The year 2022 marked the official 150th anniversary of Japanese baseball. Tradition states that Horace Wilson, a baseball fanatic from Gorham, Maine, introduced the game in 1872 to his students at Daiichi Daigaku (renamed Kaisei Gakko the following year). Since that time, the United States and Japan’s shared love of baseball has spawned thousands of individual friendships and helped bring the nations together during times of peace, conflict, and reconciliation.

Beginning in 1907, more than 100 North American and Hawaiian ballclubs have crossed the Pacific to promote the game and further international goodwill (Table 1). These series are known in Japan as Nichibei Yakyu. Nichibei means “Japan and the US” derived from the first kanji used to write Japan () and the United States of America (). is read as nichi, as bei. Yakyu is the Japanese name for baseball. Despite their importance to baseball history and international diplomacy, there is no comprehensive book that focuses on tours of Japan. Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan volumes I and II fill that gap.

Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volume I: 1907-1958 covers the tours between 1907 and 1959. It contains chapters on all 14 of the professional teams plus selected college, amateur, and semipro squads that played in Japan during this period. Each chapter is accompanied by game results and, when available, player statistics. Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volume II: 1960-2019 covers the 29 major-league teams that played in Japan between 1960 and 2019. Game results and player statistics are included for each of these tours.

Each tour is far more complicated than can be explored in the short space allowed in this volume. So these chapters are just summaries. We hope that readers will use these essays as starting points for further research. Furthermore, as most of the authors do not read Japanese, the majority of chapters rely only on English-language sources. We encourage future researchers to delve into sources available in Japan to get a fuller picture of these tours and understand the Japanese perspective.

Throughout these volumes, Japanese names are written in Western style – given name followed by family name – as opposed to Japanese style, in which the family name comes first. Readers should also be aware that, especially before 1950, Japanese sometimes changed the way their given names are pronounced. Kanji can usually be read and pronounced in at least two ways: kun’yomi (Japanese reading) and on’yomi (Chinese reading). Prior to World War II, many Japanese would use both pronunciations of their first name, the choice depending on the social situation. Usually players settled on one name when on the diamond but sometimes a player would decide to change his first name. To aid readers, we have used the same first name for each person throughout these volumes, even when a person has changed his name between seasons. For example, Waseda University player and manager Chujun Tobita is always called Chujun (his on’yomi pronunciation, which he used as a college player) rather than Tadayori (his kun’yomi pronunciation, which he used later in life). We have made one exception to this rule. In the endnotes, we use the first name the author used at the time of publication. So, in the endnotes, Chujun Tobita is often listed as Suishu Tobita (his usual pen name).

In the first half of the twentieth century, Japan’s public educational system differed from the system used in the United States. After compulsory primary school for all children, selected students between the ages of 12 and 17 attended middle schools. The top middle-school graduates often went on to one of the elite higher schools for three years before attending college. Touring American amateur baseball clubs regularly played Japanese middle-school teams. For the ease of North American readers, in these volumes we refer to Japanese middle schools as high schools, since the student players were about the same age as American high schoolers.

Readers should also note that until recently American newspapers used language and terms now recognized as derogatory and demeaning. An effort has been made not to perpetuate the use of this language except when these terms’ use in a direct quote is unavoidable or provides insight to the speaker’s mindset.

Many people have helped make this project possible. We would like to thank Bill Staples Jr., who first suggested that a book on the tours of Japan would make a good SABR project. Yoichi Nagata and Yusuke Suzumura helped with Japanese-language sources and provided many of the first names of Japanese college players not listed in English-language sources. Carl Riechers and James Forr did outstanding jobs fact-checking the articles. Carter Cromwell proofread the chapters. Finally, Len Levin painstakingly copy-edited each chapter.

ROBERT K. FITTS is the author of numerous articles and seven books on Japanese baseball and Japanese baseball cards. Fitts is the founder of SABR’s Asian Baseball Committee and a recipient of the society’s 2013 Seymour Medal for the Best Baseball Book of 2012 (Banzai Babe Ruth); the 2019 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award; the 2012 Doug Pappas Award for the best oral research presentation at the annual convention; and the 2006 and 2021 SABR Research Awards. He has twice been a finalist for the Casey Award and has received two silver medals at the Independent Publisher Book Awards. While living in Tokyo in 1993-94, Fitts began collecting Japanese baseball cards and now runs Robs Japanese Cards LLC. Information on Rob’s work is available at RobFitts.com.

• Read more: Find all essays from Nichibei Yakyu, Volume 2 in the SABR Research Collection online
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• Paperback: Get a 50% discount on the Nichibei Yakyu, Volume 2 paperback edition from the SABR Store ($24.95 includes shipping/tax; delivery via Amazon Kindle Direct can take up to 4-6 weeks.)

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Table 1: List of all known tours of Japan by North American and Hawaiian teams before 1945 and all teams from Organized Baseball after 1945

• 1907: St. Louis Hawaii
• 1908: Reach All-Americans
• 1908: University of Washington
• 1909: University of Wisconsin
• 1910: University of Chicago
• 1913: Giants-White Sox
• 1913: Stanford University
• 1913: Hawaii Japanese School (Hawaii Chugaku)
• 1913: University of Washington
• 1914: Seattle Asahi
• 1914: Seattle Nippon
• 1915: Honolulu Asahis
• 1915: University of Chicago
• 1916: St. Louis Hawaii
• 1918: Seattle Asahi
• 1920: Honolulu Asahis
• 1920: Seattle Mikado
• 1920: Gene Doyle’s All-Stars
• 1920: University of Chicago
• 1921: Suquamish Indians
• 1921: Canadian Stars
• 1921: Hawaii All-Stars
• 1921: Seattle Asahi
• 1921: Vancouver Asahi
• 1921: Sherman Indians
• 1921: University of California, Berkeley
• 1921: University of Washington
• 1921: Hawaiian Nippon
• 1921: Hawaiian Hilo
• 1922: Herb Hunter’s All-Americans
• 1922: Indiana University
• 1922: San Francisco Collegians
• 1923: Seattle Asahi / Mikados
• 1924: Fresno Athletic Club
• 1925: Philadelphia Bobbies
• 1925: San Jose Asahi
• 1925: University of Chicago
• 1925: Sacramento Nippon
• 1926: Honolulu Asahis
• 1926: Stanford University
• 1925: University of Washington
• 1927: Fresno Athletic Club
• 1927: Philadelphia Royal Giants
• 1927: University of California, Berkeley
• 1928: Ty Cobb
• 1928: Aratani Guadalupe
• 1928: Stockton Yamato
• 1928: University of Illinois
• 1928: University of Southern California
• 1928: McKinley High School of Honolulu
• 1929: University of Michigan
• 1929: University of California, Berkeley
• 1930: Seattle Taiyo Athletic Club
• 1930: University of Chicago
• 1931: Kono Alameda All-Stars
• 1931: Los Angeles Nippons
• 1931: Major League All-Stars
• 1932: Hunter, O’Doul, Lyons & Berg
• 1932: Philadelphia Royal Giants
• 1932: University of Michigan
• 1928: University of Hawaii
• 1932: Athens (California) Athletic Club
• 1932: Honolulu Braves
• 1933: Honolulu Asahis
• 1934: Harvard University
• 1934: All-Americans
• 1935: Wheaties All Americans
• 1935: Yale University
• 1936: Honolulu Braves
• 1937: Kono Alameda All-Stars
• 1940: Honolulu Asahis
• 1949: San Francisco Seals
• 1950: DiMaggio & O’Doul
• 1951: Lefty O’Doul All-Stars
• 1953: Eddie Lopat All-Stars
• 1953: New York Giants
• 1955: New York Yankees
• 1956: Brooklyn Dodgers
• 1958: St. Louis Cardinals
• 1960: San Francisco Giants
• 1962: Detroit Tigers
• 1966: Los Angeles Dodgers
• 1968: St. Louis Cardinals
• 1970: San Francisco Giants
• 1971: Baltimore Orioles
• 1974: New York Mets
• 1978: Cincinnati Reds
• 1979: AL&NL All-Stars
• 1981: Kansas City Royals
• 1984: Baltimore Orioles
• 1986: Major League All-Stars
• 1988: Major League All-Stars
• 1990: Major League All-Stars
• 1992: Major League All-Stars
• 1993: Los Angeles Dodgers
• 1996: Major League All-Stars
• 1998: Major League All-Stars
• 2000: Mets & Cubs
• 2000: Major League All-Stars
• 2002: Major League All-Stars
• 2004: Yankees & Rays
• 2004: Major League All-Stars
• 2006: Major League All-Stars
• 2008: Athletics & Red Sox
• 2012: Mariners & A’s
• 2014: Major League All-Stars
• 2018: Major League All-Stars
• 2019: Mariners & A’s

1960 San Francisco Giants Goodwill tour program featuring Willie Mays (Robert Fitts Collection)

 

The San Francisco Giants enjoyed a banner year in 1960. After almost five years of planning by the city’s mayor and Board of Supervisors and two years of problem-plagued construction, the Giants’ new ballpark, Candlestick Park, opened in time for the 1960 season. It was a dream come true for Giants owner Horace Stoneham and it justified his move from New York at the end of the 1957 season. The Giants, with a new identity as a West Coast team, now had a permanent location in a new ballpark. The team drew well in its first year at Candlestick, and Stoneham was pleased. And while the Giants would miss out on the National League pennant in 1960, they did manage an exciting postseason, nonetheless. In October 1960, the San Francisco Giants traveled to Japan on a goodwill tour, carrying on a tradition of the city’s connection with Japanese baseball.

San Francisco baseball was known to the Japanese public first through the energy of Frank “Lefty” O’Doul, a San Francisco native who visited Japan in the 1930s with American baseball teams, fell in love with the country and its people, and saw the potential there for good baseball.1 O’Doul, who is enshrined in Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame for his contribution to the Japanese game, took his San Francisco Seals Pacific Coast League team to Japan in 1949 (O’Doul was the Seals manager), the first time after World War II that an American team toured Japan. The team’s visit was endorsed by General Douglas MacArthur, the American administrator of Occupied Japan, who felt that the game would lift the spirits of the Japanese people and do wonders for diplomacy between two former foes. The Seals’ visit was a resounding success, with the team greeted by some of the largest crowds that had assembled publicly in Japan since the end of the war.2 By all accounts it was a successful diplomatic venture with the added bonus that it increased the popularity of the game in Japan.

The Giants’ 1960 tour was the second postwar visit for a San Francisco ballclub and the second for Horace Stoneham as well. Stoneham took his New York Giants to Japan for an exhibition tour in 1953, the first single major-league team to do so. The Giants dominated the 1953 series with Japan, drubbing the Yomiuri Giants 11-1 in the opening game and going on to win nine straight games, finishing the series with 12 victories against one loss and one tie.3 The Japanese players may have lost on the field, but the Japanese people won their way into Stoneham’s heart. The tour itself made a great impression on the Giants’ boss, who was overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of the Japanese fans, and by the gracious hospitality of the Japanese officials. Treated as an international celebrity, he was moved by the attention and honor paid to the Giants as foreign guests and he was charmed by the country itself – its sights, its food, and its ceremonies and rituals that reflected a deep sense of culture. Stoneham was quoted as recognizing the goodwill gesture of the tour, especially its importance in strengthening the ties between the two countries.4

Those 1953 memories were dancing in Stoneham’s head in late 1959 when he received an invitation from Japanese officials for the Giants to return to Japan in the fall of 1960.5 The proposal was backed by Matsutaro Shoriki, owner of the Yomiuri Shimbun, one of the leading newspaper conglomerates in Japan, and brokered by Tsuneo “Cappy” Harada, a Nisei Japanese American who was helping develop Japanese baseball in the 1950s.6 Stoneham was so enthusiastic about the invitation that he sent Lefty O’Doul to Japan in the winter of 1959-60 to work with Harada and Shoriki to firm up the plans; O’Doul had been working for the Giants as a consultant since their arrival in San Francisco and Stoneham wanted to take full advantage of O’Doul’s ties with Japanese baseball.7 The initial discussions went well and by the summer of 1960, Shoriki and Harada presented the Giants with a formal plan for a tour of Japan.

The proposed invitation called for the Giants to play a 16-game exhibition schedule in 10 Japanese cities, under Japanese rules and officiated by Japanese umpires, with participation by San Francisco’s “star players.”8 Shoriki was careful to insist on Giants star power, knowing that the likes of Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, and Orlando Cepeda would appeal to Japanese fans eager to see great hitting. Stoneham was more than happy to accept and returned the signed agreement in late August 1960. Twenty-two players agreed to travel to Japan, including Mays, McCovey, Cepeda, and a young Juan Marichal, all of them future Hall of Famers. Most of the Giants starters joined the tour as well, among them Felipe Alou, Jim Davenport, and pitchers Jack Sanford and Sam Jones. Included were club officials, headed by Stoneham and his wife, Valleda, acting manager Tom Sheehan, club secretary Eddie Brannick, team publicist Garry Schumacher, and O’Doul.9

The organizing Japanese committee pulled out all the stops. The schedule of events upon arrival was nothing short of breathtaking, with almost no hour unaccounted for in the daily routines. Everything was meticulously planned from a television press conference at the airport to a celebrity parade from the airport to the city. Crowds lined the 10-mile parade route and packed the rain-soaked streets in downtown Tokyo as the Giants made their way to the hotel. That evening a welcoming dinner reception was held at the Imperial Hotel and Stoneham read a message from San Francisco Mayor George Christopher, a special greeting to “[our] ‘sister city,’ expressing best wishes to the Japanese people on the 100th anniversary of US-Japan diplomatic relations.”10 On the second day more ceremonial activities took place as the Giants toured Yomiuri’s headquarters, visited the Nihon Television Studios, where the players were interviewed and introduced to Japan’s national TV audience, practiced for 1½ hours at Korakuen Stadium, and attended a reception in their honor at the US Embassy, hosted by Ambassador Douglas MacArthur II, the nephew of General MacArthur. Japanese planners had thought of every probability, working in “alternatives” for events and sightseeing, in case of changes due to bad weather. In what must have seemed a whirlwind pace of parades, receptions, and ceremonial lunches and dinners, the Giants, with very little time for themselves, might have thought that a game of baseball was almost anticlimactic.11

 

The 1960 San Francisco Giants arrive in Japan (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, New York)

 

On the third day, the time finally came for the Giants to face the Yomiuri Giants in the inaugural game of the tour. But the visiting players would wait again as the game provided the Japanese with yet another opportunity for pregame pageantry, described by one source as part parade, part theater spectacle, as “shapely Japanese models and the Tokyo police band led the Japanese and American Giants around Korakuen Stadium as fireworks exploded, and balloons and pigeons soared skyward.”12 Once the teams had finished the procession and the air had cleared, Ambassador MacArthur read a greeting from President Dwight Eisenhower that recalled the long history of exchanges between Japanese and American baseball players, noting the important role of the national pastime in both countries. The president’s message stressed the importance of this year’s exhibition series as a promotion of “the spirit of international understanding and co-operation essential to the peace of the world.”13 Then Matsutaro Shoriki threw out the traditional first ball and the game officially began, at last.

Initially things did not fare well for the visitors, who were perhaps weary from international travel and overwhelmed by welcoming ceremonies. In the first two games of the scheduled 16-game tour, the Japanese beat San Francisco, much to the surprise and chagrin of some of the local sportswriters, who expressed a tinge of disappointment over the Japanese success. Writing for the Japan Times, Katsundo Mizuno labeled the Giants’ start as the “worst of any major league outfit” that ever visited Japan, and he wondered what was wrong with them.14 The headlines in the local coverage of the opening game reflected a mixture of shock with a dash of hyperbole: “Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants Bomb San Francisco, 1-0” although the Japanese managed only two hits against Giants pitching.15

The first game was the only one in which San Francisco faced players from a single team. For the rest of the exhibition tour, the Giants played squads of all-stars drawn from the two Nippon Professional Baseball leagues. The Giants lost the second game, but managed a win in Game 3, prompting the Japanese journalists to collect their breath, astonished by the Americans’ poor start. “By squeaking past the Japan All-Stars 1-0 at Tokyo’s Korakuen stadium yesterday, the Giants have averted unheard of catastrophe for major league baseball. No visiting U.S. big league team has ever lost three games in a row in Japan.”16 Hisanori Karita, a veteran Japanese baseball commentator, was quoted as demanding more “major-style action” from the visitors.17

When questioned by the Japanese press about their slow start, Giants players and team officials responded politely and diplomatically, although privately they must have wondered what the fuss was about, given that they were adjusting to international travel, a frenetic welcome schedule, and a foreign cultural environment. Interim Giants manager Tom Sheehan tried some American tongue-in-cheek humor, “I understand we’ve set a new record for major leaguers by losing two games in a row. We may lose all the remaining games, too, you know.” “We’ll play better tomorrow,” he added.18

The folksy Sheehan proved a truthful prognosticator. Games 4 and 5 were on the road, in Sapporo and Sendai, and the San Franciscans won them both, with plenty of offense including four home runs, three of them by Willie McCovey. The Giants then returned to Tokyo for two more games at Korakuen Stadium, which they split with the host team, giving them a 4-3 record for the series as they prepared to play the rest of the tour “on the road.” One highlight for the American squad was the attendance of Japanese royalty in Game 6 at Korakuen. Crown Prince Akihito and Crown Princess Michiko, guests of Matsutaro Shoriki, watched the Japanese all-stars erupt for 10 runs – the most they would score in any game of the tour – and beat the Giants, 10-7, before 32,000 fans. The crown prince and princess saw Willie Mays homer in the game, and then watched All-Star Isao Harimoto answer with a two-run blast of his own.19

For the remainder of the exhibition tour, the Giants played outside of Tokyo, on a swing throughout southern Japan taking them to seven cities: Toyama; a three-game series in Osaka; Fukuoka; Shimonoseki; Hiroshima; Nagoya; and finishing in Shizuoka. It was on this road trip that the Giants found their mojo, winning seven straight games. But it was the manner in which they won that was impressive. Unlike the games played in Tokyo, which were usually low-scoring and tight, most of the road games were one-sided, with the Giants’ bats coming alive, much to the delight of the Japanese fans, who expected to see home run fireworks from the likes of Mays, McCovey, and Cepeda.

After an unusual game in Toyama in which the Giants banged out three home runs in the first inning to take a seven-run lead, only to see the All-Stars claw their way back, highlighted by a three-run homer by Kenjiro Tamiya off Mike McCormick – the game ended in 10 innings in a 7-7 tie – it was on to Osaka. The Giants found this stop to their liking, sweeping the three-game series in front of enthusiastic Osaka fans (the three games drew 90,000). During the Osaka series, they also enjoyed a day off touring the historic city of Kyoto.

Then it was on to Fukuoka, where the Giants won decisively, 8-4, and then to Shimonoseki, where they beat the all-star team, 11-5, in a demonstration of offensive fire, hitting four home runs.20 In an example of the goodwill that underscored and permeated the entire baseball tour, there was a somber and emotional moment when the Giants arrived in Hiroshima. Prior to the game, which the Giants won, 4-1, Stoneham led the players and team officials to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, where both Stoneham and Sheehan placed bouquets of flowers by the Memorial Cenotaph in a solemn ceremony honoring the memory of those Hiroshima citizens who died in the final days of World War II. After Hiroshima, the Giants traveled to Nagoya and put up big numbers once again in a 14-2 win. The last game of the tour was played at Shizuoka’s Kusanagi Stadium on November 13, won by the Japanese All-Stars, 3-2. The Giants totals for the series were 11 wins, 4 losses and 1 tie. After the game, the Giants boarded a train to Tokyo for three days of sightseeing before they flew home on Friday, November 18.

*****

Despite their slow start, the Giants finished their exhibition goodwill tour of Japan with a flurry and put up impressive numbers for the series, hitting 31 homers over 16 games, much to the delight of the Japanese fans; McCovey hit eight home runs, Mays seven, and Cepeda five. Mays hit .393 for the tour and was named by the all-star and Giants managers as the series’ Most Valuable Player.21 Giants pitching was strong as well, with an overall 2.41 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 142 innings. Sam Jones had a 3-0 record with an amazing 0.82 ERA; Juan Marichal posted a 1.55 ERA with a 2-0 record and a complete game; Mike McCormick had 22 strikeouts in 23 ⅔ innings.22 In a memorable and significant moment for Japanese fans, Jones displayed his own version of goodwill when he went over to first base after hitting a batter and apologized to the hitter. There were other friendly exchanges between the Giants players and the all-stars throughout the tour, some of which involved discussions of techniques for hitting and pitching. Overall, the relations between the two teams were positive and gracious, with a healthy sense of mutual respect. The Japanese fans were also captivated by the tour and turned out in all the cities to welcome the Giants and attend the games. The fans’ enthusiasm was evident in the exhibition tour’s great success at the turnstiles. The Giants drew 441,000 for the 16 games, according to the Japan Baseball Commission and the Yomiuri Shimbun.23

*****

For all the goodwill that came of the Giants’ visit, the tour was not without its controversy, however. Buoyed by the games and the enthusiastic Japanese response – both the total attendance and the ticker-tape parades in various cities that drew huge crowds – and heady about the future of cooperation between the United States and Japan, Ambassador MacArthur spoke at a farewell reception at the US Embassy of more baseball competition between the two countries. MacArthur was specific in his proposal; he envisioned a future world series between the American champion and the Japanese champion and even had a date in mind. He thought an initial exhibition series could be played in 1964, in concert with the Tokyo Olympic Games, which could lead to a more established series a few years later.

