioles to Tour Japan in Fall,” Baltimore Sun, January 1, 1971: C1, C5.

4 Thomas Pepper, “Computer Predicts Success for Orioles During Trip to Japan in October,” Baltimore Sun, January 13, 1971: C3.

5 Al Levine, “To the Giants ‘Sumo’ Power Is Impressive,” Miami News, March 12, 1971: 1B.

6 Luther Evans, “O’s Survive Tokyo Trickery,” Miami Herald, March 12, 1971: F1.

7 Jonathan Rand, “With Japanese, Oh Simply Means No. 1,” Miami News, March 12, 1971: 1B.

8 Rand.

9 Lou Hatter, “Orioles Beat Tokyo Champs,” Baltimore Sun, March 12, 1971: C1.

10 Evans.

11 Katsudo Mizuno, “Orioles Arrive for Japan Play,” Japan Times, October 22, 1971: 8.

12 Don Irwin, “Nixon to Visit China Before Next May,” Los Angeles Times, July 16, 1971: 1, 20.

13 Don Shannon, “U.S., Japan Sign Pact for Okinawa’s Return,” Los Angeles Times, June 17, 1971: Part 1, 29.

14 David Kraslow, “Nixon Freezes Prices, Wages and Rents,” Los Angeles Times, August 16, 1971: 1, 15.

15 Sam Jameson, “Japan Approves Treaty with U.S. On Okinawa,” Los Angeles Times, November 25, 1971: Part 1, 4.

16 Tom Brown, “Nixon Meets the Emperor,” Anchorage Daily News, September 27, 1971: 3. The emperor had visited England when he was crown prince, so it was not his first time out of the country, rather his first time while on the throne.

17 Associated Press, “America’s No. 2 Team Headed to Play Here,” Japan Times, October 21, 1971: 10.

18 Jim Elliot, “Orioles’ Bamberger at Home, Feels ‘Perfect,’” Baltimore Sun, October 26, 1971: C5.

19 Ken Nigro, “Japanese Strike Out in Bids for Champions,” Baltimore Sun, October 24, 1971: B15.

20 Ken Nigro, “Japanese Interlude a Bonanza for American Players,” Baltimore Sun, October 26, 1971: C5. The players received only $2,000 each if their wives accompanied them on the trip.

21 Lou Hatter, “After 8½ Long Months, the Birds Are Finished,” Baltimore Sun, November 23, 1971: C1.

22 Ken Nigro, “Orioles Fly High Under Relaxed Rules,” Baltimore Sun, November 15, 1971: C2.

23 Ken Nigro, “Orioles Wives on Tour Go on Shopping Spree in Japan,” Baltimore Sun, November 12, 1971: B1.

24 Ken Nigro, “Tokyo Ball Park Customs Unique,” Baltimore Sun, October 27, 1971: C3.

25 “Palmer Named O’s Starter,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, October 24, 1971: 17.

26 Lee Kavetski, “Birds Wallop Jittery Giants in Tour Opener,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, October 25, 1971: 20; “Orioles Whip Giants 8-4 in Opening Game,” Japan Times, October 24, 1971: 7.

27 Kent Nixon, “Changeup Fast Enough for Frank’s HR,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, October 26, 1971: 20.

28 Ken Nigro, “Birds Get Rain, Even in Japan,” Baltimore Sun, October 27, 1971: C3. The game was rescheduled for November 18, but would be played in Tokyo rather than Sapporo, site of the 1972 Winter Olympics, because it would be too cold to play there by that time. Ultimately, the game in Tokyo was also postponed by rain, and was finally played as the tour’s finale.

29 Jim Elliot, “Dalton, ‘Architect’ of Orioles’ Rise to Power, to Try His Hand in New Post with Angels,” Baltimore Sun, October 28, 1971: C1. Executive vice president Frank Cashen, who was with the team in Japan, assumed Dalton’s duties.

30 Ken Nigro, “Japanese Caliber Better in Orioles’ Estimation,” The Sporting News, December 25, 1971: 31.

31 Associated Press, “Orioles Breeze Past Giants 10-1,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, October 29, 1971: 20.

32 “Orioles and Giants Battle to 3-3 Tie in Fourth Game,” Japan Times, October 29, 1971: 8. Catcher Clay Dalrymple went home before the game to visit his wife, who had been hospitalized due to cancer. Rory Costello, “Clay Dalrymple,” Year of the Blue Snow: The 1964 Philadelphia Phillies (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2013), 91.

33 Ken Nigro, “Orioles’ Cuellar Throttles Japan All-Stars, 4 to 1,” Baltimore Sun, November 1, 1971: C1, C2; “Orioles Trim All-Stars on Cuellar 4-Hitter 4-1,” Japan Times, November 1, 1971: 9.

34 Hatter, “After 8½ Long Months, the Birds Are Finished.” Weaver insisted that after McNally was shut down early in the tour, he was fine, but the team “decided to take no chances.”

35 “Two Solo Homers Power Orioles to 2-0 Win Over Yomiuri-Nankai Nine,” Japan Times, November 2, 1971: 8.

36 Al Cartwright, “Sapporo Symbolic of the New Japan,” Wilmington (Delaware) News Journal, November 1, 1971: 1, 3.

37 Al Cartwright, “A Price of Progress in Japan: 2 Stars in Heaven of Smog,” Wilmington News Journal, December 9, 1971: 21.

38 United Press International, “Okinawa Hit by Anti-U.S. Rioting,” Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1971: Part 1, 2; Al Cartwright, “Caught in Tokyo Cab Is No Way to Cash In,” Wilmington News Journal, November 26, 1971: 1. The explosion caused no fatalities but a security guard suffered a heart attack and died.