His idea was immediately supported by Nobori Inouye, the commissioner of Japanese baseball. Both Lefty O’Doul and Cappy Harada also favored the idea and thought that with reasonable planning an international world series could take place perhaps in five or six years. Both men felt that Japanese baseball was improving rapidly and would offer good competition.24 So did Stoneham. In a press conference upon his return to San Francisco, the Giants boss remarked that he was “amazed” at the improvement of the Japanese players in the seven years since he first visited Japan.25 Moreover, Stoneham wanted a continued connection with Japanese baseball.

But when Harada, who was working as a consultant to the Giants, brought the idea to Commissioner Ford Frick in New York, it was dead-on-arrival. Perhaps it was an idea that was too embryonic, requiring planning, research, and co-operation between organizations. Possibly Frick accepted the prevailing view of Japanese baseball as inferior to the American game. Or it might have been the process by which the idea took flight that Frick objected to, coming out of the blue from an American ambassador in Japan. What was certain, however, was that Frick wanted to assert his authority about such matters. He fired off an official statement indicating that no decision can be made about any international baseball series without input from the commissioner’s office, and suggested that he had no immediate plans to entertain such a proposal.26

Another controversy emerged during the tour involving the Giants’ interest in Japanese players. Upon Stoneham’s arrival in Japan, in an uncharacteristic slip of the tongue – Stoneham usually was tight-lipped about personnel matters, especially when it came to player acquisitions – the Giants’ owner commented that there were “several Japanese players we have heard about and are anxious to see.”27 Explaining that he would like to reach some formal agreement with a few Japanese clubs, he hoped to invite some players to the Giants’ spring training. These were just casual remarks folded into his words of appreciation of the Japanese invitation and nothing much was spoken about any plans or arrangements for the first 10 days of the tour. By the end of the second week, however, word had leaked to some in the press that Stoneham was interested in signing some Japanese players, or at least having them affiliate in some fashion with his organization, including a spring-training visit.

While the newspapers were speculating, Stoneham was working quietly behind the scenes. When the Giants arrived in Osaka on November 3 for the three-game series, Stoneham extended an invitation to the Nankai Hawks, to have pitcher Tadashi Sugiura attend their 1961 spring training in Arizona. The Japanese responded almost immediately to the offer. Makoto Tachibana, the president of the Nankai Hawks, issued a statement to the local press rejecting Stoneham’s invitation and made it clear he was suspicious of the Giants’ motives.

“I feel it isn’t only a case of having [Sugiura] attend the camp, but an underlying intention to hire him,” Tachibana said. “Even if this isn’t true, it can be considered that they may want to learn something from him, to – I hate to say it – steal his techniques.” Tachibana’s paranoia tended somewhat to the bizarre – “there is a possibility they want to use Sugiura for experiments” – but the Nankai owner’s root cause for worry was evident in his closing remarks to the press. He feared that Sugiura would be “separated from his team,” that is, playing for the Giants, “and we cannot permit a man as valuable to Japanese baseball to be used to his disadvantage.”28 The concern that Japanese baseball might lose some of its best players to American clubs was clear. There was also an invitation extended to a position player, Takeshi Kuwata, a third baseman for the Taiyo Whales, but that, too, came to nothing.29 The invitations and their subsequent refusals were minor incidents in the larger story of the tour, the games, the associations between players and the Japanese fans’ excitement over the competition, but they provided an interesting subplot to the 1960 Giants’ visit.

Once home from Japan, Stoneham more or less confirmed Tachibana’s suspicions. In remarks to a local sportswriter at a post-tour press conference, the Giants boss praised the Japanese players, taking care to emphasize the improvements in the quality of play, the skill, and the athleticism of many Japanese players since his 1953 visit with his New York Giants team.30 He implied that a few of the Japanese players, chiefly pitchers, might be able to have good results immediately in the major leagues, something that Tom Sheehan had noticed on the tour. That Stoneham saw the potential of Japanese players is not surprising; he had become a keen observer of major-league talent over the years. What is surprising is how prescient his notions were in the fall of 1960. The thinking behind those public remarks would take shape quickly, much to the surprise of both the major leagues and Nippon Professional Baseball. Just three years later, Stoneham’s musings on Japanese players would materialize with a radical move that would change baseball history.

In the fall of 1963, Cappy Harada, working for Stoneham as a scout and on the payroll with the Nankai Hawks as a consultant, came up with a proposal for cooperation between the two clubs. With Stoneham’s blessing, Harada arranged for three Hawks players – third baseman Tatsuhiko Tanaka, catcher Hiroshi Takahashi, and pitcher Masanori Murakami – to come to the United States for 1964 spring training and a chance to develop within the Giants’ minor-league system. According to the agreement, the Japanese players would participate in general spring training and then be assigned to minor-league teams for the rest of the season, Murakami at single A, and Tanaka and Takahashi at lower levels. Once the minor-league season was finished, the Giants sent the position players home to Japan, but kept Murakami, who had progressed so well in Fresno that he was called up to the big club in September. On Tuesday evening, September 1, 1964, in Shea Stadium, New York, Murakami made history as a baseball pioneer, pitching one inning of scoreless relief, the first Japanese national to play in the majors. He would pitch through the month of September and would return to the Giants for the 1965 season.31

Horace Stoneham has many achievements on his résumé as a baseball owner. After Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers, Stoneham was soon to follow with the signing of African American players. He led the way in breaking a second barrier in the signing of Latino players.32 Along with Bill Veeck, he was responsible for founding the Cactus League in 1948. With his signing of Murakami, he broke another barrier in baseball, making the game global. It is tempting to think that this last achievement germinated in the stands at Japanese ballparks in 1960, as the Giants boss watched the Japanese players, especially the pitchers. He was certainly impressed enough with the players’ abilities to extend an invitation for two of them to come to spring training, even though the gesture did not bear fruit. Nonetheless, he sensed the latent talent in Japanese baseball. And perhaps on that 1960 tour, he saw the immediate future: a Japanese national wearing the uniform of the San Francisco Giants and playing in the major leagues.

ROBERT F. GARRATT is an emeritus professor of English and humanities at the University of Puget Sound, where he taught courses on modern British and Irish literature and international modernism. He was the university’s first Dolliver Distinguished Professor of Humanities, taught in the Honors Program for 22 years, and is a former director of the Humanities Program. He has written widely on modern Irish literature, including the contemporary Irish novel and twentieth century Irish poetry. Rob grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area an ardent fan of the San Francisco Giants. Upon his retirement from full-time teaching, he began researching major-league baseball’s move in 1958 to San Francisco and Los Angeles. That initial research resulted in Home Team: The Turbulent History of the San Francisco Giants (University of Nebraska Press, 2017), a comprehensive history of the Giants as a Bay Area team. He followed his history of the San Francisco Giants with a biography of Charles A. Stoneham, who owned the New York Giants during the Jazz Age (forthcoming from University of Nebraska Press). Rob is a contributing author in a number of SABR publications, including the BioProject and the team histories. He has also published in NINE: A Journal of Baseball History and Culture. He lives on Whidbey Island with his wife, Sally.

 

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1. Background on Lefty O’Doul’s involvement in the 1934 tour that brought Babe Ruth to Japan is covered in Dennis Snelling, Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017), 120-129. For the definitive account of the 1934 tour see Robert K. Fitts, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2012).

2. Snelling, 86-88.

3. “238,000 See Giants in First Nine Games of Japanese Junket,” The Sporting News, November 4, 1953: 17.

4. Matt Rothenberg, “Team Tours of Japan Bridged Cultural Gap Following World War II,” baseballhall.org; https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/short-stops/team-tours-of-japan-bridged-cultural-gap.

5. According to the contract between the Giants and Yomiuri Shimbun, the hosts provided all travel expenses for the Giants players and officials, hotel accommodations and meals in Japan, plus a stipend for the players, coaches, and club officials of $3,000. In turn, the Giants agreed to play 16 exhibition games according to the rules of Japanese baseball and to attend all publicity events, including receptions. Contract Between Yomiuri Shimbun and San Francisco Giants, August 10, 1960. San Francisco Giants Archives.

6. Harada served with distinction in Intelligence in World War II, and immediately after the war became an aide to General William Marquat in occupied Japan. Harada’s specific assignment was to help develop Japanese sports as a way to improve morale among the Japanese citizens. He worked with the Yomiuri Giants in the early 1950s and established himself as an entrepreneur in Japanese-American business exchanges and a facilitator for baseball. He was instrumental in helping organize both the Seals tour in 1949 and the Giants tour in 1953. Eventually he was hired as a special assistant to Stoneham and the Giants in international scouting. For a developed description of Harada’s contributions to Japanese baseball, see Robert K. Fitts, Remembering Japanese Baseball (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University, 2005), 1-10.

7. “O’Doul on Jaunt to Japan to Arrange Giants’ Junket,” The Sporting News, November 18, 1959: 9. For O’Doul’s employment with the Giants, see Snelling, 258-261.

8. A copy of the 1960 signed contract between Horace Stoneham and Matsutaro Shoriki is on file in the San Francisco Giants Archives.

9. “Inter-office Memorandum,” San Francisco Giants 1960 Japan Tour, San Francisco Giants Archives.

10. Lee Kavetski, “Nippon’s Fans Brave Rain to Welcome Giants,” The Sporting News, November 2, 1960: 15, 20.

11. The official itinerary produced by the sponsor Yomiuri Shimbun shows an exhausting schedule for the first 72 hours, with press conferences, a parade, television interviews, lunch receptions, dinner receptions, with every hour accounted for, even the 90 minutes (and 90 minutes only) of practice on the second day at Korakuen Stadium. The 6th Japan and America Goodwill Baseball Match Tour Itinerary, San Francisco Giants, 1960. Sponsored by THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN. San Francisco Giants Archives.

12. Lee Kavetski, “Nippon Hurlers Get Jump on Giant Sluggers,” The Sporting News, November 9, 1960: 19.

13. “Ike’s Message to Japanese Read at Opening Ceremony,” The Sporting News, November 9, 1960: 19.

14. Katsundo Mizuno, “Times at Bat,” Japan Times, October 26, 1960: 9.

15. Jin Kayama, “Tokyo’s Yomiuri Giants Bomb San Francisco 1-0,” Japan Times, October 23, 1960: 5.

16. Jin Kayama, “San Francisco Giants Score First Win in Japan,” Japan Times, October 25, 1960: 5.

17. “Giants ‘Lose Face’ in Japan with Early Fizzle at Platter,” The Sporting News, November 9, 1960: 19.

18. Rudy Lau, “Korakuen Sidelights, There’s Always Tomorrow for San Francisco Giants,” Japan Times, October 24, 1960: 6.

19. Katsundo Mizano, “Japan All-Stars Outlast San Francisco Giants,” Japan Times, October 30, 1960: 5.

20. Lee Kavetski, “Slugging HR Binge Sets Off Big Sock Spree by Visitors,” The Sporting News, November 16, 1960: 17.

21. Among the many gifts that Mays received was a new Datsun car. Mays responded that his suitcase was too small to bring the car back; Mays biographer James Hirsch claims that Mays sold the car before leaving Japan. James S. Hirsch, Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend (New York: Scribner, 2010), 306. See also Lee Kavetski, “Giants Fired 31-Homer Salvo on Japan Junket,” The Sporting News, November 23, 1960: 9.

22. Stats from “Giant Tour Leaders,” Japan Times, November 15, 1960: 5.

23. “Giants Tour Leaders,” Japan Times, November 15, 1960: 5; “Signed Major League Balls Given Japan,” Japan Times, November 15, 1960: 5; “Gate Figures on Giants Trip,” 9.

24. Lee Kavetski, “U.S. and Nippon Officials Will Air 2-Nation World Series Proposal,” The Sporting News, November 16, 1960: 17.

25. Kavetski, “Giants Fired 31-Homer Salvo on Japan Junket,” 9.

26. “Frick Throws Cold Water on Japan-U.S. Title Series,” The Sporting News, November 23, 1960: 9.

27. Associated Press, “S.F. Club May Sign Japan Ball Hawks,” Japan Times, October 21, 1960: 5.

28. Associated Press, “Nankai Hawks Reject Giants’ Training Offer,” Japan Times, November 5, 1960: 5. See also “Nippon Club Prexy Nixes U.S. Trip for Ace Hurler,” The Sporting News, November 16, 1960: 17.

29. United Press International, “S.F. Offer Believed Misquoted,” Japan Times, November 19, 1960: 5.

30. Kavetski, “Giants Fired 31-Homer Salvo on Japan Junket,” 9.

31. Murakami’s major-league career ended in a contract dispute between the Giants and the Hawks after the 1965 season. For a full account of Murakami’s career, both in Japan and with the Giants, see Robert K. Fitts, Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014).

32. Stoneham did not sign the first Latin player, but he was responsible for bringing in the majority of Latin players from the late 1940s through the mid-1960s. For a discussion of Stoneham as a pioneer owner with Latinos, see Robert F. Garratt, “Horace Stoneham and the Breaking of Baseball’s Second Color Barrier,” NINE, Vol. 22, no. 2, Spring 2014: 42-53.

33. 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), 94; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.

1962 Detroit Tigers Goodwill Tour program (Robert Fitts Collection)

 

For the Detroit Tigers 1962 was a year to forget. They finished the season in fourth place, 10½ games behind the pennant-winning Yankees, with 16 fewer wins than the second-place 1961 Detroit club. The best the Tigers could muster in 1962 was second spot in the United Press International baseball experts’ poll of the season’s “No. 1 disappointment,” a single vote behind Roger Maris, who followed up his historic Babe-besting homer total with “only” 33 in 1962.1

As the Yankees and Giants were renewing hostilities in a rain-soaked World Series, the tired and disappointed Tigers limped off to Asia for a monthlong goodwill tour. As foul weather blanketed the Pacific, a coterie of Tigers trainers, wives, the traveling secretary, and team owner and President John E. Fetzer accompanied a scaled-back squad (just three outfielders and a nine-man pitching staff), first to Hawaii, where they squeezed in two games, and then on to Japan. The schedule called for excursions to Seoul and Okinawa before 17 matches against the best competition Japan could offer.2 Commissioner Ford C. Frick had planned to join the traveling party in Honolulu, but was held up stateside while inclement weather and stingy pitching stretched the World Series out to seven games over two weeks.3

The Tigers touched down in Tokyo on October 18 and participated in a press conference before heading off to the Imperial Hotel.4 On October 20 the players, executives, and wives were the guests of Japanese Foreign Minister Masayoshi Ohira at a cocktail party thrown in their honor. The Americans were formally introduced by Yetsuo Higa, the Hawaiian businessman who, along with the Mainichi newspaper corporation, was instrumental in planning the tour. Tigers President Fetzer gifted Ohira a set of silver cufflinks fittingly adorned with the heads of tigers.5

Commissioner Frick, having finally joined the group in Tokyo, revealed to the press the secondary – or perhaps even primary – reason for his presence, telling the Associated Press that he would meet with Japanese baseball officials to codify regulations surrounding the movement of players between the United States and Japan. “Before I leave we hope to agree on a definite set of rules under which American players can come to Japan,” Frick said, perhaps unintentionally signaling his belief that no Japanese player would ever be skilled enough to play pro ball in America.6

After successful tune-ups in Okinawa (where they “whipped a servicemen’s team,” 9-0, largely on the strength of Jim Bunning’s five no-hit innings7) and Seoul (beating up on an all-star team, 8-0, thanks to a three-run shot by Bubba Morton8), the Tigers returned to Tokyo and prepared to begin competition against Japanese squads.

But the Detroiters would not be at full strength. Much of the Tigers’ trouble during the regular season could be chalked up to injuries, with starter Frank Lary (sore arm), outfielders Al Kaline (broken collarbone) and Billy Bruton (sore leg; broken jaw), and first baseman Norm Cash (broken finger) all missing significant time. By the time the team landed in Japan, Bruton was still unable to play, and Kaline was touch-and-go due to torn ligaments in his foot suffered during one of the games at Honolulu. The injury “definitely has slowed me up,” said Kaline. “It’s a real tough problem. But I’ll play with it taped up and do the best I can.”9 Given the injuries, and the fact that only three regular outfielders made the trans-Pacific journey (with Rocky Colavito remaining stateside to be by his wife’s side as she battled illness), manager Bob Scheffing would be doing a lot of juggling.10

On the eve of the slate’s first game, the Tigers made their first public appearance, taking in a night of entertainment at the Nichigeki Theater in downtown Tokyo. The players and their wives enjoyed a two-hour show by the Nichigeki’s dancers before the boys donned happi coats and took the stage. Scheffing introduced his players to the crowd, and each was presented with a bouquet of flowers. The appearance concluded with the athletes tossing rubber balls into the crowd; those who caught select balls adorned with a Tigers logo would be admitted to the next day’s game free of charge.11

The next afternoon Jim Bunning took the Tokyo Stadium mound for the Tigers in front of 27,000 spectators, including Crown Prince Akihito and Princess Michiko. After the ceremonial first pitch was handled by Japanese Foreign Minister Ohira to US Ambassador Edwin O. Reischauer,12 the Tigers wasted no time providing their starter some run support. Detroit’s hitters roughed up Daimai Orions starter Tomoo Wako, who did not make it out of the first. The Tigers put up eight runs in the opening frame, including a three-run homer by Jake Wood, to cruise to a 12-1 victory. Bunning contributed 5⅓ perfect innings before giving up four hits and giving way to reliever Terry Fox.13

Neither the Tigers nor the Orions came away unscathed, however. In the sixth inning, Detroit first baseman Norm Cash was struck behind the ear by Daimai lefty Shoichi Ono’s errant pitch, necessitating a hospital visit for X-rays, which showed no lasting damage. “I hope to play tomorrow,” said Cash. And Kaline reaggravated his foot injury in the first inning, toughing it out until the sixth when he was replaced by Bobo Osborne.14 Meanwhile, in the other clubhouse, Orions manager Mitsuo Uno was relieved of his duties by club President Masaichi Nagata.15 In his two years as manager, Uno had led Daimai to a 132-136-4 record and a pair of fourth-place finishes, so his employers may simply have seen the lopsided loss as the final straw.

Scheduled games on Sunday against the Yomiuri Giants16 and Monday versus a combined team containing members of the Orions, the Kokutetsu Swallows, and the Taiyo Whales17 were washed out by rain, but the layoff allowed Frick and his officers to hammer out an agreement with their Japanese counterparts. Meeting at the Imperial Hotel, Frick, Tigers owner Fetzer, and AL President Joe Cronin sat down with Japanese Commissioner Yushi Uchimura, Pacific League President Fujio Nakazawa, and Central League President Ryuji Suzuki to formalize a deal that would “prohibit direct trades between Japanese clubs and American players, and vice versa by American major league clubs and Japanese players, without the commissioners’ approval.”18 In Frick’s view, the pact promised “smooth relations” across the Pacific, though it would take only two years for the commissioner to be proved wrong. The 1964 dispute between the San Francisco Giants and Nankai Hawks over the contract status of lefty reliever Masanori Murakami led Frick to write Uchimura decreeing that “all agreements, all understandings and all dealings and negotiations between Japanese and American baseball are cancelled.”19

The Tigers players also kept busy during the rainy days, as pitcher Phil Regan gave a Bible reading at Kawasaki Baptist Church,20 while Bunning, Cash, Scheffing, Kaline, and Dick McAuliffe, along with Hanshin Tigers pitcher (and Central League MVP) Minoru Murayama, appeared on the NHK-TV program My Secret.21

The Tigers – including Cash, recovered from his beaning, and Kaline – returned to the field after the two rainouts to face the recently crowned Japanese champion Toei Flyers at Korakuen Stadium. The Flyers outhit and outpitched Detroit, and played sharper defense. Knotted, 3-3, after nine innings, the game was declared a tie in keeping with an agreement struck at the tour’s commencement that forbade extra-inning games.22 Scheffing, however, complained that he would “prefer to let these exhibition games go into extra innings to settle it one way or another.”23

Things got worse the next day as the Tigers met the Yomiuri Giants in a makeup of their washed-out game, and the Giants “took a liking to the slow curves of right-hander Phil Regan,”24 and held on for a 3-2 win behind starter Minoru Nakamura, who tossed a complete game. “We have no alibis,” said Scheffing, whose squad now had only one win to show for their first three games in Japan. “We weren’t hitting and their pitcher had good control.”25

It was likely with some relief, then, that the Tigers greeted the opportunity to escape Tokyo and begin the road leg of their excursion, alighting first in Sapporo, where they handled a team consisting of Orions and Giants, 6-2, behind the bat of Bubba Morton and the pitching of Don Mossi.26 Thence to Osaka did the Tigers fly, where their game against the Hanshin Tigers at Koshien Stadium was rained out. But the visit did allow John Fetzer to invite their namesake club to their 1963 spring-training camp at Lakeland, Florida, with the American Tigers picking up all expenses accrued in the United States.27

Scheffing’s distaste for tie games might have been a factor in the decision to enter extra innings the next day, a Sunday afternoon at Nishinomiya Stadium. The Tigers and a mixed team of Japanese all-stars were tied, 3-3, after nine, but Detroit exploded for four runs in the 10th, with Flyers rookie hurler Yukio Ozaki the victim.28

Events in Nagoya on November 5, though, might have had the Tigers wishing they’d banked a couple of those runs, as Chunichi Dragons outfielder Shinichi Eto slugged two homers, added a pair of singles, and reached on an error, and the All-Stars (composed of Dragons, Giants, Orions, and Kintetsu Buffaloes) downed Detroit 6-4. Hank Aguirre surrendered five of the All-Stars’ runs, including Eto’s homer on the first pitch of the afternoon. If there was good news for the Americans it was that Billy Bruton’s jaw had healed to the point that he was able to pinch-hit – just in time to strike out to end the game.29

Said Scheffing, “Japanese baseball is a lot better than we were led to believe before we came over here.”30

Blasts by Cash, Kaline, and McAuliffe helped matters on November 6, when improving weather allowed Detroit to play Hanshin in Osaka after the earlier postponement. The American Tigers cruised, 11-4, with Cash contributing four RBIs.31 Chico Fernandez and Mike Roarke chipped in homers to help the Tigers blank the Nankai Hawks 3-0 on November 7.32 It appeared the Tigers were beginning to recall that they had led all of big-league baseball in home runs in 1962 with 209. The pleasing trend continued in Tokyo, as Detroit added four more homers – including another apiece for Cash and Kaline – to best a Swallows/Orions/Whales squad, 13-8, in a contest called in the top of the ninth due to darkness.33 At Hiroshima, homers from Cash, Kaline, and McAuliffe were more than enough to overcome the amassed strength of a Hiroshima Carp/Hankyu Braves/ Hanshin Tigers/Daimai Orions team, 8-1, with Jim Bunning going the distance for Detroit.34

For all their power, the Tigers had not yet hit a grand slam on Japanese soil. Norm Cash fixed that on November 10 at Fukuoka, against a side made up of Orions and Nishitetsu Lions. The clout helped Detroit come from behind to win, 6-4, improving the visitors’ record to 8-2 with a tie.35 The fireworks continued at Shimonoseki against the Taiyo Whales, as Detroit strolled to a 10-0 win that featured homers by Morton, McAuliffe, Cash (his sixth in seven games), and catcher Dick Brown.36

The big hits kept on coming after the Tigers landed in Shizuoka to face a team of Giants and Orions. Kaline notched another homer, and Bobo Osborne’s grand slam in the top of the ninth put the game away for Detroit, 12-7, with the last half-frame called due to darkness. Osborne’s shot was the Tigers’ 27th homer in 13 games on the Japanese tour. The ball left a mark on more than just the scoreboard; spectator Saku Masuda was gifted an autographed ball to go along with a bruise on her shoulder.37

Kaline homered yet again in Utsunomiya against the amalgamated might of the Giants and Orions, but it proved just about all the offense the Tigers could summon in a 6-3 loss, dropping their record to 10-3 with a tie – not shabby, but not the walk in the park they might have expected. Jim Bunning went seven innings but gave up four earned runs in the first and took the loss.38 Kaline homered again – his seventh – the ensuing afternoon at Miyagi Stadium in Sendai, and it was just enough to beat an all-star agglomeration of Flyers, Giants, and Orions, 4-3.39

An offday preceded the final games of the tour in Tokyo, but it apparently did Detroit little good. On an autumn Saturday afternoon at Korakuen Stadium, Hanshin Tigers ace Minoru Murayama, hurling for the All-Stars, turned in what Japanese baseball officials called “the greatest pitching performance by a Japanese since the late Eiji Sawamura lost a [one-run game] to Connie Mack’s All-Stars back in 1934,” a legendary outing that saw Sawamura strike out Charlie Gehringer, Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Jimmie Foxx in a row.40 Surrendering just two hits, Murayama became the first Japanese pitcher to shut out a visiting American big-league team over a full nine innings. The Tigers’ first hit didn’t come until there were two out in the eighth, when Mike Roarke collected a cheap single to left. “We have no alibis for losing,” said Scheffing. “We just couldn’t hit that fella Murayama.”41 With the loss, the Tigers joined the 1956 Dodgers and the 1960 Giants as the only major-league squads to lose four games in Japan.42

“We gotta be tired,” said Scheffing. “It’s been a tiring trip after a long regular season.”43

The next day brought only moderately better results. Once again facing an All-Japan team, the Tigers registered a 3-3 tie in a game called after 10 innings due to darkness. McAuliffe homered for Detroit; Sadaharu Oh and the Orions’ Takao Katsuragi cleared the fence for the All-Stars. When play ceased, “a band played ‘Auld Lang Syne’ to close the series,” as the game marked the end of the scheduled exhibition itinerary.44 But officials announced one additional game between the Tigers and Japan’s All-Stars, to be played two days later, “a parting gesture of goodwill.” All proceeds of the bonus game were to be “donated to the 1964 Tokyo Olympics fund,” an “unparalleled” move, according to Japan’s Olympic Committee.45

Billy Bruton homered in the finale, and the Tigers rolled to a 7-2 win. For the purposes of the record books, however, the tour was officially over two days earlier, after the tie game, meaning that Detroit’s 11 wins, four losses, and two ties earned them “the worst record ever for a major league club coming to Japan.”46 The Tigers – “the big flops this year in the American League”47 – couldn’t even catch a break at the turnstiles; Detroit’s “total attendance of 383,370 for 17 games in Japan didn’t measure up to the 16-game attendance of the San Francisco Giants’ [441,000] and St. Louis Cardinals’ [430,000] tours in 1960 and 1958 respectively,”48 though in all fairness it should be noted that the Tigers battled soggy weather just about every step of the way.

Before departing, Joe Cronin summed up what the American baseball emissaries had discovered in Japan in 1962. “The Japanese might be able to challenge American major league baseball in the next generation of players,” he told the press. “They are really something to see.49

Having been in Japan for over a month, the Tigers had seen enough. The schedule concluded, they flew home to lick their wounds, rest up, and prepare for the 1963 season.

ANDREW FORBES is the author of two books on baseball: The Utility of Boredom: Baseball Essays (Invisible Publishing, 2016) and The Only Way is the Steady Way: Essays on Baseball, Ichiro, and How We Watch the Game (2021). He is also the author of two collections of short fiction: Lands and Forests (2019) and What You Need (2015). He lives in Peterborough, Ontario, with his wife and their three children.

 

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1. United Press International (hereafter UPI), “The Old Maris – He Ain’t What He Used to Be,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 2, 1962: 18.

2. UPI, “Detroit Tigers Receive Warm Japan Welcome,” Bakersfield Californian, October 18, 1962: 50.

3. Red Smith, “Giants Cut Ford Down to Size and Delay Frick’s Far East Trip,” Nashville Banner, October 16, 1962: 17.

4. UPI, “Detroit Tigers Receive Warm Japan Welcome,” 50.

5 Associated Press, “Tigers, Wives Are Honored,” Ironwood (Michigan) Daily Globe, October 20, 1962: 6.

6 Associated Press, “U.S.-Japan Baseball Regulations Sought,” Decatur (Illinois) Daily Review, October 22, 1962: 10.

7. UPI, “Tigers Win, 9-0,” Eau Claire (Wisconsin) Leader-Telegram, October 23, 1962: 10.

8 Associated Press, “Tigers Defeat Korean Team by 8-0 Score,” Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, October 24, 1962: 18.

9 Lee Kavetski, “Tigers Stowaway: The Injury Jinx,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 27, 1962: 19.

10. Kavetski, “Tigers Stowaway: The Injury Jinx.”

11 Associated Press, “Team Goes On the Town,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 27, 1962: 19.

12. “Dignitaries Are ‘Old Pros,’” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 28, 1962: 22.

13. Lee Kavetski, “Tigers Score 8 in First to Wallop Orions 12-1,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 28, 1962: 18.

14. Kavetski, “Tigers Score 8 in First to Wallop Orions 12-1.”

15. “Orions’ Pilot Fired After Loss,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 28, 1962: 21.

16. “Tigers, Giants Washed Out,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 29, 1962: 12.

17. “Rain Shakes Up Tiger Slate,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 30, 1962: 19.

18. UPI, “U.S., Japan Agree on Player Trades,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 29, 1962: 12.

19. Robert K. Fitts, Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2014), 125-6.

20. UPI, “Tiger Hurler in the Pulpit,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 29, 1962: 12.

21. UPI, “Papa-San Bunning a Hit,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 30, 1962: 18.

22. Lee Kavetski, “Those Tigers Held to 3-3 Tie by Flyers,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 31, 1962: 19.

23. A Knot in Tigers’ Tail,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 31, 1962: 19.

24. UPI, “Tigers Stopped 3-2 In Japan,” Holland (Michigan) Evening Sentinel, October 31, 1962: 17.

25 Associated Press, “Tigers Lose to Japanese in Exhibition,” Victoria (Texas) Advocate, November 1, 1962: 11.

26. “Detroit Dumps Japan Stars 6-2,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 3, 1962: 19.

27. UPI, “Tigers Invite Hanshin Team to ’63 Camp,” Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, November 3, 1962: 4.

28 Associated Press, “Homers Help Tigers Win,” Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), November 5, 1962: 24.

29. “All-Stars Shell Aguirre for 6-4 Win; Eto Blasts 2,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 7, 1962: 19.

30. “Growing Respect for Japanese,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 7, 1962: 19.

31. UPI, “Tigers Clobber Hanshin, 11-4, on Three Homers,” Ogden (Utah) Standard-Examiner, November 6, 1962: 11.

32 Associated Press, “Homers Produce 3-0 Victory for Tigers in Japan,” Escanaba (Michigan) Daily Press, November 7, 1962: 14.

33 Associated Press, “Detroit Tigers Smash Tokyo All-Stars, 13-8,” Hays (Kansas) Daily News, November 8, 1962: 8.

34. UPI, “Tigers Whip Japanese 8-1 for Seventh Win,” Holland (Michigan) Evening Sentinel, November 9, 1962: 11.

35 Associated Press, “Cash’s Slam Propels Tigers, 6-4,” Lima (Ohio) Citizen, November 10, 1962: 10.

36 Associated Press, “Tigers Whip Japan Team,” Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin), November 12, 1962: 17.

37. “Tigers Blast Stars 12-7,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 15, 1962: 19.

38. “All-Stars Beat Bunning, Tigers,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 16, 1962: 19.

39. “Tigers Rally, Win 4-3,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 17, 1962: 19.

40. Lee Kavetski, “Murayama Holds Those Tigers 4-0,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 19, 1962: 19.

41. Kavetski, “Murayama Holds Those Tigers 4-0,” 22.

42. Kavetski, “Murayama Holds Those Tigers 4-0,” 19.

43. Kavetski, “Murayama Holds Those Tigers 4-0,” 22.

44. Lee Kavetski, “Tigers Strengthen Ties with Japan Tour,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 20, 1962: 11.

45. Kavetski, “Tigers Strengthen Ties with Japan Tour.”

46. UPI, “Gopher Balls Beat Tigers,” Traverse City (Michigan) Record-Eagle, November 19, 1962: 20.

47. UPI, “Gopher Balls Beat Tigers.”

48. Lee Kavetski, “Tigers Strengthen Ties with Japan Tour,” 12.

49. “Cronin Lauds Japanese,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 22, 1962: 19.

50. 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), 95; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.

Maury Wills attempts to turn a double play against the Yomiuri Giants (Robert Fitts Collection)

 

By 1966, the bloom was coming off the chrysanthemum of Japan tours by major-league teams. Rebuilding US-Japan relations was less worrisome as the Japanese economy surged and Tokyo proved a stout ally for American fears about Russian and Chinese policies in Asia. Concerns about whether the tour would make money thrust themselves into the picture. The strain of major-league pennant races made more players reluctant to travel, and the lure of “exotic” Japan had dimmed.

The changes showed up between the lines for the first time as an American team barely outlasted its Japanese rivals. Still, the 1966 tour provided the venue to regularize the official relationship between American and Japanese professional baseball.

It had been a decade since the last Dodgers’ tour of Japan. That had been a Brooklyn Dodgers team that had just dropped a seven-game World Series to the New York Yankees after defeating them the previous year. This time it was a Los Angeles Dodgers team, which had just been swept in the World Series by the Baltimore Orioles a year after winning it all. The hoped-for match between the American and Japanese champions, a consistent hope of the Tokyo promoters, was thwarted yet again.

The tour followed in the wake of a contentious battle between the San Francisco Giants and the Japanese Pacific League’s Nankai Hawks over pitcher Masanori Murakami. Murakami, whom Nankai lent to the Giants for American-style training, proved such a sensation that the Giants called him up late in the 1964 season. He pitched so well that they refused to return him to Nankai and kept him for the 1965 season. The Japanese team thought the two clubs had a gentleman’s agreement, the Giants thought they had a binding contract for Murakami’s services. After much negotiation and bitterness, he had returned to Nankai for 1966.1

The bad feelings over Murakami hovered in June 1965 as the Yomiuri Shimbun withdrew its offer to sponsor a tour that fall by the Pittsburgh Pirates. For the Japanese newspaper, sponsoring a tour was a commercial venture and “[t]he Pirates are unknown in Japan and we did not want to risk going into the red,” said Kanzo Hashimoto, head of the company’s promotions department.2

Commissioner Ford Frick was holding to the contract he had worked out with the Japanese in 1955. Under that agreement, a major-league team could visit every two years, with the selection alternating between the National and American Leagues. The Pirates had been the first team to volunteer for the 1965 trip, Frick said, so they were chosen. The last team to visit Japan had been the Detroit Tigers in 1962, and the 1964 trip had been postponed because Tokyo was hosting the summer Olympics that year.

Yomiuri, which also owned the Yomiuri Giants, Japanese professional baseball’s dominant team, turned to the Dodgers. Walter O’Malley had been steadily building a relationship with Japanese professional baseball in the years since his team’s 1956 visit. Japanese players and coaches had been hosted at spring training in Vero Beach as well as in Los Angeles. Dodger instructors, including Al Campanis and Tommy Lasorda, had made spring-training visits to conduct clinics in Japan.3 The newspaper executives knew the Dodgers would be a strong draw.

Frick was annoyed at Yomiuri’s end run to the Dodgers and The Sporting News editorialized that it would not work.4 But by the spring of 1966, O’Malley and Toru Shoriki, president of the Yomiuri Group and its Giants, were negotiating terms for the trip.5 In a little over a month, the formal invitation was announced.6 A few weeks later, baseball owners approved the tour, rubber-stamping Yomiuri’s end run.7 Both the Dodgers and Shoriki’s Giants had been champions in 1965, and the matchup offered promising opportunities for promotion and to see how much Japanese professional baseball was progressing.

Clouds appeared on the tour’s horizon even before the formal invitation. Dodgers shortstop Maury Wills, the prime offensive engine of a team that did not score well, was planning a career as an entertainer when his baseball career ended. The 33-year-old had permission to arrive a week late at 1965 spring training while he toured Japan playing his banjo and singing. But, general manager Buzzie Bavasi claimed he had revoked that permission during salary negotiations.8 Hard things were said on both sides before an agreement was reached for a $35,000 raise to $80,000 for 1966.9

Wills’s negotiations were overshadowed that spring by the revolutionary holdout of Dodgers aces Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. Drysdale’s appreciation of his value had been sparked by an offer from Japan of a $500,000 multiyear pact in late 1965.10 Frick threatened both Drysdale and the Japanese for a move he said would break Drysdale’s contract and jeopardize both the pitcher’s future and Japanese baseball’s relationship with the major leagues.11 The offer’s detail and whether it was real were never revealed as Drysdale chose to try to increase his salary and stay in the United States.

In two innovations anathema to baseball owners, and especially Walter O’Malley, Drysdale and Koufax held out together and hired an agent. They asked for three years, with $200,000 annually for Koufax and $150,000 for Drysdale.12 Drysdale had earned a reported $75,000 in 1965, with Koufax slightly less.13 At first, Bavasi and O’Malley scoffed. But the hurlers hired an entertainment industry agent and began to work on deals for their own Japan tour and for movie studio and television contracts.14 The first movie opportunity fizzled, but Drysdale and Koufax ultimately appeared as actors. The leverage had its effect. Eventually, Koufax signed for $125,000 and Drysdale for $110,000.15

But the ripples went further. New Major League Baseball Players Association Executive Director Marvin Miller watched the holdout closely and pointed to the inequities of the process and the value of agents as he educated the board of the Players Association to the problems and the opportunities of negotiations.16 Within the Dodger organization, it gave Koufax and Drysdale much more freedom from management dictates. They would use that power to decline to accompany the team to Japan that fall.

As the season progressed, there were increasing signs that other Dodgers were not enamored of the trip. The 1966 season was a grueling pennant race. The 1965 World Series winners led the league for only one day before gaining first place permanently on September 11. Their lead was never bigger than 3½ games. The season came to a close in a rain-splattered East Coast trip that included multiple doubleheaders. The Pittsburgh Pirates were not out of it until they lost the second game of a twin bill on October 1. The San Francisco Giants were eliminated only when Koufax won the second game of the Dodgers’ doubleheader in Philadelphia on October 2, the last day of the season. “Thank God it’s over,” said Koufax, echoing the sentiments of his teammates.17

The team’s exhaustion was clearly exhibited in the four-game World Series sweep at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles. The Dodgers’ offense managed only four runs in the four games.

 

All this played into existing disenchantment with the Japan trip. As early as June, Phil Collier of the San Diego Union was reporting that Koufax, Drysdale, catcher John Roseboro, and outfielder Ron Fairly, the team’s player representative, were balking. “All we know is what we’ve read in the newspaper. The club hasn’t told us a thing,” Fairly told Collier. O’Malley had done all the negotiations with Shoriki without consulting the players.18 By August, Maury Wills’s name was added to the reluctants’ list.19

The front office brought pressure and most players fell into line. Ron Fairly said it was made clear to him that he would have to go. Wills tried to beg off with a sore knee. He’d twisted it beating out a bunt in July but had played on what was feared to be torn cartilage for the rest of the season. On the day he twisted his knee, he had 30 stolen bases. He would steal only eight the remainder of the season and had to be hypnotized to be willing to endure the pain from the knee and the raw patches on his legs from sliding. He too was told he had to go, but was promised he would play minimal amounts. Wes Parker told Walter O’Malley he had been to Japan before and wasn’t interested in seeing it again. Besides, he was sore and tired after the season. Parker was allowed to join Koufax and Drysdale with the stay-at-homes. Don Sutton, who had arm trouble surface in September, was held back on medical advice.20

The pitching situation was a severe blow as the Dodgers left California. Koufax, Drysdale, Claude Osteen, and Sutton had started 154 of the team’s 162 games. Only Osteen was on the trip, and manager Walter Alston suggested he was tired as well.21 Pitching had carried them to the pennant, giving up three runs a game, more than a run lower than the league average. Meanwhile, the offense was scoring 3.7 runs a game, third worst in the league. The Dodgers would face Japanese teams with the same anemic offense but a heavy sprinkling of arms from the bullpen and their minor-league system.

The players who did go each received $3,000 and the equivalent of another $750 in yen from Yomiuri. The players talked of buying cameras and other electronics.

The team left on the trip under a cloud of skepticism in the wake of the World Series. Typical was the Los Angeles Times’s Frank Finch’s story previewing the trip: “Having endeared themselves forevermore in the hearts of Marylanders with their peaceful visit to Baltimore last weekend, the Dodgers depart today for a goodwill tour of Japan.”22 Snide references to the World Series would populate headlines and stories throughout the trip.

The team stopped in Honolulu for two exhibition games against teams of local major and minor leaguers with Bo Belinsky and Don Larsen brought in to provide the pitching. The Dodgers won both handily.23

While with the Dodger party in Honolulu, Commissioner William Eckert discussed a deal with his Japanese counterpart, Toshiyoshi Miyazawa, to cover future trips to Japan and, he hoped, avoid the disagreements that had clouded the Pirates’ proposed visit and the Dodgers’ eventual trip. They tentatively agreed that no team could visit Japan more than once in a six-year period and “no two teams from the same league can visit Japan more than two years in succession.”24

In Japan, expectations were high. “United States-Japan Battle of Champions” headlined the Yomiuri newspaper amid talk of a “real World Series.”25 The American military’s Far East Network announced it would broadcast most of the games.26 The 80-person Dodger delegation arrived in Tokyo on October 20 to the expected lavish greeting and a full slate of social events as well as ballgames. O’Malley blamed Koufax’s absence on a sore arm and said Drysdale had to attend to “business interests.” Asked by reporters if he foresaw a Japan-US International Series, O’Malley said, “I don’t see how you can prevent it. Japanese baseball is progressing admirably and the ballplayers are skillful. The public will demand it.”27 And, asked if the Dodgers would make a special effort to beat the Japanese champion Yomiuri Giants, O’Malley said, “definitely so.”28 Added Alston, “We’re on a four-game losing streak and want to win here.”29

The next day, Eckert presented Shoriki with a bronze plaque bearing an engraved message and signature from President Lyndon Johnson. After handing the message to Shoriki, Eckert also presented him with a World Series championship ring. It was the first World Series ring ever presented to a person not connected with a team participating in a World Series. “I myself and other Japanese concerned would like to further continue to promote Japan-U.S. friendly ties and contribution to peace, through baseball,” Shoriki said.30 The Dodgers worked out at Tokyo’s Korakuen Stadium in anticipation of the next day’s opener.