39 During the Reach All-Stars tour in 1908, Boston Doves spitballer Patsy Flaherty threw a perfect game, but that was against Japanese amateurs, not professionals. American Gene Bacque, pitching for the Hanshin Tigers, had no-hit the Yomiuri Giants six years earlier, in 1965, the first foreigner to do so in Japanese professional baseball history. United Press International, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 28, 1965: C2.

40 “Orioles’ Dobson Hurls No-Hit, No-Run Game Against Yomiuri Giants,” Japan Times, November 3, 1971: 7.

41 Ken Nigro, “‘Not So Hot’ Dobson No-Hits Giants as Orioles Win, 2-0,” Baltimore Sun, November 3, 1971: C1, C4.

42 Associated Press, “Dobson Fires No-Hitter, O’s Win 2-0,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 4, 1971: 19.

43 Nigro, “’Not So Hot’ Dobson No-Hits Giants as Orioles Win, 2-0.”

44 Jim McCready, “1 Uptight No-Hit Moment for Dobson,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 5, 1971: 20.

45 “Jim Palmer Three-Hits Japan All-Stars 7-0,” Japan Times, November 4, 1971: 8.

46 Kent Nixon, “O’s Weaver Isn’t Wavering,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 6, 1971: 19.

47 Phil Jackman, “Orioles Find Trip to Orient Can Be Drag,” The Sporting News, December 4, 1971: 40.

48 Ken Nigro, “Japan: a Tour to Be Remembered,” Baltimore Sun, November 21, 1971: B10.

49 Ken Nigro, “Tokyo Taxi Drivers Insist on Speed,” Baltimore Sun, November 23, 1971: B2.

50 Nigro, “Tokyo Taxi Drivers Insist on Speed.”

51 “Giants and Orioles Battle to 4-4 Tie in 10 Innings,” Japan Times, November 6, 1971: 8.

52 “Giants and Orioles Again Battle to a 10-Inning Tie,” Japan Times, November 7, 1971: 6.

53 Kent Nixon, “If It’s Close, Boog Will Bash It,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 8, 1971: 20.

54 “O’s Clobber Giants in Shortened Game 7-0,” Japan Times, November 8, 1971: 8. The Orioles were batting in the top of the sixth when the game was called.

55 “Yomiuri-Hankyu Team Hands Orioles 1st Loss in 18-Game Series Here,” Japan Times, November 10, 1971: 7: Steven M. Glassman, “The Baltimore Orioles’ 1971 Japan Trip,” The National Pastime: A Birds-Eye View of Baltimore (Phoenix: Society for American Baseball Research, 2020), 75.

56 Ken Nigro, “Birds Sobered by Visit to Hiroshima Museum,” Baltimore Sun, November 11, 1971: C1.

57 “Giant-Carp Nine Bows to Orioles 4-2,” Japan Times, November 11, 1971: 8.

58 “Orioles Outlast Giants 2-0 in Marathon Game,” Japan Times, November 12, 1971: 9.

59 “Giants-Lions Team Holds Baltimore to Tie in 10 Innings,” Japan Times, November 14, 1971: 10.

60 “Orioles beat Giants for Seventh Time,” Japan Times, November 15, 1971: 7; Associated Press, “Orioles – Yes, Another,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 16, 1971: 21.

61 United Press International, “Dragons, Giants Trample Birds,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 18, 1971: 19.

62 “Orioles Suffer Second Loss Here,” Japan Times, November 17, 1971: 8. The Hawaii-born Yonamine played minor-league ball in the United States, as well as professional football for the San Francisco 49ers before going to Japan to play professionally in 1951, becoming an eight-time All Star, a three-time batting champion, and MVP of the Central League in 1957. He played on four Japan Series champions.

63 Ken Nigro, “Japanese Rip Use of DaVanon,” Baltimore Sun, November 18, 1971: C1, C5.

64 Ken Nigro, “F. Robinson Expects Birds to Trade Him Before Season,” Baltimore Sun, November 19, 1971: C1.

65 Hatter, “After 8½ Long Months, the Birds Are Finished.”

66 United Press International, “Kuhn Views Int’l World Series,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 19, 1971: 17.

67 Glassman, 76; Associated Press, “O’s Zip Giants in Finale,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 22, 1971: 20.

68 “Orioles Whitewash Giants 5-0,” Japan Times, November 21, 1971: 7.

69 Ken Nigro, “Japanese Caliber Better in Orioles’ Estimation,” The Sporting News, December 25, 1971: 31.

70 Jim McCready, “Japan Scribes Praise Birds,” Pacific Stars & Stripes, November 25, 1971: 20.

71 Nigro, “F. Robinson Expects Birds to Trade Him Before Season.”

72 Lou Hatter, “Frank Robinson Dealt to Dodgers,” Baltimore Sun, December 3, 1971: A1, C1.

73 Lou Hatter, “Frank Ponders Trade with Mixed Emotions,” Baltimore Sun, December 3, 1971: C1.

74 Ken Nigro, “Japanese Caliber Better in Orioles’ Estimation,” The Sporting News, December 25, 1971: 32.

75 Nigro, “Japan: a Tour to Be Remembered.”

76 Hatter, “After 8½ Long Months, the Birds Are Finished.”

77 Listed Japanese players have a minimum of 5 at-bats, 3 innings pitched, or a decision. Yoshikazu Matsubayashi, Baseball Game History: Japan vs, U.S.A. (Tokyo: Baseball Magazine, 2004), 99; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.