Game 1: October 22, Tokyo

The Dodgers started the tour with a bang, 21 hits including six homers in a 16-5 drubbing of the Yomiuri Giants. Willie Davis and Jim Lefebvre hit two homers apiece while Tommy Hutton and Osteen each hit one before 40,000 people at Korakuen. Yomiuri provided a 7,000 yen ($19.44 in those days) reward for each home run.31 The game story noted that the 21 hits were four more than the Dodgers had managed in the entire World Series.32 Outfielders Toshimitsu Suetsugu and Akira Kunimatsu each had two hits to lead the Giants. The Giants had wrapped up a Japan Series championship over the Nankai Hawks on Wednesday October 19, while the Dodgers had not played a serious game since October 9.

Game 2: October 23, Tokyo

The Giants evened up the series as left-hander Akio Masuda shut out the visitors, 5-0, allowing just three singles. Another crowd of 40,000 saw Suetsugu provide the key hit with a triple. “We were just no good today,” said Alston. “The boys just couldn’t touch the Japanese southpaw. He had a sneaky fastball plus a good assortment of other pitches.”33

The defeat echoed loudly in the United States the following Saturday (October 29). ABC had sent Red Barber to Tokyo for its weekly Wide World of Sports. The segment reported on the Dodgers’ tour and focused on Masuda’s gem. He “made the Dodgers look like sleepwalkers, groping blindly and mechanically on the road to nowhere,” wrote Arthur Daley in the New York Times.34

Game 3: October 25, Sapporo

The Dodgers returned to the victory column with a 3-1 win over the Giants at Maruyama Stadium in Japan’s northernmost major city. Despite a steady rain, a crowd of 30,000 watched left-hander Kazumi Takahashi, who was chosen to start because of his similarity to Masuda, give up run-scoring hits to Maury Wills, Lou Johnson, and Willie Davis. Davis’s RBI was aided by Sadaharu Oh’s error. Katsutoyo Yoshida drove in the Giants’ run.35 In an incident that would echo for several years, Wills sprained his injured knee rounding third base when a rain-soaked patch of grass gave way. He was immediately replaced by pinch-runner Tommy Dean.

Game 4: October 26, Sendai

The Giants evened up the series yet again, mowing down the Dodgers 13-6 at Miyagi Stadium before 32,000 fans. The 13 runs set a record for the most tallies by a Japanese team against an American professional club. Jim Barbieri gave the Dodgers an optimistic start with a leadoff home run, but Yukinobu Kuroe matched him in the bottom of the first. The Dodgers’ second featured four runs on a parade of singles, but it was the bottom of the second that proved decisive. The Giants pounded Osteen and young Joe Moeller for six runs on five hits and two walks with two outs. Dodger minor leaguer Leon Everitt gave up another four runs in the seventh inning.

October 27 was a travel day and the Dodgers stopped in Tokyo on their way to Osaka. While there, Wills asked Walter O’Malley’s permission to return to the United States for medical treatment on his knee. O’Malley, already missing Koufax and Drysdale, refused. Wills said he had been promised he would only have to play a couple of innings a game but had played almost full games early in the series. He decided he needed to go and jumped on a flight to the United States.

O’Malley was incensed. “As the captain of the team, a higher degree of devotion to duty was expected of Maury,” the owner said. Then, adding a subtle threat about Wills’s post-playing future, O’Malley added: “I thought this particular boy showed evidence of having executive ability, and so did others.”36 The Wills story would come to dominate US coverage of the trip.

Game 5: October 28, Osaka

After a travel day, the Dodgers faced off with a team of players chosen from the Giants and the Nankai Hawks, champions of Japan’s Pacific League. (The Giants were champions of the rival Central League.) Alan Foster, who had spent the 1966 season with the Dodgers’ Albuquerque farm club, shut out the Japanese team 5-0 in front of 19,000 fans at Osaka Stadium. Utility infielder John Kennedy contributed two home runs. (He had hit three during the regular season.) The game featured the Dodgers’ first meeting with Murakami in Japan. In his two years in the National League, Murakami had pitched 13 innings against the Dodgers, giving up only one earned run. For Nankai in 1966, Murakami had gone 6-4 with a 3.08 ERA. That day in Osaka, he gave up three runs in 1⅔ innings, including one of Kennedy’s blasts and another by Barbieri.

Game 6: October 29, Nishinomiya

The Dodgers’ bats livened up in a second game against an all-star squad, winning 7-1 in this Osaka suburb. Jim Brewer, Bob Miller, and Phil Regan stifled the Japanese team, while Lou Johnson and Tommy Davis contributed their first home runs of the tour. The crowd of 30,000 at Nishinomiya Stadium saw the Dodgers frustrate the All-Stars by turning four double plays.

Game 7: October 30, Osaka

The Dodgers got a measure of revenge against Masuda, their nemesis in the second game, as Dick Stuart and Nate Oliver reached him for home runs to key a five-run ninth inning and a 9-7 Dodgers victory at historic Koshien Stadium, home to Japan’s annual high-school tournament. Murakami started the game and pitched 3⅓ shutout innings, but the bullpen could not hold the lead.37 The All-Stars had taken the lead by beating up on Joe Moeller and Ron Perranoski for four runs in the seventh inning. Phil Regan and Nick Willhite restored order and shut out the Japanese team for the rest of the day. John Kennedy also homered for the Dodgers, while Teruyuki Takakura of the Nishitetsu Lions hit one for the All-Stars before 43,000 people.

Game 8: November 1, Toyama

The Giants rejoined the campaign in this seaside resort city and the Dodgers prevailed with a 5-2 victory. The score was tied 2-2 in the top of the eighth inning. Akio Masuda was brought in yet again, but pinch-hitter Dick Stuart drove in a run and Al Ferrara singled to drive in two more. Phil Regan shut down the Giants in the eighth and ninth for the win at Toyama Stadium before 23,000 fans.

November 2 was a travel day and the Wills story was thickening. In Tokyo, an “embarrassed” O’Malley said he would be meeting Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato on Friday and “try to explain and apologize for Wills.” O’Malley sought to frame it as a larger issue: “The United States is more or less involved in this loss of face caused by Wills’ defection.” O’Malley felt his long commitment to developing baseball as an international sport and building close ties with Japanese baseball was being undermined by Wills. The US government had not officially sponsored the trip but President Lyndon Johnson had sent a message of encouragement to the team.38

Wills, meanwhile, was proving elusive. He had gotten off his US-bound flight at a refueling stop in Honolulu. The Dodgers’ team physician, Dr. Robert Kerlan, said he had not heard from Wills. The shortstop/musician was soon spotted playing his banjo with Don Ho at Duke’s, a Honolulu night club, and at other spots around the city.39

In Japan, four groups of Dodgers visited four US military hospitals in the Tokyo area.40 The cultural and social obligations of the tour demanded time nearly every day with receptions, cocktail parties, golf outings, visits to tourist sites, and other diversions taking up the Dodgers’ between-games time. It was not a restful vacation.

Game 9: November 3, Tokyo

It was a Dodger homer barrage in an 8-5 victory over the Japan All-Stars as a crowd of 39,000 celebrated the Culture Day holiday at Korakuen Stadium. Ron Fairly hit bases-empty and three-run homers while Jeff Torborg and Jim Lefebvre slugged two-run shots. It would prove the high point of the trip, with the Americans now 7-2.

Game 10: November 5, Tokyo

After a day to reflect, the Japan All-Stars regrouped for an 8-2 win before 34,000 at Korakuen Stadium. Shinichi Eto of the Chunichi Dragons started the parade with a two-run homer in the first. The Giants’ Sadaharu Oh, who had led the Central League with 48 homers, contributed two more round-trippers. Jim Lefebvre’s bases-empty homer was the only protest by the Dodgers. “Too much Eto and too much Oh,” said Alston. “The barnstorming major leaguers never looked more listless,” wrote Pacific Stars and Stripes sports editor Lee Kavetski.41

Game 11: November 6, Tokyo

The next day the Dodgers played at Korakuen Stadium before 34,000 people including Emperor Hirohito and Empress Nagako. The team was not up to royal scrutiny, losing 11-3 to the Japan All-Stars. Alan Foster’s first pitch was deposited in the left-field stands by the Giants’ Shigeo Nagashima. Yukinobu Kuroe of the Giants and pitcher Tetsuya Yoneda of the Hankyu Braves also homered. Ron Fairly and John Roseboro homered for the Dodgers. After the game, the Dodgers emerged from their dugout to tip their caps and wave to the royal couple, who had never seen a visiting American team before and had not been to a Japanese professional league game since 1959.42

Eckert and O’Malley made their visit to Prime Minister Sato. During a five-minute meeting at Sato’s official residence, the Americans presented a baseball with O’Malley’s signature and a pass good for all major-league games for the 1967 season. They also presented O’Malley’s apologies for Wills’s absence.43

“The Dodgers may have drawn blanks elsewhere, but they are diplomatic successes in Japan,” reported the Los Angeles Times’s Frank Finch. “No matter where they go, to a shrine, a restaurant or a ball park, they are besieged by the friendly grins of red-hot baseball fans. The official badge issued by Walter O’Malley to the touring troupe is like an open sesame. People who can’t read English instantly recognize the familiar ‘Dodgers’ name in its script form. ‘Doh-jars,’ with the accent on the second syllable, is one of the most popular words in Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, Sendai, Nagoya and other cities where the team has appeared.”44

Wills was still in Honolulu, although Bavasi, who was also in Hawaii on a cruise, said he thought the shortstop was in California. Wills was reported at a Democratic fundraiser starring Sammy Davis Jr. but brushed aside any questions about the situation. Kerlan said he still had not heard from Wills. Bavasi said there would be no discipline until all the facts were known. He said a post-World Series examination had found there was no need for an operation, but that if something had happened subsequently, Wills should be seeing Kerlan. “If he’s off playing the banjo somewhere, he must think the banjo is more important than baseball,” Bavasi said.45

Game 12: November 8, Okayama

The combined Yomiuri-Nankai team returned as the Dodgers’ opponents and fell 10-2. Ron Fairly and Nate Oliver hit home runs, but the Dodgers’ biggest contributor was John Roseboro with a double, two singles, and four RBIs. The 20,000 fans in Okayama Stadium saw the Dodgers score six runs, including Oliver’s home run, in the ninth inning to blow the contest open.

Game 13: November 9, Hiroshima

The Japanese opposition was now a team combining the Giants and members of the hometown Hiroshima Carp. The teams played to a 10-inning 10-10 tie before 18,000 at Hiroshima Municipal Stadium. Earlier in the day, a 25-person Dodger delegation had placed a wreath on the site of the atomic bomb’s impact. The game was called because of the need to meet the travel schedule. The Dodgers built an early lead, 10-4 after seven innings, but the home team rallied with six runs in the eighth and ninth innings off Claude Osteen, Phil Regan, and Ron Perranoski. “Something is wrong with Osteen,” said Alston. “He just can’t seem to hit his stride on this tour. With 10 runs, we shouldn’t have had any trouble.”46 Dick Stuart, with two, John Kennedy, and Jim Lefebvre hit home runs to build the Dodgers’ early lead.

Game 14: November 11, Kumamoto

The series moved to the island of Kyushu, the Dodgers’ first move off the main island of Honshu. The opponent at Fujisaki Stadium was a team combined from the Giants and the Nishitetsu Lions, based in the nearby city of Fukuoka. Alan Foster and Ron Perranoski held down the locals while Jim Lefebvre produced two run-scoring doubles to propel the offense. Foster limited the Japanese to one hit until he tired in the eighth inning. With the 6-3 win, the Dodgers’ record stood at 9-4-1. They would not win another game.

Game 15: November 12, Fukuoka

The teams moved to Fukuoka’s Heiwadai Ball Park and the Japanese shut down the Dodgers, 4-0. Joe Moeller gave up all the runs in the first four innings. It was the National League champions’ fifth loss of the tour, the most by any visiting American professional club.

Game 16: November 14, Kokura

Moving to the northern tip of Kyushu, the Dodgers dropped a 3-1 game to the Yomiuri Giants, moving their record to 9-6-1. Eighteen-year-old Tsuneo Horiuchi of the Giants held the Dodgers to six hits before 20,000 at Kokura Stadium. In the third inning, Dodgers starter Nick Willhite walked two batters before Sadaharu Oh came to the plate. Oh blasted one over the fence, but then was called out for passing the runner who had started at first base, limiting the benefit to two runs. The Giants’ final run scored three innings later when Akira Kunimatsu doubled in Oh. The defeat left the Dodgers’ record against the Giants at 3-3.

Game 17: November 15, Nagoya

Now facing a combined team from the Giants and the Chunichi Dragons, the Dodgers dropped their third in a row before 28,000 at Chunichi Stadium. Home runs by Sadaharu Oh and Toshimitsu Suetsugu powered the Japanese team. The Dodgers’ third loss in a row marked the first time an American team had suffered such a streak.

Also that day, the Japanese government awarded O’Malley its highest honor for a non-Japanese – the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, recognizing his efforts to foster Japan-United States friendship through professional baseball.

The Dodger wives felt rewarded as well. The spouses of Tommy Dean, Bob Miller, Ron Perranoski, John Roseboro, Dick Stuart, and Jeff Torborg had made the trip and seen the sights and the cultural performances. And done some shopping. “I must have visited and bought out every department store in Japan,” said Sue Ellen Perranoski. “I bought a pearl ring, Christmas cards, kimonos, toys and a truckload of other things.”47

Game 18: November 16, Shizuoka

The tour, the worst by an American club in the history of the exchange, wound up with a 7-3 loss to the Yomiuri Giants, a game mercifully ended after seven innings because of darkness at Kusanagi Ball Park. It was the Dodgers’ eighth loss (9-8-1 overall) and their fourth straight defeat. Both were records for futility by an American team. For those viewing the tour as an international World Series, it meant the Giants had prevailed 4-3. The Giants jumped on Joe Moeller for four runs in the first inning and never looked back. The 21,000 in attendance saw Sadaharu Oh hit a grand slam, which would have been his third game in a row with a homer (and sixth for the series) except for his baserunning blunder in the 16th game. Al Ferrara homered in the Dodgers’ three-run sixth. Akio Masuda started and closed out his work with 3⅔ shutout innings.

The post-mortems started immediately. Giants manager Tetsuharu Kawakami said the series clearly showed that the gap between Japanese and American professional baseball had narrowed.

Comparing the 1966 tour to the one a decade earlier, he said, “We have learned a lot since then. Our baseball is at least 50 percent improved. Our bunting is better, the base runners are smarter now, and we play more inside baseball like the Americans.”48 Others were not so encouraged. Tokumi Matsumoto, a columnist for the Mainichi Daily News, quoted a fellow Japanese baseball writer: “It is obviously dangerous for the Japanese to believe the 9 win-8 loss-1 tie result indicates the Japanese pro ball standard is almost equal with that of the major leagues.”49

Dodgers manager Walter Alston said he was sorry over his team’s performance and offered specific praise for Oh, Masuda, and Horiuchi. He said he felt Japanese hitters, especially for power, had improved more than their pitchers since the Dodgers’ 1956 trip. Both managers noted that the absence of Koufax and Drysdale had had a big impact on the tour.50

After a day of relaxation and shopping on the 19th, the Dodgers’ charter plane left for Los Angeles on the 20th.

For the Dodgers, the consequences were coming. Some came directly from the tour. Others had been pending over the season.

The Dodgers party was still in Tokyo when the biggest blow fell. On November 18, Sandy Koufax announced that he was retiring. He knew he could keep competing and winning, but he also knew he risked permanent damage from an excruciatingly painful elbow that required extensive treatment before and after each start. O’Malley, still in Tokyo, wished him well.

As baseball’s Winter Meeting started on November 28, Bavasi started other planned changes. Former batting champion Tommy Davis, who had been on the trip, was traded to the New York Mets for the second baseman the Dodgers thought they needed – Ron Hunt. Three days later, the inevitable consequence of the Japan trip fell into place. Wills was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Bob Bailey and Gene Michael. Wills eventually had left Hawaii and visited Kerlan in Los Angeles. Kerlan said the knee was no worse than it had been at the end of the season. He prescribed extended rest, which had been the basis of Wills’s request to miss the Japan trip. Bavasi said this was the only time Walter O’Malley had forced his hand on a baseball decision.51 Wills, evidently forgiven, returned to the Dodgers in 1969.

The remake of the Dodgers’ roster would not work well. The team fell into the second division for two years and wouldn’t win another pennant for eight years, or another World Series until 1981.

Walter, and later Peter, O’Malley worked hard to improve and deepen relations with Japanese baseball. Yomiuri sent the Giants (and 21 Japanese reporters) to Vero Beach for joint spring training with the Dodgers in 1967. The Giants, or individual players, returned many times in the future and other Japanese professional and college teams would come for spring training. The Dodgers did not return to Japan until 1993, but these decades-long contacts were instrumental in the Dodgers’ ability to sign Hideo Nomo when he became the first major Japanese star to join an American major-league team in 1995.

The agreement between the two commissioners had sparked Japanese dreams that they were evolving toward parity with the US major leagues. The relationships the O’Malleys and the Dodgers forged with Japanese baseball were instrumental in giving them the opportunity to sign Nomo, and effectively confirm Japanese baseball as a second-tier operation as its major stars could dream of better salaries and the satisfaction of competing successfully at the highest levels of professional baseball.

ANDY McCUE, a former Board President of SABR, won the Seymour Medal for Mover and Shaker: Walter O’Malley, the Dodgers, and Baseball’s Westward Expansion. He is also the author of Baseball by the Books: A History and Complete Bibliography of Baseball Fiction and Stumbling Around the Bases: The American League’s Mismanagement in the Expansion Eras (University of Nebraska Press, 2022). He holds a master’s degree in Chinese history.

 

Sources

In addition to the specific books and articles cited below, this essay drew on the Japan Times, Pacific Stars and Stripes, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu Advertiser, Los Angeles Times, The Sporting News, baseball-reference.com, retrosheet.org, and walteromalley.com.

 

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1 Robert K. Fitts, Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015).

2 “Japanese Ignore Terms of Agreement,” The Sporting News, June 26, 1965: 14.

3 https://www.walteromalley.com/en/dodger-history/international-relations/Overview_Page-1 retrieved September 15, 2021.

4 “Japanese Ignore Terms of Agreement.”

5 “Dodgers Fall Easily to Met Unknowns, 4-1,” Los Angeles Times, March 16, 1966: III, 3.

6 United Press International (UPI), “Dodgers Invited for Japan Tour,” Honolulu Advertiser, April 19, 1966: C-4.

7 UPI, “Dodgers Get Japan Trip OK,” Honolulu Advertiser, May 4, 1966: B-6.

8 Frank Finch, “Wills Plays as Bavasi Burns,” Los Angeles Times, February 18, 1966: III, 1.

9 UPI, “Wills to Sign for $80,000,” Honolulu Advertiser, March 10, 1966: B-4. Salaries are from Baseball-reference.com.

10 Bob Hunter, “Drysdale Weighs Japan Offer: Dodger Star Can Have $500,000,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, September 9, 1965: F1.

11 Bob Hunter, “Drysdale Faces Ban if He Plays Baseball in Japan,” The Sporting News, September 25, 1965: 4.

12 Bob Hunter, “Koufax, Drysdale Ask Dodgers for Million$,” Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, February 22, 1966: A1.

13 Frank Finch, “Koufax, Drysdale Spurn Record Offer by Dodgers,” Los Angeles Times, February 25, 1966: III, 1.

14 Paul Zimmerman, “… K&D Are Making Other Plans,” Los Angeles Times, March 17, 1966: III, 1.

15 Charles Maher, “Peace at Last! K&D Return to Fold,” Los Angeles Times, March 31, 1966: III, 1. The amounts reported at the time varied somewhat, but the $125,000 and $110,000 figures emerged later.

16 Marvin Miller, interview, April 18, 2001.

17 Associated Press, “Victory Bath: Champagne and Shaving Cream,” Los Angeles Times, October 3, 1966: III, 1.

18 Red McQueen, “Dodgers Balk at Japan Trip,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, June 12, 1966: 65.

19 Jim Hackleman, “The Hack Stand,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 17, 1966: C-9.

20 UPI, “Sutton Unable to Make Trip,” Honolulu Advertiser, October 12, 1966: 22.

21 Bob Hunter, “Big D Could Furnish Answer to ‘X’ on Dodgers’ Hill Staff,” The Sporting News, January 28, 1967: 26.

22 Frank Finch, “Dodgers Follow Goodwill Tour of Maryland with One to Japan,” Los Angeles Times, October 14, 1966: III, 1.

23 Jim Hackleman, “Dodgers Kick Runless Habit,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 17, 1966: B1; Jim Hackleman, “Dodgers Rout Old Enemy,” Honolulu Star-Bulletin, October 18, 1966: C2.

24 Frank Finch, “International World Series with Japan Moving Nearer to Reality,” Los Angeles Times, October 19, 1966: III, 7.

25 Robert Trumbull, “Dodgers (U.S.) to Play Giants (Japan),” New York Times, October 5, 1966: 51.

26 Far East Network, “Dodger Tour Set on FEN,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 20, 1966: 20.

27 Lee Kavetski, “L.A. Arrives: ‘WOW!’, Thundering Japan Welcome,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 22, 1966: 18.

28 UPI, “Dodgers Here to Play 18 Exhibition Games,” Japan Times, October 21, 1966: 6.

29 Kavetski, “L.A. Arrives.”

30 https://www.walteromalley.com/en/dodger-history/international-relations/1966-Japan-Tour_Page-1, Retrieved January 4, 2022.

31 Lee Kavetski, “L.A. Bombards Yomiuri 16-5,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 24, 1966: 19.

32 UPI, “Dodgers Get 21 Hits – in One Game,” New York Times, October 23, 1966: S2.

33 Associated Press, “Dodgers Back on Beam, Lose 5-0 on 3-Hitter,” Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1966: III, 8.

34 Arthur Daley, “Sports of the Times: Like an Echo,” New York Times, November 2, 1966: 50.

35 “Dodgers Trim Giants 3-1 for Second Win of Series,” Japan Times, October 24, 1966: 6.

36 Frank Finch, “Wills ‘Jumps’ Tour to Get Knee Treated,” Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1966: III, 5.

37 In three appearances against the Dodgers on this tour, Murakami surrendered three earned runs in six innings.

38 Charles Maher, “O’Malley Charges Wills ‘Embarrassed’ U.S., Plans Personal Apology to Japanese Premier,” Los Angeles Times, November 3, 1966: III, 1.

39 Charles Maher, “Sportscaster ‘Finds’ Wills in Hawaii,” Los Angeles Times, November 6, 1966: D3.

40 Lee Kavetski, “L.A. Adjusts Winningly,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 4, 1966: 18.

41 Lee Kavetski, “Dodgers Learn Oh Plus Eto equals ‘Ouch,’” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 7, 1966: 20.

42 Lee Kavetski, “Dodgers Can’t Shed the Monkey, Lose Again,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 8, 1966: 20.

43 “Eckert, O’Malley Give Gifts to Sato,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 6, 1966: 17.

44 Frank Finch, “As Diplomats, Dodgers Succeed in Japan,” Los Angeles Times, November 8, 1966: III, 3.

45 Maher, “Sportscaster ‘Finds’ Wills.”

46 Associated Press, “Dodgers Blow Lead; Game Ends in Tie,” Los Angeles Times, November 10, 1066: III, 7.

47 Associated Press, “Shopping Spree,” Japan Times, November 16, 1966: 6.

48 Frank Finch, “Japanese Make 50% Gain in Baseball, Says Manager,” Los Angeles Times, March 2, 1967: Part III, 3.

49 Tokumi Matsumoto, “Have Japanese Reached Big League Level?” The Sporting News, December 10, 1966: 14.

50 “Oh Belts Grandslammer in Giants’ 7-3 Win Over L.A.,” Japan Times, November 17, 1966: 6.

51 Author interview with Buzzie Bavasi, November 30, 1994.

52 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), 96; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.

Japanese star slugger Sadaharu Oh of the Yomiuri Giants. (Robert Fitts Collection)

 

During 1968, with the United States and much of the world in turmoil, the National League champion St. Louis Cardinals traveled to Japan to play baseball and sightsee. Sponsored by the Yomiuri Shimbun, they played 18 games over 33 days from October 22 to November 24. The Cardinals had participated in a previous goodwill tour to Japan, in 1958, when they won 14 out of 16 games. Since that time, the Japanese had become more competitive against major-league competition, and held the visiting Los Angeles Dodgers to a 9-8-1 record in 1966.

On Tuesday, October 22, a dozen days after the Cardinals lost the World Series to the Detroit Tigers in seven games, they traveled from Los Angeles to Tokyo on a Japan Airlines chartered plane. President Lyndon Baines Johnson promoted the tour by stating that the two countries had more in common than just baseball, but that baseball does bring them together.1

While on the plane during a fog delay at Los Angeles, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst, Commissioner William D. Eckert, and future Hall of Famer Lou Brock were photographed discussing the 33-day tour. Schoendienst was asked which pitchers he would start in the first few games of the tour. He implied that the two-week layoff after the World Series might hamper the pitchers’ conditioning and that he was still figuring out the rotation.2

Each of the Cardinals players who participated in the series received $3,000 and an additional $750 from the Yomiuri Shimbun. The latter sum was provided in yen, which had to be spent in Japan. The $3,000 would be worth about $23,000 in 2022, and the $750 in yen would be worth about $2,455. The players’ wives were very happy to be included in the trip even if each player had to pay an extra $1,500 to bring them along.3

Before their departure, players Mike Shannon and Tim McCarver said they were interested in doing some hunting while in Japan.4 Bob Gibson, however, was ambivalent about participating in the tour. Immediately after the end of the World Series, he received a vaccination in his arm and was complaining about having to continue pitching after the long season and seven-game World Series. His pitching arm had ached since the second half of the season and he worried that his arm might get damaged with the extra games.

The 1968 expansion draft was held between the World Series and the beginning of the tour. As a result, some of the players participating in the tour were actually no longer on the Cardinals roster. Pitcher Larry Jaster, whom the Cardinals had lost in the draft to the Montreal Expos, was nonetheless asked to go along. The Cardinals also took Bobby Tolan and Wayne Granger to Japan even though they had been traded to the Cincinnati Reds for Vada Pinson. The trade relieved the Cardinals from having to protect both Tolan and Granger in the expansion draft. The Cardinals traded Johnny Edwards to Houston, as well, in preparation for the draft. Edwards also made the trip.

Though they lost the 1968 World Series to the Tigers, the Cardinals had won the Series in 1964 and 1967, and were one of the premier teams in the major leagues. Nevertheless, the Japanese felt that the series between the Cardinals and Yomiuri Giants would be very competitive. An anonymous Giants player suggested that the Cardinals did not seem that formidable. The Giants did seem to have an advantage because the Cardinals had played the tough seven-game World Series but then had a two-week layoff before starting play in Japan.

A sportswriter from the Hochi sports newspaper wrote, “I think Japanese teams can win five, maybe six, in this tour. I saw all 20 American major league teams this summer, and frankly, I was disappointed by American baseball. Many of our techniques are equal or superior – like pitching control, bunting and umpiring accuracy.”5 But, the writer went on to say, “[T]he Japanese game lacks the professional attitude one finds in America. … There is no sense of adventure in our game. An American runner might try to go from first to second base if he thinks he has a chance. A Japanese wouldn’t even consider the possibility. Too much chance of losing face. In a word, what we need is more ‘hassuru’ [hustle].” Daryl Spencer, the former major leaguer then playing in Japan, agreed. “The base running is terrible, and so is the coaching,” he said. He noted that players did not run out groundballs if they felt certain that they were going to be out, and that many Japanese baserunners were thrown out because they kept their heads down not knowing the situation.6

As the games began, the Cardinals started poorly, losing two of the first five. They looked lethargic. Their pitching and hitting were somewhat mediocre, probably due to having just played the seven-game World Series, not practicing much during the two-week layoff, and jet lag. The first three games were played at Korakuen Stadium, in Tokyo, on Friday, October 25; Saturday, October 26; and Sunday, October 27.

The Cardinals beat the Yomiuri Giants by a score of 9-8 in the first game. The Giants, the Japanese champions since 1965, pushed the Cardinals to the limit. Gibson, coming off one of the greatest seasons any pitcher had in the twentieth century, gave up five hits, two walks, and four runs, all earned, in just two innings. He was nursing his arthritic pitching elbow, having taken pills just before the game to dull the pain.7 Wayne Granger, who was no longer in the organization, came on in relief and was the Cardinals’ best pitcher for the game. His line was three innings pitched, one hit, three strikeouts, five bases on balls, and one run, which was earned. Steve Carlton took the mound in the sixth inning. Although Carlton struck out eight batters, he allowed five hits and was wowed by a 420-foot home run that Japanese slugger Sadaharu Oh pulled into the right-field bleachers.

Carlton later credited Oh’s home run and the trip to Japan for the development of his signature slider. He told Steve Wulf of Sports Illustrated in 1994, “I knew how effective Bob Gibson’s slider was but Bob had elbow problems, so I had been looking for a way to throw the slider and minimize the wrist turn that causes elbow injuries. I had been fooling with a pitch, but in Japan, after Sadaharu Oh hit two home runs off me, I figured, what the heck. I threw Oh, a left-handed hitter, the slider. When he backed away and the ball was a strike, I knew I had something.”8 Exactly when this event occurred is unknown as Oh hit only a single home run off Carlton during the tour. In fact, after the opening-game home run, Oh did not get a hit off Carlton.

Neither Gibson nor Carlton was a fan of the low mound at Korakuen Stadium. Nor would Gibson be a fan of the lower mound in the US major leagues for the 1969 season onward.9 Carlton complained that the mound was “almost flat compared to what I’m used to. I couldn’t get behind the ball.”10 After the opening game, manager Schoendienst suggested that Gibson was out of condition after not pitching since the end of the World Series.11 Tetsuharu Kawakami, the Giants’ manager, complained that the Cardinals were out of shape after Gibson was knocked out. Soon enough manager Kawakami would regret his complaint.12

The Giants beat the Cardinals 3-2 in the second game of the series. The Giants were led by outfielder Shigeru Takada, who had two hits and a stolen base. Takada, the 1968 Japan Central League Rookie of the Year, scored the first run of the game in the first inning when he scampered home as Akira Kunimatsu grounded into a double play started by shortstop Dal Maxvill. Giants pitchers Kunio Jonouchi and Yoshiyasu Tanebe held the Cardinals to two runs and five hits. The Giants were able to cobble together enough hits off Briles, Jaster, and Mike Torrez to win the game. Tanebe was the winner. Torrez took the loss when he gave up a game-winning single (today, it would be called a walk-off single) to second baseman Shozo Doi, with one out in the bottom of the ninth. Relief pitcher Tanebe scored the winning run. He made it on base after an unsuccessful sacrifice attempt to move Yasuharu Taki to second base. Tanebe went to second base when Torrez walked Takada. Tolan hit the only home run in the game.13

The Cardinals lost to the Japan All-Stars, 6-0, on October 27, again at Korakuen Stadium. Oh was the batting star of the game when he hit a grand slam in the eighth to put the game away for the All-Stars. Shortstop Kazuhide Funada of the Nishitetsu Lions hit a solo shot in the fifth inning, tallying the first run of the game. Pitchers Joe Hoerner, Mel Nelson, and Dick Hughes of the Cardinals were the victims of the All-Stars’ offensive barrage. Four Japanese pitchers, Mutsuo Minagawa of the Nankai Hawks, Yutaka Enatsu of the Hanshin Tigers, Minoru Murayama of the Tigers, and Fumio Narita of the Tokyo Orions, pitched for the All-Stars. Enatsu struck out seven Cardinals in three innings.14 He became a standout during the tour.

The Japanese didn’t seem overly impressed with the Cardinals early in the tour. Some writers noted that the Giants would be even better once they got back third baseman Shigeo Nagashima (the 1968 Central League MVP) and center fielder Isao Shibata, who were both sidelined with health issues. “[A] Tokyo sportswriter spoke for many when he said: ‘I am disappointed in the Cardinals. There is no show, no excitement about them.’”15

On Tuesday, October 29, at Maruyama Stadium in Sapporo, the Cardinals defeated the Giants, 6-3. Joe Hague, a Cardinal prospect, hit a home run. Carlton and Granger pitched for the Cardinals. Granger was the winner of the game. Tsuneo Horiuchi was the one pitcher who pitched well for the Giants. He gave up one hit in two innings.

After each game, the players and the coaching staff were showered with gifts like electric shavers, happi coats, photo albums, electronic equipment, and yen if they were the winning pitcher, manager, or best player.16 Their entourage was sometimes taken aback when presented with foods such as sushi, raw salmon, jellyfish, bean curd, and rice confections at Japanese restaurants. Sometimes, the players didn’t have a clue as to what they were eating. There were times when they could order up “American” food at their hotels. The Cardinals even met up with a number of interesting items in their dugouts, including charcoal pits and tea kettles.17

The Cardinals met the Giants again on October 30 at Miyagi Prefecture Stadium in Sendai, about 230 miles north of Tokyo. Gibson, who won the game, 8-1, was described as a “speedballer” in the Japan Times. He pitched five innings, giving up one hit, striking out six, and walking one. Jaster gave up three hits and three walks in four innings of mop-up work. Gibson appeared to be over his jet lag and inaction. Brock led off the game with a bunt single. Center fielder Curt Flood followed up with a single that moved Brock to third base with one out. Then catcher Tim McCarver hit a grounder to the pitcher, Kunio Jonouchi, who threw the ball away trying to get Flood at second. Brock scored and the floodgates opened, allowing the Cardinals to score four more runs in the frame when Orlando Cepeda, Hague, Shannon, and Phil Gagliano all followed with singles.

The Cardinals hit a barrage of home runs in the rest of the series. For instance, in the sixth game of the tour, at Osaka Stadium, they beat the combined forces of the Giants and the Nankai Hawks, 7-1. Masanori “Mashi” Murakami started the game and pitched three no-hit innings. Murakami was the first Japanese to pitch in the major leagues. He had pitched for the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965, with good results – 89⅓ innings with a 5-1 record, a 3.43 ERA, and 9 saves. He had a WAR of 1.6 for those two seasons. In 1968, pitching for the Nankai Hawks, he won 18 and lost 4 with an ERA of 2.38 and a WHIP of 1.019. Hague hit a home run for the Cardinals, while Oh hit his third home run of the series. In the 10th game, on November 7 at Toyano Stadium in Niigata, the Cardinals hit four home runs en route to an 8-1 win as Carlton and Torrez combined for a two-hitter. The only run scored by the Giants was on a home run by catcher Makoto Tsuchida. Flood (two home runs), Shannon, and Brock were the long-ball hitters for the Cardinals.18

The Cardinals became a buzzsaw from games 9 through 18 – whether they were facing the Giants, an all-star team, a combined Giants/Nishitetsu Lions team, a combined Giants/Chunichi Dragons team, or a combined Giants/Hiroshima Toyo Carp team. The Cardinals won eight and lost two games. They hit a total of 23 home runs in those 10 games and scored 69 runs to 48 by the Japanese.

On November 8, a day off from games, some of the Cardinals players including, Brock, Cepeda, Ray Washburn, and Gibson, and coach Dick Sisler visited with Vietnam war wounded at various US military hospitals in Japan. Brock visited and signed autographs for wounded at the US Army Hospital at Camp Zama. Gibson, Cepeda, Washburn, and Sisler visited with the servicemen at Kishine Hospital while others visited Camp Oji and Camp Drake The servicemen discussed pitching with Washburn. Some Marines explained to the players that they were celebrating the anniversary of the start of the Marines. Gibson started to ask the other players and Sisler when and where the Marines had been formed. Sisler provided the date of 1775 and Washburn and Cepeda provided Philadelphia as the location. Gibson added that the Marines were started in a bar in that colonial city. Gibson suggested that his arm was hurting during the visit. After that, one of the Marines asked Gibson how his leg was feeling after being broken by a batted ball hit by Roberto Clemente in 1967. He said it was feeling good until he was asked about it.19

On Saturday, November 16, ABC’s Wide World of Sports televised the taped-delayed November 9 game against the Japan All-Stars at Tokyo Stadium. Gibson pitched five innings, struck out seven batters, walked six, and gave up three runs, all earned. He contributed offensively, too, with a single, a double, and a steal of second base. Gibson even struck out Oh twice. He did give up a three-run homer to Shinichi Eto in the first inning. Catcher Katsuya Nomura, who was the next batter, was the all-time Japan leader in career home runs at that point. Gibson got Nomura to fly out to right field.20

The Cardinals beat a combined Giants-Carp team in Hiroshima, 5-3, on November 12. Torrez pitched a complete-game seven hitter. Yoshiro Sotokoba of the Carp, who won the Central League ERA title, pitched three innings, giving up six hits, four walks, and four runs, all unearned. After the game, the Cardinals and their entourage went on a sightseeing trip to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. While many of the players were too young to remember the 1945 bombings, they quickly understood the devastation that that holocaust created. Commissioner Eckert (a former Air Force lieutenant general), Schoendienst, and Musial laid wreaths at the memorial.21

In Nagoya, at Nagoya Stadium, on November 19, the Cardinals defeated a combination of Yomiuri Giants and Chunichi Dragons, 3-2. Torrez and Brock hit home runs. Torrez is forever remembered by legions of baseball fans for giving up Bucky Dent’s home run in the 163rd and final tiebreaker game of the 1978 AL East regular season, which propelled the Yankees into the ALCS. The Japanese team did score once in the fourth inning off Torrez.

Every once in a while the Japanese team would come up with a pitching gem to defeat the Cardinals. The 16th game of the tour showcased Akira Takahashi, who pitched a two-hit shutout for the Giants. Brock and McCarver got the only hits in the game for the Cardinals. Takahashi didn’t record a strikeout.22 He had had an up-and down career until 1968. He became the Giants’ third starter from 1963 through 1965 with middling results. In 1963 he won 14 and lost 13 with a 2.80 ERA, which was third best for the Giants rotation. After 1965 he was moved to the bullpen. However, he had a renaissance year in 1968 when he became a part-time starter. He won nine and lost eight for the Giants in 1968 with an ERA of 2.90 and a WHIP of 1.026. Interestingly, he pitched only seven shutouts in his career: three in 1963, two in 1965, and two in 1971.

The final game of the tour encapsulated the dominance of the Cardinals hitters over the Japanese. The game was played in Shizuoka, about 90 miles southwest of Tokyo, on November 20. Exactly 34 years earlier, on November 20, 1934, in the same ballpark, Eiji Sawamura held Babe Ruth’s All-Americans to just one run as he fanned Charlie Gehringer, Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx in succession. Although Sawamura lost the game, 1-0, the outing had made him a national hero. But the 1968 game was different. The Cardinals won, 16-9, with 14 hits compared with the Giants’ 12. The Cardinals hit seven home runs – two by Cepeda, two by Ed Spiezio, and one each by Hague (a grand slam), Brock and Shannon. The Giants hit four home runs with Shigeru Takada and Isao Shibata hitting one apiece and Oh hitting his final two homers of the series. Jaster and Granger were the Cardinals pitchers. Granger ended up with the win.23

At the end of the final game, each of the Cardinals players gave a bat to a Giants player. They swapped caps and said sayonara. This may have been when Oh gave Brock one of his compressed bats. Oh had been using this kind of bat since the 1964 season. He started to use a hand-made bat made by Jun Ishii. Ishii was looking for a harder wood and started to make his bats using the wood from a male yachidamo tree. The water and air had to be removed from the wood to ensure that it was as hard as possible. The sound of the bat hitting the ball provided Oh with a sound like no other.24 Bowie Kuhn, who became commissioner in 1969, barred Brock from using the compressed bat. In Japan the use of a compressed bat was disallowed after Oh retired in 1980. The bat was thought to give an advantage to the hitter because the wood is condensed. However, the research is not definitive.25

Despite the Japanese media’s pre-tour belief that their countrymen would challenge the Cardinals, the Japanese did not fare as well as they had anticipated. St. Louis won the series, 13 games to 5. The Giants, winners of four consecutive Japanese titles on their way to nine in a row, as well as the Japanese all-star teams, were thoroughly dominated by the Cardinals’ hitting – even though they were not considered a great hitting team during the 1968 National League campaign.

The Cardinals, who hit 73 home runs in the 162-game regular season, hit 30 in the 18-game series. Mike Shannon suggested that the Cardinals would hit 300 home runs in a season playing in the smaller parks and against Japanese pitching.26 Up-and-coming young pitcher Torrez, who won three and lost one on the tour, hit .571. He stated that the Japanese hitters would choke up after two strikes. They didn’t go for the long ball, except perhaps for Oh. His opinion was that US major-league hitters were more often looking for the long ball.27

Oh led all of the players with six home runs. He had hit 58 in the Japanese regular season. Brock, Cepeda, and Shannon each hit five home runs and Hague pitched in with four. Oh had the most hits, 21 (he hit .356). Brock had 20 hits. Cepeda led the tour with 17 RBIs; Oh and Hague were tied with 15. Granger had four wins along with a 2.21 ERA. Torrez had a 2.13 ERA and three wins. Gibson had 20 strikeouts, followed by Carlton with 17, Granger with 16, and Hanshin’s Yutaka Enatsu with 15. Enatsu pitched great against the Cardinals. He won two games while giving up only four hits and striking out 15 in nine innings, and had a 0.00 ERA. Gibson and Carlton were relatively mediocre on the tour. Gibson won two games while posting a 3.94 ERA in 16 innings. Carlton, who won one game, had a 5.40 ERA in 15 innings.

At the end of the tour, the Cardinals entourage felt that Oh and Enatsu were ready to play in the US major leagues. Schoendienst was effusive in his praise for both players and suggested that Enatsu was one of the best left-handed pitchers he had ever seen. He noted that Oh probably wouldn’t come to the United States because of salary demands. Oh made about $97,000 and Enatsu made about $50,000. Both had lucrative product endorsement contracts as well.28

The major leagues have had a number of Japanese players who have done very well since 1968. They players include Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui, Ichiro Suzuki, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Shohei Ohtani. Moreover, Japanese ballplayers won the first two World Baseball Classics, in 2006 and 2009.29 However, in 1968, the Cardinals were the Kings in Japan. Interestingly, the Cardinals had to wait another 14 years to win a pennant and participate in a World Series.

MARK KANTER grew up in Bristol, Pennsylvania, where he became a lifelong Philadelphia Phillies fan. He got the itch watching the last few outs of Jim Bunning’s perfect game against the Mets on Father’s Day in 1964. As a member of SABR since 1985, he has made numerous presentations at SABR meetings and conventions, as well as writing several articles for the Baseball Research Journal, the Northern Game and Beyond, and the National Pastime 43: From Swampoodle to South Philly, and several SABR BioProject biographies. He was the editor of the Northern Game and Beyond, the 2002 Boston SABR Convention publication. He has won 12 SABR team trivia contests since 1997, inclusive. He and his wife, Lynne, who is a great baseball fan in her own right, have discussed and watched baseball in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Great Britain, Australia, Japan, Canada, and the United States. Since retirement after 31 years as an engineer for the US Navy, he has been preparing taxes for AARP Tax Aide and playing Stratomatic365 baseball online. He and Lynne live in the idyllic seaside community of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, where he is on the town’s canvassing board.

 

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank Robert Whiting for providing personal information about Oh’s compressed bat and manager Kawakami’s take on the Cardinals after the first few games of the tour; Robert Fitts for providing encouragement and many Japan Times and Pacific Stars and Stripes articles about the tour; Kanya Honoki of Nara, Japan, who provided a concise translation of the Japanese magazine Japan x USA Baseball Game History, Baseball Game Magazine, Inc. 2004. I’d like to acknowledge my wife, Lynne Glickman, for reading and providing insight and editing of the article. Finally, I appreciate SABR for asking me to write this article.

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1 United Press International, “LBJ Boosts Tour,” Pacific Stars and Stripes (Tokyo), October 24, 1968: 22.

2 Lee Kavetski, “Cardinals Wing in for Japan Tour,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 25, 1968: 17, 20.

3 Jack McGrath, “A Bit of This and a Bit of That,” Troy (New York) Times Record, December 7, 1968: 14. Brock’s wife made enough purchases to expand their beginning total of five suitcases to 14 suitcases by the end of the trip. This led to some issues at the St. Louis airport on the return trip, when he was reunited with his trunk and five boxes after they were misplaced. Many of the wives purchased pearls. Backup infielder Ducky Schofield, who was known as a clothes maven, ended up with 26 suitcases of tailor-made clothes and electronics. Brock recounted that Nelson Briles, Bob Gibson, and Mike Shannon bought their fair share of Nikon cameras. Orlando Cepeda bought electronics. “Weary Cards Back Home,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 27, 1968: 19.

4 Associated Press, “Cards Ready to Leave, Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 23, 1968: 22.

5 Mike Berger, “The Foreign Flavor in Japanese Baseball,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 28, 1968: 9.

6 Berger, “The Foreign Flavor in Japanese Baseball.”

7 Kent Nixon, “Viet Vets Wow Cardinal Stars,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 10, 1968: 17, 19.

8 Steve Wulf, “Steve Carlton,” Sports Illustrated, January 24, 1994: 48.

9 Mike Berger, “Cards Look So-So to Japanese Fans,” The Sporting News, November 23, 1969: 45. The mound height in the major leagues was 15 inches through 1968. The two leagues had decided to lower it to 10 inches because hitting had become so abysmal. The major-league batting average was .237 in 1968 with Carl Yastrzemski leading the American League with a .301 batting average. This was and still is the lowest batting average to lead a major league. Moreover, Gibson, who had a 1.12 ERA, set the standard for the lowest ERA ever for a qualified pitcher. A qualified pitcher must throw at least one inning per game for his team. In most seasons that is 162 innings based upon a 162-game season. Denny McLain won 31 games for the Tigers. Both are standards that haven’t been matched in 53 seasons (1969 through 2021).

10 Kent Nixon, “Oh Makes a Hit with Carlton,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 27, 1968: 16.

11 Nixon, “Oh Makes a Hit with Carlton”; “Cardinals Beat Tokyo Giants in Opener,” Chillicothe (Missouri) Constitution-Tribune, October 25, 1968: 11. See also “Cardinals Edge Giants in Opener,” Japan Times, October 26, 1968: 7.

12 Robert Whiting (personal communication, October 6, 2021).

13 “Giants Upset Cards with 3-2 Victory,” Japan Times, October 27, 1968; “Tokyo Giants Even Series with Cards,” Jefferson City (Missouri) Sunday News and Tribune, October 27, 1968: 14.

14 “Japanese All-Stars Clobber Cards 6-0,” Japan Times, October 28, 1968: 7.

15 Berger, “Cards Look So-So to Japanese Fans.”

16 “Japan Land of Fun for Gift-Laden Cards,” The Sporting News, December 14, 1968: 29.

17 Gordon Newell, “Morin Ranked 14th Among NFL Receivers,” Fitchburg (Massachusetts) Sentinel, November 20, 1968: 8.

18 “Cards’ 4 HRs Win 8-1,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 9, 1968: 18.

19 Nixon, “Viet Vets Wow Cardinal Stars,” 19.

20 Lee Kavetski, “Cards Smack Down All-Stars 13-10,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 11, 1968: 20; Kent Nixon, “Name it – Big Bob Does it,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 11, 1968: 20.

21 “Japan Land of Fun for Gift-Laden Cards.” The author can imagine what the entourage’s thoughts were when visiting the Peace Park. He had been there in 2018 with his wife. It is so hauntingly devastating and moving just thinking about a situation where people just vanish in minutes. Personal reflection.

22 “2-Hitter Blanks Cards,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 19, 1968: 20.

23 “Cards End Series with 16-9 Deluge,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 22, 1968: 20.

24  Sadaharu Oh and David Falkner, Sadaharu Oh: A Zen Way of Baseball (Tokyo: Kodansha, 1984), 181-83.

25 Robert Whiting (personal communication, October 6, 2021).

26 “Shannon Liked Japan Parks,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 29, 1968: 19.

27 Kent Nixon, “Happy Days for Torrez,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 24, 1968: 18.

28 Red Schoendienst, “Red Looks at Cards and adds up ’69 Chances,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 14, 1968: 19.

29 https://www.mlb.com/world-baseball-classic.

30 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), 97; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.

The San Francisco Giants – a party of more than 60, including players, management, and staff, plus embedded sportswriters – boarded their chartered Japan Airlines jet at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on the damp gray morning of Tuesday, March 31, 1970. Among the players, the prevailing mood was one of relief that their two-week ordeal in Japan was finally ending, spiked with a sense of annoyance at having to pull this damn slog in the first place. From their perspective, the tour – while offering bits of fun and adventure – had mostly been an exercise in discomfort, exhaustion, and competitive humiliation.

Yet the club owner, 67-year-old Horace C. Stoneham, was settling into his first-class seat in a more ambivalent state of mind. To be sure, he was aware of the unhappiness among the players, and that pained him. Whatever else he was, Stoneham was an owner who cared deeply about his players – it would not be an exaggeration to say that he loved his ballplayers – and frustrating his boys, disappointing them in any way, was the last thing he ever intended to do. But as the operator of the business, he had broader concerns, and chief among them was the increasingly urgent need for cash revenue. The 1970 spring-training tour of Japan had netted the Giants a fat payday, something that was getting harder to find these days. This fact steeled Stoneham, reassuring him that, despite the trip’s problems, his decision to go was the right one. He’d done what he needed to do.

Moreover, beyond the cold hard accounting, these two weeks of on-the-ground, in-the-flesh examination of the state of Japanese baseball had kindled in Horace Stoneham a familiar old sense of wonder and excitement, of boyish eagerness for the future. He hadn’t personally been over to Japan in 10 years (though he had engaged in long-distance baseball business with his Japanese friends and associates), and the progress and power now vividly demonstrated by Japanese baseball – not just as a modern business, but as a cultural spirit – delighted Stoneham. Even when things are at their toughest, he knew, when it all looks bleak, there’s always a fresh new way to go. The Giants owner knew this. His life’s work had demonstrated it to him, in so many ways. You just had to be looking for the new opportunities, and to make yourself ready for them. That was the thing. That was always the thing.

Lefty’s Giants

There was never any American major-league ballclub more indelibly connected to Japanese professional baseball than these Giants, whose full ownership Horace Stoneham had inherited from his father in 1936. Their first opponent on this tour’s schedule was none other than the perpetual powerhouse Yomiuri Giants – so christened in the spring of 1935 by their strategic adviser Lefty O’Doul.1 He named them in specific honor of the New York Giants, O’Doul’s final major-league team. The Yomiuri lads would forever be clad in Giants-style black-and-orange caps, uniforms, and regalia.

When O’Doul was in New York with the Giants, he and Stoneham came to know each other well. When O’Doul’s career took him back to San Francisco, he and Stoneham sustained a good relationship. In 1945-46 their paths crossed again, when Stoneham’s Giants affiliated O’Doul’s Seals into their farm system, and in that period (as well as later), O’Doul was widely rumored as a candidate whenever Stoneham was thought to be pondering a managerial change.

It was through the O’Doul connection that Stoneham’s Giants first toured Japan in the fall of 1953, and then again in 1960, at which point O’Doul was back on the (now San Francisco) Giants’ payroll as a hitting coach. In 1966, when O’Doul bought out his investment partners and became sole owner of the landmark San Francisco bar and restaurant bearing his name, the scuttlebutt was that he’d done it with the financial assistance of Stoneham.2 O’Doul would have been prominently engaged in the Giants’ 1970 Japan visit, too, but he’d so suddenly and sadly died in December of 1969. Among Lefty O’Doul’s vast legion of true friends distressed by his passing, not many had known him longer, or loved him more, than Horace Stoneham.

Readily taking the torch from O’Doul, the key organizer of the 1970 tour was 48-year-old Tsuneo “Cappy” Harada. A native of Santa Maria, California, the son of Japanese immigrants, the bilingual Harada was spared internment during World War II, and instead was inducted into the US Army to serve as an intelligence officer. After the war he remained in Japan and soon became one of the key figures working with O’Doul to help heal the deeply wounded American-Japanese relationship with the tonic of baseball. When Stoneham’s Giants moved to San Francisco, they hired Harada, officially as a scout, specifically as their direct agent within the realm of Japanese baseball.3

Shared Goals

The press accounts of the Giants’ 1970 tour reliably described it as a “goodwill” venture, dedicated to forging and expanding friendship between the two countries and their baseball communities. No doubt that much was true. But the tour wasn’t only that, or even mostly that. Fundamentally it was a business deal, designed and expected to deliver a profit to its sponsor, the Lotte Orions of the Japan Pacific League, as well as its invited guest star Giants.

And for Stoneham’s Giants, generating some extra income wasn’t just a luxury. After enjoying consistently robust attendance in their first 10 years in San Francisco, the Giants saw ticket sales plummet with the arrival of the Athletics in Oakland in 1968. Stoneham needed this business. The deal he negotiated had favorable terms: The Orions would underwrite the Giants’ expenses, while guaranteeing Stoneham $150,000 from the proceeds.

The Giants’ 1970 Japanese tour was a springtime visit, a first. All previous American excursions had taken place in the fall, at the conclusion of the US and Japanese seasons, and were thus understood to be “just fun” barnstorming exhibitions. Staging it in March instead made these games a part of the spring-training schedule for both the Giants and their opponents; while they were still exhibitions, these contests took on the purpose of training the participants for their coming regular seasons.

For the Giants’ opponents, any disruption to their normal springtime routine was minimal: they were training in Japan anyway, and now they’d get to test themselves with some games against a formidable US major-league ballclub. As for the Giants themselves, Stoneham was no doubt considering this jaunt to be comparable to the springtime barnstorming schedules that were customary in earlier decades, as big-league teams played their way home after initial training at their “camp” somewhere in the South or Southwest.

What Stoneham was perhaps not properly appreciating was that his 1970 ballplayers were too young to have experienced springtime barnstorming. These were creatures of the modern Cactus and Grapefruit Leagues, and they were accustomed to spring training (a) in balmy weather, (b) with minimal travel, and thus (c) allowing for extended daily and weekly routines of conditioning, practice, and in-game action – as well as American-style time off. To yank them away from Arizona in mid-March, put them on a marathon jet-lag-inducing flight to a faraway place notorious for cold and wet spring weather, and once there submit them to a wearying schedule that prohibited their usual daily routines, wasn’t the most player-friendly course of action.

Nor were the games themselves anticipated to be cupcakes for San Francisco. In the assessment of Harada, “Our club is going over there next week expecting that it won’t have any easier time playing their clubs than it has been playing American teams in Arizona. The Japanese teams used to be comparable to our Class A minor leagues. But that was some time ago.”4

On March 15, a few days before the US team was scheduled to depart for Japan, the San Francisco Examiner reported:

All of [the Giants players] are looking forward to the trip, but in varying degrees. Some fear the interruption of the normal spring training process could leave the Giants unprepared for the season opener at Candlestick. Others fear that cold weather in Japan could hamper them.

The same article noted that Stoneham was doing his best to cheer them up: He was providing everyone with $500 spending cash, and players did look forward to shopping for pearls, cameras, and stereo equipment.5

Bumpy Ride

The Giants’ flight from San Francisco, consuming nearly all of Wednesday, March 18, was an ominous start. Headwinds buffeted and slowed the plane, and the leg from Honolulu to Tokyo was itself a 10-hour barf-bag nightmare. When they finally landed in Japan, it was 45 degrees and windy.

A welcoming party greeted them at the airport. Giants manager Clyde King, addressing the thronging press, vowed that his club was there on serious business, ready to play hard. Moreover, he noted that the team from Candlestick Park was “not afraid of cold weather.”6

The next morning the groggy Giants boarded a bus that inched through the city’s monumentally snarled traffic to Tokyo Stadium. There they worked out. The wind at the ballpark was described as “colder than Candlestick’s notorious breeze,” blowing straight in toward home plate with “a knife edge.” Hitters taking batting practice attempted to warm numb fingers over a smoldering bucket of charcoal. The infield grass was reported as “green but skimpy,” while the springtime outfield was “still brown from the cold wind.”7

The next day they played their first game, and lost to the Yomiuri Giants, 6-5, in 11 innings. Sadaharu Oh belted two home runs, including a walk-off game-winner, and Shigeo Nagashima homered as well. The day after that, also at Tokyo Stadium, in 39-degree overcast weather, the host Lotte Orions defeated their guests, 4-3, this time in 12 innings. Despite the gloom, a hardy band of San Francisco Giants Boosters some 100 strong, all the way from California – in loudly colorful attire, contrasting sharply with the drably clothed Japanese fans – lustily sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” and traded cheers with the Lotte faithful.8

After the game the Giants embarked upon their first intra-Japan road trip. It didn’t go well. Having already checked out of their Tokyo hotel that morning, the players had to wait in a long queue to shower and change, because the ballpark clubhouse had only two showers, and the Americans weren’t keen on using the large communal soaking tub. Then, without time to eat, they were jammed onto a tourist-class flight to Fukuoka, over 600 miles distant, and from there, packed like sardines with all their gear into two small buses for a 2½-hour ride to their hotel. Neither conveyance was designed for 6-foot-tall passengers.

When they finally arrived at nearly midnight, the players were loudly displeased. As one veteran put it, “This is like the low minors.” Their ire was directed at travel arranger Cappy Harada. “Where’s Cappy?” they asked. “Why isn’t he here?” Alas, Harada was not there, having instead flown ahead with Stoneham to Kyoto, first class, to woo potential broadcast sponsors.9

In Shimonoseki the Giants at last won a game, though not without rancor. Lotte Orions manager Wataru Nonin complained that San Francisco pitcher Gaylord Perry was throwing a spitball:

Umpire Al Kuboyama warned Perry that if he continued to rub his fingers over the back of his head he would call those pitches balls. Perry pretended to not understand and imitated the umpire’s motion with his gloved hand. After Perry left the game he started to run in the outfield – a standard practice in spring training in the States – and umpire Kuboyama chased him off the field. King protested, but the Japanese were very serious about the whole thing.10

The Giants lost their next game, making it three out of four defeats to begin the trip. This was widely noticed, given that no previous big-league American barnstormer had encountered much competitive challenge in Japan. Willie Mays, reflecting on how different this was from his previous visit, in 1960, assessed that the Japanese “play much better today as a team. They make fewer false moves and fewer mistakes. They don’t make any bad throws and don’t throw to the wrong base. They run the bases better, hit behind the runner and sacrifice. They have been very well coached.”11

Sportswriter Jim McGee concurred, but believed that wasn’t the only thing making it hard for these Giants:

The improvement in Japanese baseball explains only in part why the Giants have been able to win only one game in four so far. The Giants record here does not mean that the Japanese are surpassing the Americans in baseball. There are other factors.

For one thing, the Japanese clubs are ahead of the Giants in conditioning. The Giants are far from ready to open the National League season. The playing conditions are primitive compared with American fields and clubhouses. The weather has been bitterly cold.

Also, the Japanese teams have been playing strictly to win while the Giants have been following spring training procedures – giving less experienced players a chance in every game. The Japanese managers change pitchers according to the situation, while manager Clyde King is letting his hurlers go a certain number of innings no matter what is happening.12

The tour then took the Giants to Osaka, and the weather only got worse: On the morning of March 25, they were greeted with snowfall. Willie McCovey, no stranger to knee trouble, visibly limped into the breakfast room. “My knee always hurts when it’s going to rain,” he observed, “but it didn’t tell me it was going to snow.”13

The snow let up to allow that day’s baseball, albeit with the temperature at about 50 degrees and the wind icy cold. The Giants played a doubleheader, beating the Lotte Orions 2-0 and losing to the Nankai Hawks, 9-0, along the way being shut out in three innings of relief pitching by Masanori Murakami, the former Giant. (The previous week a rumor had circulated that Stoneham was engaged in negotiations with the Hawks to reacquire Murakami in a trade; however valid that notion was, nothing ever came of it.)14

Former big-league second baseman Don Blasingame, who was with the Giants in 1960-61, had played in Japan for three years and was now a coach for the Hawks. He acknowledged the problematic spring weather:

“I told [current Giants’ second baseman] Ron Hunt in St. Louis last winter to wear his long underwear over here for the tour,” Blasingame said. “I’ve started spring training over here as early as January 27 and it does get cold. I don’t mind it though. I guess I’ve gotten used to it. It’s no colder than a night game at Candlestick Park. This year it is staying colder a little longer.”15

By this time, Stoneham’s wisdom at choosing to undertake the spring tour was being roundly questioned in the San Francisco press:

The difficulty … seems to lie with owner Horace Stoneham’s decision to pack up in the middle of spring training, upsetting the annual rites and leaving the Arizona sunshine to barnstorm in Japan. It’s cold and snowy over there and the surroundings are totally unfamiliar, and, well, it just isn’t anything like how a major league baseball player gets ready for the major league season.

“I don’t know what it is exactly,” Hal Lanier, the Giants’ veteran shortstop, was quoted the other day. “I mean, Japan is an interesting place and the people have been hospitable and all that. Most of the guys pretty much agree on the subject, all due respect to Mr. Stoneham’s decision to make the trip. It just isn’t the same, know what I mean? We’re supposed to be concentrating on getting ready for the season and trying to win a pennant. We hope this trip won’t hurt our chances.”16

The fed-up Giants players now did what they could to assert some control. The team voted to tell Harada and the tour management to change the schedule: Instead of staying in Nagoya on March 26 for a day off, they opted to return to Tokyo a day early and spend their precious leisure hours in the big city. Their frustrations were again articulated in the press: there was almost no opportunity for practice outside of the games, as even batting practice was limited to 15 minutes before each game; pitchers were unable to take their usual daily running in the outfield, because the ballparks were so small that they’d have to run in front of the outfielders instead of behind them; and moreover, Japanese fans were angered at the sight of pitchers running during a game, considering it an insult, a signal that the Giants weren’t taking the competition seriously.17

The Long-Term Perspective

Horace Stoneham, perplexed though he was by his players’ sour experience, was nevertheless able to perceive sweetness in the tour. His interest wasn’t only in making immediate money off these engagements. He was also keenly focused (notwithstanding his mid-1960s misunderstandings in attempting to recruit Murakami) on the development of Japan as a source of player talent for the Giants. Stoneham’s organization had been second to none in opening up the Caribbean region to major-league talent-harvesting in the 1950s and 1960s, and he believed that by investing in relationships and forging trusting partnerships in Japan, he could gain another competitive advantage here.

With that in mind, Stoneham was warmly encouraged by what he was seeing on this tour. Most obviously, the generation of young Japanese nourished from childhood by an ample postwar diet had simply grown taller and stronger than their elders. Stoneham assessed that the average height of the Giants’ opposing players in 1953 had been perhaps 5-feet-3, then jumped to about 5-feet-6 or 5-feet-7 in 1960, and was now getting closer to 6 feet. The drawback of Japanese players being too small was rapidly becoming outmoded.

And not only were modern Japanese players ever more athletic, they were vividly, as Willie Mays had observed, “well coached.” They demonstrated baseball technique and skill better than ever before, and if the top-tier Japanese leagues altogether weren’t quite major-league quality, they were clearly gaining ground. Unquestionably there were now several, perhaps dozens, of Japanese players capable of at least making the majors, if not excelling there. “In five years, the Japanese will be a source of players for American baseball,” Stoneham predicted. “The Japanese player will be a common sight on American clubs.”18

While that assessment rested upon a sound reckoning of the baseball talent issue, the assumption Stoneham displayed in making it was telling: It was right and proper, indeed inevitable, that the American big leagues would recruit all the best young Japanese talent for themselves. The best interests of Japanese ballclubs, and Japanese fans, weren’t part of the equation. Stoneham was plainly not anticipating that the Japanese professional baseball business itself, vastly better organized and more unified than any counterpart in Latin America, could and would refuse to accommodate the Americans in positioning Japan as just another major-league feeder.19

Yet there was another potentiality beyond even that, and this was one in which the interests of US and Japanese baseball might fully align: a high-level partnership. Perhaps a truly international World Series could be staged, and/or perhaps Japanese franchises could be incorporated into major-league baseball. What was emerging in Japan wasn’t just a cadre of world-class players, but a broader world-class baseball culture, and a tremendous fan base: a world-class baseball market.

It was this aspect of baseball in Japan that most captivated Stoneham. He was aware that the Japanese public consumed 13 daily sports newspapers, with most of the content for most of the year devoted to baseball. He noted that from his bullet-train window between Nagoya and Tokyo he’d seen countless kids engaging in baseball games all through the countryside. He was particularly struck by the image of one lone boy in a field, a husky teenager not attending to his farm chores, but instead swinging a bat, practicing his cut.

“You have to be impressed when you see them using any vacant space to play, including cobblestone streets,” said Stoneham. “The other day, I saw a group of boys going along the street carrying fishing poles and nets. I asked Cappy where they could fish because I couldn’t see water anywhere. He told me they weren’t going fishing. As soon as they found an empty lot, they’d stick the poles in the ground, put the nets on top and use them for a backstop for the catcher. Most of them were wearing getas, the shoes with wooden clogs. You haven’t seen baseball until you’ve seen a kid in his getas, running down a fly ball on a cobblestone street.”20

End of the Bumpy Ride

On Sunday, March 29, the Giants concluded their schedule with a 10-6 loss to the Orions at Tokyo Stadium. It was their least impressive performance yet: Gaylord Perry was riddled for seven runs in the first three innings, Ron Hunt crudely booted two grounders, and catcher Dick Dietz dropped a simple throw, botching a force out at the plate.21 The defeat finalized the team’s tour record at 3-6, by far the worst ever compiled by an American visitor to Japan.

Manager Clyde King squarely faced reality:

“The Japanese beat us completely. That was a fact. No alibis, no excuses. They beat us the Japanese way, with thorough preparation and planning. I knew they were laying for us and tried to get the club ready for what they had to face. We didn’t do the job, that was all there was to it.”22

The misadventure was hooted in the San Francisco press: Reporter Jim McGee, who traveled with the team, concluded that “the Giants lost face in Japan,” and commented, “[W]hat happened … was a blow to [the players’] professional pride. They are nettled that they were sent there virtually unprepared and are now being castigated for not playing better.”23 Columnist Prescott Sullivan put it bluntly: “The Giants made asses of themselves over there.”24

And to add illness to insult, ace pitcher Juan Marichal was one of several Giants players who came down with colds and flu on the tour – hardly surprising given the conditions. But Marichal’s bout was especially severe:

“We went to Japan and the weather was so cold. It was about 27 degrees, it was so cold. And the stadium was concrete all over which made it colder. And they don’t have any heaters in there or nothing. The only thing they have is charcoal you would burn to warm up, and quite a few players got sick. I was one of the guys that got sick, I caught a real bad cold.”25

By the time he returned to the States, Marichal had developed a respiratory infection, and was running a high fever. He was given multiple shots of penicillin, and that provoked a serious allergic reaction. He became dangerously ill, and had to be hospitalized. Marichal missed several weeks of play, and then pushed himself back to the mound before he’d regained his strength. For the first time in his brilliant career he was miserably ineffective, until at last rounding into form over the second half of the season.26

Whether it was caused by their tumultuous spring training tour or not – Marichal’s struggles surely didn’t help – the Giants started the 1970 regular season poorly. In late May, with the perennially contending team mired in fourth place, 12 games behind, Stoneham fired Clyde King.

The Lotte Orions in 1970 went on to enjoy a marvelous season, a pennant-winning 80-47 campaign. Spring training had presented no problems for them.

As for Horace Stoneham, his dreams of finding a competitive and financial revival for his Giants amid the gathering abundance of Japanese baseball were to be unfulfilled. Within five years, facing bankruptcy, he would be forced to put his beloved Giants – his family legacy and his life’s work – up for sale, and retire to Arizona.

STEVEN TREDER is the author of the 2021 Seymour Medal-winning biography Forty Years a Giant: The Life of Horace Stoneham. For many years he has been a presenter at Society for American Baseball Research meetings and at the NINE conference, and was a founding member of and longtime contributor to The Hardball Times. He is a lifelong resident of the Santa Clara Valley and holds degrees from Santa Clara University and Stanford University. When he grows up, he hopes to play center field for the San Francisco Giants.

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1 Americans have always routinely, and incorrectly, called this team the Tokyo Giants.

2 Dennis Snelling, Lefty O’Doul: Baseball’s Forgotten Ambassador (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2017), 282.

3 Robert K. Fitts, Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015), 37-38.

4 Wells Twombly, “The Rising Sun,” San Francisco Examiner, March 12, 1970: 53.

5 Jim McGee, “O-Hah-O Not a State,” San Francisco Examiner, March 15, 1970: 50.

6 Jim McGee, “Giants Freeze in Japan,” San Francisco Examiner, March 19, 1970: 57.

7 Jim McGee, “Found: Candlestick in Tokyo,” San Francisco Examiner, March 20, 1970: 59.

8 Jim McGee, “Another Extra-Inning Defeat for the Giants,” San Francisco Examiner, March 22, 1970: C1.

9 Jim McGee, “Harada on Plane; Giants on the Bus,” San Francisco Examiner, March 23, 1970: 56.

10 Jim McGee, “Baseball’s Code of the Samurai,” San Francisco Examiner, March 23, 1970: 53.

11 Jim McGee, “Ten Years of Progress for Japanese Leagues,” San Francisco Examiner, March 24, 1970: 45.

12 McGee, “Ten Years of Progress for Japanese Leagues.”

13 Jim McGee, “A Frigid Split for Weary Giants,” San Francisco Examiner, March 25, 1970: 57.

14 “S.F. Preps for Japan Tour; Deal for Mashi Rumored,” Japan Times, March 18, 1970: 7. Murakami had pitched in 54 games for the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965. For more on Murakami, see Robert K. Fitts, Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2015).

15 McGee, “A Frigid Split for Weary Giants,” San Francisco Examiner, March 25, 1970: 57.

16 Dave Burgin, “Japan Trip: Grand Excuse?” San Francisco Examiner, March 26, 1970: 53.

17 Jim McGee, “Giants Win … Still Unhappy,” San Francisco Examiner, March 26, 1970: 53.

18 Jim McGee, “Japan: Baseball’s Shangri-La,” San Francisco Examiner, March 27, 1970: 47.

19 Indeed, during that very spring of 1970, the Giants signed two Japanese free agents, 22-year-old first baseman Hiroshi Suzuki and 25-year-old pitcher Kazuo Hiranuma. Both were assigned to the Giants’ Decatur (Illinois) Commodores farm club in the Class-A Midwest League. Both performed poorly there and were demoted in midseason to the Great Falls (Montana) Giants of the Rookie-classification Pioneer League, where they also performed poorly. That was the extent of the US professional career for both players, and there were no more such signings by any US organization until the 1990s.

20 McGee, “Japan: Baseball’s Shangri-La.”

21 The Giants committed 15 errors during the eight-game tour, leading to 13 unearned runs.

22 Jim McGee, “Japan’s Reaction to Giants: ‘Like Junks,’” San Francisco Examiner, April 1, 1970: 59.

23 McGee, “Japan’s Reaction to Giants: ‘Like Junks.’”

24 Prescott Sullivan, “What World Series?” San Francisco Examiner, March 31, 1970: 46.

25 Mike Mandel, SF Giants: An Oral History (Santa Cruz, California: self-published, 1979), 134.

26 Mandel.

27 Listed Japanese batters have a minimum of 4 plate appearances, all pitchers are listed. Yoshikazu Matsubayashi, Baseball Game History: Japan vs, U.S.A. (Tokyo: Baseball Magazine, 2004), 98; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.

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.

Calbee potato chip baseball card depicting Hank Aaron and Sadaharu Oh during their November 2, 1974 home run contest (Robert Fitts Collection)

 

For certain kids growing up in Tokyo in the 1970s, three of the most popular sports to watch on television were baseball, pro wrestling, and roller derby. For Hanshin fans, there was not much to cheer during the 1974 season, except for Koichi Tabuchi, the best offensive catcher in the league at that time, the Japanese equivalent of Johnny Bench. Some of the favorite wrestling moments were seeing Tiger Jeet Singh and Antonio Inoki going at each other or the Destroyer teaming with Giant Baba to face off against Fritz von Erich or Abdullah the Butcher. Then there was the Thursday night Roller Derby of the Tokyo Bombers against the New York Bombers or the LA T-Birds. Baseball, however, always took priority over the others. The one annoying thing was that the baseball TV broadcasts began at from 7 P.M., and at 9 P.M., whether the game was in the middle of excitement or a blowout, suddenly a woman’s voice offered this message: “Kono ban gumi wa goran no su pon sa no tei kyo de okuri shimasu” (“This program is brought to you by the following sponsors”) and the broadcast was over. That was when anyone wanting to know how the game ended had to listen to it on the radio.

The summer of 1974 had a treat for baseball fans: a US collegiate team visiting Japan for a series. Managed by the legendary Rod Dedeaux, the team was loaded with hitters. One of the highlights of the series was the game played at Meiji Jingu Stadium when pitcher Takashi Yamaguchi from Kansai University struck out 13 American batters in a 6-3 victory for Japan. Then an exciting Central League race between the Yomiuri Giants and the Chunichi Dragons made it a busy baseball summer. And Japanese fans were buzzing all summer long in anticipation of a visit by the New York Mets in November.

Hank Aaron ended the 1973 season with 713 career home runs, and second-year skipper Yogi Berra engineered the New York Mets to the NL pennant. Across the Pacific Ocean, Japan’s most popular team, the Giants, captured their 15th Japan Series, winning in five games over the Nankai Hawks. The baseball landscape in 1974 was heading into an exciting era. The Mets were invited to Japan for a goodwill tour at the conclusion of the season. With Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s home-run record on April 8, 1974, Japan invited him over for a home-run contest with Sadaharu Oh. November could not come soon enough for Japanese fans. Despite the Mets’ disappointing season in 1974, which ended with a 71-91 record and a fifth-place finish in the National League East Division, Japanese fans were eager to see Berra, the Yankees’ former star catcher, and his All-Star pitcher, Tom Seaver.

On October 24 the Mets delegation arrived at Haneda International Airport in a chartered DC-8. As expected, the delegation was welcomed by hundreds of media members and fans.1 A lot of the fans remembered that Berra had come to Japan almost two decades earlier, in 1955, as a member of the Yankees. They were looking forward to seeing the Mets play 18 games in 12 cities. For different reasons, nine Mets players decided not to make the trip including Jerry Grote, Cleon Jones, George Stone, and Tug McGraw. Berra brought up Roy Staiger and Ike Hampton from Triple-A Tidewater. (Hampton later played a season for the Kintetsu Buffaloes.) The Mets also included on their roster Joe Torre, whom they had just acquired from St. Louis in exchange for Ray Sadecki and Tom Moore.

During the tour the Mets faced the Yomiuri Giants 10 times; the other eight games were split between an All-Japan team and squads of the Giants and another Nippon Professional Baseball Organization team.

Game 1: Mets vs. Giants

Korakuen Stadium, home of the Yomiuri Giants for almost 30 years, was located next to Korakuen Amusement Park. With a capacity of 50,000, it was the second largest ballpark in the JPL behind Koshien, home of the rival Hanshin Tigers, which could hold 60,0000. In a race decided by percentage points a few weeks before, the Giants lost the Central League pennant to the Dragons by a record of 71-50-9 (.5867) to 70-49-11 (.5882) – the closest winning margin ever. The postseason was an emotional time for Yomiuri, because the country’s favorite player, Shigeo “Mr. Giant” Nagashima, retired.2

On October 26, a capacity crowd filled the stadium to see the 1973 Cy Young Award winner, Tom Seaver, on the mound. Seaver pitched three innings, giving up three runs. The Mets jumped to a quick 3-0 lead off starter Mitsuhiro Sekimoto (10-5, 2.28 ERA during the season). With New York leading, 7-6, going into the bottom of the eighth inning, Oh parked a grand slam off reliever Jerry Cram and the Giants won, 10-7. John Milner, Wayne Garrett, and Dave Schneck all hit homers for the Mets. The Giants’ offense was impressive, recording 16 hits.3

Game 2: Mets vs. Giants

A crowd of 40,000 showed up for a Monday afternoon game at Korakuen. Jon Matlack was on the hill against Kazumi Takahashi. Matlack pitched four solid innings and the Mets led 4-2 on Don Hahn’s home run in the top of the fifth. However, as in Game 1, the Mets were not able to hang on to a lead, when reliever Jack Aker walked six runners to allow the Giants to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth. Shigeru Kobayashi and Osamu Shimano kept the Mets scoreless in the last five innings. Neither team scored in the 10th and the game was called a 4-4-tie. This was done mainly so the teams could catch a flight to Sapporo for Game 3 the next day. Mets manager Berra noticed that the Japanese style of play was more aggressive since his first visit in the 1950s. “They’ve improved a lot, they’re more aggressive now, they go for the hit-and-run play, and they bunt more,” he commented.4

Game 3: Mets vs. Giants

After an opening loss and a tie, the Mets were looking for a win in Sapporo. The teams arrived at Maruyama Stadium on October 29, a ballpark built in 1934 that seated 25,000. Occasionally the Giants and other teams played regular-season games at Maruyama. Jerry Koosman got the start. Before the game, Tom Seaver gathered seven Yomiuri pitchers in center field and gave advice about his four pitches and mechanics. New York Times writer Joseph Durso wrote: “They stood in a quiet semicircle on the center field grass in Maruyama Stadium beneath majestic mountains colored in the yellow and red of autumn. Expensive chalet homes snuggled into the slopes leading to the ski jump built for the 1972 Winter Olympics. In parkas and coats, the early arrivals began to crowd the gentle hill beyond the outfield fence at the foot of the mountain, spreading blankets on the cold ground to watch for the next four hours while the Giants and New York Mets brought their traveling goodwill tour north. Wood-burning heaters warmed the players in the dugouts and Sapporo beer warmed the customers who had paid $10 for box seats.”5

The Giants got to Koosman early, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second inning, but the Mets responded with two in the top of the third off starter Mitsuhiro Sekimoto. The Mets took the lead, 4-2, on a two-run single by Felix Millan in the fourth before Yomiuri recaptured the lead with three in the bottom of the fifth. The Mets got a run off reliever Takaaki Taniyama to tie the game at 5-5 in the sixth, but in the bottom of that inning, the Giants went ahead on a home run by Kazumasa Kono off reliever Bob Miller to win the game, 6-5. For the third straight game, the Mets did not hold on to their lead.6

Game 4: Mets vs. Giants

After the game the teams flew to Sendai, the capital city of Miyagi prefecture. As in Sapporo, there were no professional baseball teams in Sendai. The multipurpose Miyagi Athletic Stadium opened in 1952 with a capacity of 30,000: a mere 7,000 seats but standing room for 23,000. Tom Seaver faced off against Nobuhiro Tamai, pitched six innings and drove in a run in the top of the fifth. Ed Kranepool homered off Shigeru Kobayashi to tie the game at 2-2 in the top of the seventh, but reliever Hank Webb gave up the winning run in the bottom of the inning, making the final score 3-2. Yoshimasa Takahashi came in to save the game for the Giants in the top of the ninth. The Mets were winless in four tries.7

Game 5: Mets vs. Giants

The Mets arrived in Fukushima prefecture after a 90-minute ride on a bullet train. Kaiseizan Stadium had just opened in 1974 and was owned by Koriyama City. On this October 31 afternoon, with the temperature in the 40s, 18,000 fans flooded into the park to see Bob Apodaca start against Tadao Yokoyama.8 After seven innings, the Mets had a familiar 2-0 lead, with runs in the second inning on a fielder’s choice and an unearned run in the sixth. Once again the Mets were not able to hold on to their lead, as the Giants scored three runs in the bottom of the eighth inning, two of them on a double by Toshimitsu Suetsugu to put them in the lead, 3-2. The Mets came back in the top of the ninth with a solo home run by John Milner, his second in the series, and the two teams settled for another 3-3 tie. After five games against the Giants, the Mets were still winless.9

Game 6: Mets vs. All-Japan

The Mets were back to the familiar territory of Tokyo and Korakuen. A two-game series with the All-Stars was set for the weekend, in conjunction with Culture Day and the home-run contest between Hammerin’ Hank and Oh.

Aaron arrived at Haneda Airport on November 1 after a 17-hour flight from Atlanta and was thrust into a press conference at the Hotel Okura in Minato-ku with his rival, Japanese home-run king Oh. Aaron had completed the 1974 season with 733 home runs and Oh had 634. The two home-run heavyweights would take several rounds of swings to see who would wear the crown.10 Aaron had not swung at a ball since Atlanta’s last game of the season, against Cincinnati on October 2. In that game, he parked a homer off the Reds’ reliever Rawly Eastwick in the seventh inning, his 20th of the season.

Aaron and Oh were at the park taking batting practice at 10:30 A.M. The Mets and the All-Japan team were also there to prepare for their game after the home-run contest. Joe Pignatano, a coach for the Mets and a former catcher for the Dodgers, pitched to Aaron while batting practice pitcher Kuniyasu Mine threw to Oh.11 The 40-year-old Aaron was supposedly the underdog to the 34-year-old Oh, who had the home crowd of 50,000 behind him and was hitting against his familiar batting-practice pitcher.

Aaron suggested the rules for the contest: Each batter would swing at 20 balls and whoever put the most into the stands would win. Aaron was being paid $50,000 and Oh $20,000. Oh won the coin toss and elected to go first. There were four rounds of five pitches in each. In the first round, Oh put three balls (measuring 330 feet, 396 feet, and 412 feet) into the right-field stands. Aaron followed with 396-foot and 380-foot homers. After one round, Oh led 3-2. In the second round, Oh put three more into the stands, one of them almost 400 feet. Aaron put four over the wall to tie the score at 6-6 after two rounds. In the third round Oh managed only one rocket, and Aaron hit three to take the lead, 9-7. In the final round, Oh put two over, including a 400-footer, to tie it at 9-9. Aaron parked a 429-foot blast with his third swing to win the contest, 10 homers to 9.12

After the two kings met in person, Aaron expressed his humble feeling about the contest: “Oh is only 34, he has a chance to hit over 800. Winning today’s contest proves nothing. If there is any meaning, it is that we made the fans happy.” The fans were happy indeed: they were treated to a one-time event.13

The game followed the contest and the Mets were still looking for their first win. Southpaw Jon Matlack was assigned to go against the best hitters of NPB. Yakult Swallows’ ace pitcher Hiromu Matsuoka, who was 17-15 with a 2.80 ERA during the season, started for the All-Japan team. Matlack pitched beautifully, giving up just two hits in eight innings, while Matsuoka struggled with the Mets hitters, surrendering six runs in 2⅔ innings. The Mets’ Joe Torre, Ron Hodges, and Ted Martinez homered in an 8-0 victory over the All-Stars. The All-Stars included future Hall of Famers Isao Harimoto, Tsutomu Wakamatsu, Yutaka Fukumoto, Koichi Tabuchi, Oh, and Nagashima, but the Japanese media speculated that the All-Stars were not as good as the Giants, who had won their ninth straight championship in 1973.14

Game 7: Mets vs. All-Japan

The next day, November 3, the Mets and the All-Stars squared off again with Jerry Koosman on the mound against Keishi Asano, who went 12-15 with a 2.49 ERA during the season with the Yakult Swallows. The Mets trailed 2-1 going into the top of the ninth, but Felix Millan and Ed Kranepool homered to put New York ahead 4-2 (the eventual the final score) and give Harry Parker the win. The Mets’ pitching had held the best of NPB to two runs in 18 innings. Berra summarized in his own way: “It took us a week to catch up – the pitchers, at least. Hitters can usually hit – Aaron showed that Saturday in his home‐run contest against Oh. But pitchers can go stale, the way ours did.”15

Game 8: Mets vs. Giants

The Mets were playing their fourth straight game at Korakuen with another sellout crowd of 50,000 and looked for their first win against the Giants behind Tom Seaver. Yomiuri, wanting to continue its unbeaten streak, put Tsuneo Horiuchi on the mound. Seaver doubled in two runs to put the Mets up 3-1 in the top of the second but in the bottom of the inning, Shigeru Takada hit a three-run homer to put the Giants back on top, 4-3. John Milner hit a tying home run in the third; it would be the Mets’ last run of the game. Kazumasa Kono hit a solo homer in the bottom of the third to regain the lead and Oh added a solo homer in the sixth to make it a 6-4 game. Yomiuri then scored three runs on five hits, a walk, and two errors in the seventh and another in the eighth to win 10-4. In all, the Giants pounded out 17 hits, including three home runs.16

That evening, the Mets and Giants attended a reception at the US Embassy. Hank Aaron was also in attendance and the players from both teams exchanged game feedback as Shigeo Nagashima’s wife, Akiko, translated. Akiko had gone to Kokomo High School in Indiana and the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota.17

Game 9: Mets vs. Giants

After three nights in Tokyo, the Mets and Giants were off to Niigata City. The Niigata Athletic Stadium was built in 1936 and hosted the National Sports Festival in 1964. The stadium had 18,600 seats, but for the Mets-Giants matchup, 20,000 fans squeezed in. Randy Tate faced Mitsuhiro Sekimoto and was roughed up, allowing seven runs in 2⅓ innings. Tate walked six batters. Although the Mets offense retaliated with three runs, the Giants’ lead remained at 7-3 after three innings. Relievers Bob Apodaca and Harry Parker stopped the bleeding, but the Mets could not regain the lead. Dave Schneck and Joe Torre each hit their second home run of the series, and Ed Kranepool hit his third. New York lost 9-4 and was still unable to beat the Giants after seven games. After the game, the team got news from the front office in New York that reliever Jack Aker had been put on waivers. He was sent back to the United States.18

Game 10: Mets vs. Giants

The two teams arrived at Toyama City after a 3½-hour ride on the bullet train from Niigata. Jon Matlack got the start against Tsuneo Horiuchi in front of 20,000 fans at Toyama Municipal Stadium. Matlack pitched the Mets to their first victory over the Giants in eight tries. The Mets jumped on Horiuchi in the third inning, rallying for three runs, and took a 3-1 lead. The Giants responded and tied the game at 3-3 after five. The Mets took advantage of their hits against relievers Osamu Shimano and Kazumi Takahashi and scored three runs in the last four innings to gain the victory. Matlack shut out the Giants in the last four innings.19

Game 11: Mets vs. Giants-Nankai

When it came to the Nankai Hawks, Katsuya Nomura always stood in the picture. The Hall of Fame catcher had a career 657 home runs. From 1950 to 1974, the Hawks played in 10 Japan Series, the most of any team in the Pacific League’s 25-season history to that point. Nomura was the player-manager from 1970 to 1977, winning 512 games.20

In the matchup between the Mets and a combined Giants-Hawks squad on November 9, Jerry Koosman got the start against Takenori Emoto, the Hawks’ ace who produced a record of 13-12 with a 3.16 ERA during the season. The Mets jumped on Emoto with two runs after two innings including John Milner’s fourth home run of the series. In the top of the fifth, the Mets increased their lead to 5-1, scoring three runs off reliever Shinichi Yamauchi. Sadaharu Oh homered in the sixth and Mitsuru Fujiwara’s two-run double in the bottom of the eighth made it a one-run game, but Ed Kranepool hit a solo home run in the ninth to seal the 6-4 victory.21

Game 12: Mets vs. All-Japan

The Mets faced the All-Stars on November 10 for the third time and attempted to go 3-0. The Mets were also playing at historic Koshien Stadium for the first time on the tour. Koshien opened in 1924 and has been the home of the annual high-school tournament ever since, as well as the home ballpark of the Hanshin Tigers since 1936.

Tom Seaver took the mound against the All-Stars against Yutaka Enatsu of the hometown Hanshin Tigers. Seaver fanned 11 batters in a complete game. With the Mets down 1-0 going into the top of the fifth, Ted Martinez hit a three-run home run off reliever Kenji Furusawa of the Tigers to put the Mets up, 3-1. Then in the top of the seventh, Milner sent another souvenir ball to the fans in the left-field stands for a two-run round-tripper. The 5-1 victory over the All-Stars gave the Mets a three-game sweep. More impressive was the pitching, which allowed the All-Stars only three runs in the three games.22

Game 13: Mets vs. Giants

The teams headed to Matsuyama City on the island of Shikoku, where they squared off against the Giants at Matsuyama Municipal Baseball Field. Jon Matlack started on the hill against Tsuneo Horiuchi. Yomiuri quickly ran up five runs against Matlack after three innings, including a two-run homer by Oh in the third. Kranepool responded with a two-run home run in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit to 5-2. Relievers Apodaca and Parker shut down the Giants offense as the Mets continued to chip away. In the eighth the Mets scored twice on two singles, an error, and a wild pitch to cut the deficit to 5-4. After two outs in the ninth, Milner and Joe Torre singled to bring up Kranepool, who homered off Mitsuhiro Sekimoto to put the Mets ahead 7-5. Jerry Cram shut down the Giants in the bottom of the ninth to secure the victory.23

Game 14: Mets vs. Giants-Hiroshima

The opening of the Hiroshima Municipal Stadium in 1957 with 32,000 seats to replace the old 13,000-seat Hiroshima Sogo Ground Baseball Park, initiated an exciting era for the Carp baseball team. The Mets and Giants traveled across the Seto inland sea from Matsuyama to Hiroshima for the 14th game of the tour. In Hiroshima, the Giants teamed with the Carp to take on the Mets. The Carp had not had a good year, finishing in sixth place in the Central League. Their bright spots were future Hall of Famers Sachio Kinugasa, who hit 32 home runs, and Koji Yamamoto, who hit 28. Jerry Koosman took the mound for the Mets and went the distance in a 4-0 Mets victory in front of 22,000 fans. Joe Torre hit his third home run of the tour in the fourth inning off rookie Kojiro Ikegaya (who became the Carp’s ace the next season, going 18-11 with a 3.32 ERA), and that was all the Mets needed to clinch the victory. The Mets added another run off reliever Sohachi Aniya in the top of the sixth inning.24

Game 15: Mets vs. Giants-Lions

Heiwadai Stadium in Fukuoka opened in 1949 and was home to the Lions. Although the team had multiple owners (Nishitetsu, Taiheiyo Club, and Crown Lighter), the name Lions was preserved, and they remained in the same ballpark until 1978. The Lions were Pacific League champions in 1954 and 1963 and won the Nippon Series in 1956, 1957, and 1958. Once they became the Seibu Lions in 1979 and moved to Tokorozawa in Saitama Prefecture, the team dominated the Pacific League during the 1980s and ’90s.

On November 16, a combination of Giants-Lions were the Mets’ opponents. Up to this point, the Mets had defeated every combination team and all-star team. Tom Seaver took the mound against Taiheiyo Club starter Hajime Kato, who had a 12-12 record during the ’74 season with a 2.95 ERA. Seaver threw a complete game but gave up two runs in the bottom of the eighth and the combined team blanked the Mets 2-0 in front of a capacity crowd of 32,000. Akira Tanaka, the Lions’ ace reliever, who pitched in 50 games with a 12-5 record and 2.61 ERA, relieved Kato in the fourth and pitched three no-hit innings before Toru Hamaura took over and added two more no-hit innings. Osamu Higashio closed out the game with a no-hit ninth. It was a fast-moving game: 1 hour and 51 minutes.25

Game 16: Mets vs. Giants

Getting down to the end of the trip, the Mets arrived at Kokura on the most northern point of the southern island of Kyushu. The teams played on November 18 at Kokura Stadium which had a capacity of 20,000. The crowd of 12,000 showing up on this Sunday afternoon was treated to two home runs by Sadaharu Oh, his fifth and sixth against the Mets. Shozo Doi, who did not hit a home run during the season, hit one over the fence. Doi was a product of Rikkyo University, the alma mater of Nagashima. The Mets started Jon Matlack against Tsuneo Horiuchi. Matlack gave up five runs in five innings, but the relievers Hank Webb and Bob Apodaca shut out the Giants in the last four innings. Horiuchi allowed two runs in two innings and relievers Kazumi Takahashi and Shigeru Kobayashi gave up a run each, allowing the Mets to trail by only one run, 5-4, going into the top of the ninth. Leadoff batter Felix Millan began by sending an Osamu Shimano pitch into the left-field stands to tie the game. Milner and Torre then singled, and Milner scored on Kranepool’s fly out to put the Mets ahead. Next, Ted Martinez broke the game open with a two-run homer. New York added a final run on doubles by Don Hahn and Ron Hodges to win 9-5. It was the Mets’ third victory against the Giants in 10 tries.26

Game 17: Mets vs. Giants-Chunichi

The Mets traveled back to Honshu Island and faced a combined Giants-Dragons team at Chunichi Stadium in Nagoya on November 19. The Chunichi Dragons were the Central League champions, managed by Hawaiian native Wally Yonamine. Yonamine’s story was like a fairy tale. He was the first person of Japanese descent to play professional football, appearing with the San Francisco 49ers after World War II, and the first American to play professional baseball in postwar Japan. Before joining the Dragons as a coach and later manager, he led Yomiuri to the Nippon Series championship four times, was the league MVP in 1957, made the All-Star team eight times, and the Best Nine seven times. Yonamine was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994.

Jerry Koosman allowed just four hits as he shut out the Giants-Dragons, 3-0. Japanese starter Takamasa Suzuki was charged with four runs in three innings with home runs by Ed Kranepool and Felix Millan. He was relieved by Jun Misawa, the Dragons’ number-3 pitcher with an 11-9 record and 3.45 ERA during the season. Joe Torre hit a solo homer in the top of the eighth off reliever Mitsuo Inaba of the Dragons.27

Game 18: Mets vs. Giants

The Mets and Giants headed to Shizuoka City for the finale of the Goodwill Series. Kusanagi Stadium was opened in 1930 and could hold 30,000 fans. Outside the ballpark stand statues of Eiji Sawamura and Babe Ruth. The ballpark was packed as Mets starter Randy Tate squared off against Nobuhiro Tamai. After four innings, the score was 0-0, then the Mets exploded with four runs in the top of the fifth, including a home run from Joe Torre, his fifth of the series. In the bottom of the fifth, the Giants responded with seven runs on seven hits and three walks as they sent 13 batters to the plate against relivers Hank Webb and Bob Apodaca. Giants ace Tsuneo Horiuchi came in the top of the seventh and pitched three scoreless innings to save the game as Yomiuri defeated the Mets, 7-4, to wrap up the tour.28 After the game, Giants manager Testuharu Kawakami announced his retirement after 14 seasons at the helm. During his tenure he led the Giants to 11 Japan Series championships.29

Conclusion

The Mets ended with a record of 3-6-2 against the Giants, starting out 0-5-2 before winning three of the last four games. They were 3-0 against All-Japan, and 3-1 against a combination of Giants with another team. The Mets hit 28 home runs, while the Giants hit 11. In the seven combination or All-Japan games, there was only one Japanese home run, by Sadaharu Oh. Oh hit .322 with six home runs against the Mets.

Shigeo “Mr. Giant” Nagashima, who retired at the end of the season, played in all but one of the games against the Mets and batted .444 for the series. This was the last time he was on the diamond as a player. The next season, he took over Kawakami’s position as the Giants’ manager.

Joe Torre said of the Japanese players, “[T]hey were good, well disciplined, they continue to be well disciplined, but as far as being major league caliber players, there were just a few.”30 Torre did not waste time impressing his new team during the tour, hitting .437 with five home runs. John Milner also hit five homers and Ed Kranepool led the Mets with seven.

Tom Seaver pitched well with a 2.48 ERA in five starts. His most impressive performance came against the All-Japan team on November 10 when he went the distance and allowed only one run. Jerry Koosman had the best record, going 3-0 with a 2.39 ERA in four starts.

The 1974 season was memorable for baseball fans in the Tokyo area. Waseda University won the All-Japan University Baseball Championships. Choshi Shogyo won the Summer Koshien High School Tournament. There was an exciting US-Japan Collegiate Championship series that previewed several future major leaguers. The Chofu Little League team won the All-Japan Championships and advanced to the Far East Regionals and was one win from going to the Little League World Series.31 Wally Yonamine got his due by winning the pennant for the Dragons. And the year concluded with Hank Aaron and Sadaharu Oh slugging it out in a home-run contest and the Mets’ goodwill tour, which provided some great memories.

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1 Joseph Durso, “Warm Tokyo Welcome Starts Met Orientation,” New York Times, October 25, 1974: 45.

2 Wayne Graczyk, “Legend Nagashima Rekindles Memories of an Unforgettable Life in Baseball,” Japan Times, February 25, 2017. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/sports/2017/02/25/baseball/legend-nagashima-rekindles-memories-unforgettable-life-baseball/.

3 Joseph Durso, “Tom Terrific and Mr. Oh,” New York Times, October 27, 1974: 229.

4 Joseph Durso, “Another Diplomatic Success,” New York Times, October 29, 1974: 45.

5 Joseph Durso, “How to Pitch in Sapporo,” New York Times, November 1, 1974: 45.

6 Associated Press, “Japanese Beat Mets Again on Homer,” New York Times, October 30, 1974: 54.

7  Associated Press, “Yomiuri Giants Beat Mets Again, 3-2,” New York Times, October 31, 1974: 59.

8 Associated Press, “Mets Tie on Milner’s Homer,” New York Times, November 1, 1974: 46.

9 “Milner HR Helps Mets Tie Giants,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 2, 1974: 20.

10 Ken George, “Hank Aaron in Japan,” Stars and Stripes, January 23, 2021, https://www.stripes.com/history/archive_photo_of_the_day/hank-aaron-in-japan-1984-1.659530.

11 Associated Press, “Aaron Wins Home Run Match, 10-9,” New York Times, November 2, 1974: 19-20.

12 Associated Press, “Aaron Wins Home Run Match, 10-9”; Joe Guzzardi, “In 1974, Aaron and Oh Slugged It Out – Who Won?” Lodi (California) News, March 31, 2012. https://www.lodinews.com/opinion/columnists/joe_guzzardi/article_3be45fb2-2eb8-53f6-820b-027fdf470c48.html.

13 Yoichi Nagata, “The Oh-Aaron Home Run Duel,” BaseballGuru.com. http://baseballguru.com/jholway/analysisjholway35.html.

14 Joseph Durso, “Mets, Good Diplomats, Lose Again,” New York Times, November 5, 1974: 43, 46.

15 Durso, “Mets, Good Diplomats, Lose Again.”

16 “Giants Rout Mets 10-4 With 3 Homers, 17 Hits,” Japan Times, November 5, 1974: 8.

17 Durso, “Mets, Good Diplomats, Lose Again”; John Dempsey, “‘61 KHS Grad Dies in Japan,” Kokomo Tribune, September 20, 2007. https://www.kokomotribune.com/news/local_news/61-khs-grad-dies-in-japan/article_df29ef6b-a30c-52f4-8490-55cb1cb78db6.html.

18 Associated Press, “Mets Lose Again; Aker Waived,” New York Times, November 7, 1974: 65.

19 Associated Press, “Mets Finally Beat Yomiuri Giants,” New York Times, November 8, 1974: 34.

20  Robert Whiting, “Katsuya Nomura, Star Baseball Player with Rocky Personal Life,” Nikkei Asia, February 14, 2020. https://asia.nikkei.com/Life-Arts/Obituaries/Katsuya-Nomura-star-baseball-player-with-rocky-personal-life.

21 Associated Press, “Met Homers Turn Back Japanese,” New York Times, November 10, 1974: 263.

22 Associated Press, “Mets Win on Seaver’s 4-Hitter,” New York Times, November 11, 1974: 36; United Press International, “Mets Beat All-Japan Team,” Japan Times, November 12, 1974: 8.

23 United Press International, “Mets Score Second Win Over Giants 7-5,” Japan Times, November 13, 1974: 11; Associated Press, “Mets Win and Go Over .500,” New York Times, November 13, 1974: 55.

24 Associated Press, “Mets Begin to Win in the East,” New York Times, November 15, 1974: 42.

25 Associated Press, “Mets Set Again in the East,” New York Times, November 17, 1974: 268.

26 United Press International, “Oh Hits 2 HRs; Giants Bow to Mets Rally in 9th 9-5,” Japan Times, November 19, 1974: 9; Associated Press, “Mets Beat Yomiuri Giants,” New York Times, November 19, 1974: 59.

27  “Koosman 4-Hit Shutout Stops Giants-Dragons,” Japan Times, November 20, 1974: 8.

28 Associated Press, “Sayonara for Mets with 9-7-2 Mark,” New York Times, November 21, 1974: 67.

29 “Kawakami Retires as Giants’ Pilot,” Japan Times, November 21, 1974: 6.

30  “Winter Meeting Interview with Joe Torre,” MLB.Com. https://www.mlb.com/news/winter-meetings-interview-with-joe-torre/c-40506326.

31 Baseball Reference, “All-Japan University Baseball Championship Series,” https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/All-Japan_University_Baseball_Championship_Series; Baseball Reference, “National High School Baseball Championship Series,” https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/National_High_School_Baseball_Championship.

32 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), 100; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.

From left to right: George Foster, Sadaharu Oh, Pete Rose, Isao Harimoto, and Johnny Bench. (National Baseball Hall of Fame Library, Cooperstown, New York)

 

Pete Rose basked in the attention he was receiving from the Japanese press on Opening Day, April 6, 1978. His Cincinnati Reds were facing the visiting Houston Astros in a game that was being broadcast live to Japan. Rose interrupted the Japanese interpreter by boisterously proclaiming, “Let me answer that. I speak Japanese well. No, I won’t do it today, but I’ll do it tomorrow.” Then the interpreter explained to Pete, that the question was, “How do you feel?”1

The 11-man Japanese press corps was on a 10-day visit to Cincinnati, Dallas, New York, and San Francisco. Yasushi Matsui of Fuji Telecasting Company said, “[T]he demand and interest in American baseball is there (in Japan).” Two major-league baseball games per week were being broadcast to Japan for the first time in 1978.2 The Japanese reporters and photographers were also excited about the Big Red Machine’s coming 1978 postseason tour of Japan. Rose addressed Japanese fans, “Tell ’em we’re going to beat the hell out of their teams. … We want to win the World Series this year so we can go to Japan and win the world, world series.”3

From 1970 through 1976, the Big Red Machine averaged 98 wins a season as they won five division titles and made four World Series appearances, winning two of them. The Reds featured Hall of Famers Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, and Tony Perez along with Pete Rose, Dave Concepción, George Foster, César Gerónimo, and Ken Griffey Sr.4 The Reds declined a tour of Japan after winning the 1976 World Series. A few months later, Perez was traded from the Reds to the Montreal Expos and another future Hall of Famer, Tom Seaver, was sent to Cincinnati from the New York Mets in 1977.

In early December 1977, two or three major-league teams were being considered for a tour of Japan after the 1978 season. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn acknowledged, “There are a few teams who would like to go.” In October 1977, for example, Philadelphia Phillies traveling secretary Eddie Forenz was in Japan investigating accommodations for the Phillies.5 But on January 2, 1978, the Reds announced that the Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun would sponsor the team’s four-week tour of Japan beginning in late October 1978. They would face the Yomiuri Giants as well as combined teams throughout Japan.6

On May 26, 1978, Kuhn left for Japan for discussions about the Saturday and Monday Game of the Week broadcasts as well as This Week in Baseball. All three shows were being broadcast for the first time in Japan in 1978. The All-Star Game, league championships, and World Series were also scheduled to be shown in Japan that year.7 Kuhn was also preparing the way for the Reds’ postseason tour of Japan. Seventeen games were to be played in 13 cities: Tokyo, Sapporo, Sendai, Yokohama, Nagoya, Toyama, Nishinomiya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Kumamoto, Fukuoka, Kita-Kyushu, and Shizuoka.8

In 1978 Cincinnati had a strong 28-18 start by Memorial Day and was 49-37 at the All-Star break. A hard-fought season left them 2½ games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West Division despite a 92-69 record before they embarked on the excursion to Japan.9 Cincinnati finished second in runs scored in the National League. The Big Red Machine’s offense was led by George Foster’s 40 home runs and 120 RBIs. There was hopeful speculation of a home-run-hitting contest between Foster and Japanese home-run king Sadaharu Oh.10 Johnny Bench hit 23 home runs while 37-year-old Pete Rose tied the 44-game National League single-season hitting streak record and recorded his 3,000th career hit. Tom Seaver won 16 games in 36 starts with a 2.88 ERA while Doug Bair had 28 saves with an ERA of 1.97.

The Reds’ roster for the trip to Japan consisted of a 10-man pitching corps of Doug Bair, Bill Bonham, Pedro Borbón, Dan Dumoulin, Tom Hume, Mike LaCoss, Fred Norman, Mario Soto, Dave Tomlin, and Tom Seaver. Catchers were Johnny Bench and Vic Correll. Their six infielders were Dan Driessen, Mike Grace, Junior Kennedy, Ray Knight, Ron Oester, and Pete Rose. Outfielders Mickey Duval, George Foster, Ken Griffey, Mike Lum, and Champ Summers made the trip.11 Reds manager Sparky Anderson brought six coaches: Alex Grammas, Ted Kluszewski, Russ Nixon, Ron Plaza, George Scherger, and Larry Shepard.

Technically, Mike Lum and Pete Rose, who had filed for free agency, were not members of the Reds. The Japan tour was significant for Lum, the first American-born player of Japanese ancestry in the majors. His mother was Japanese. Mike acquired the Lum surname when he was adopted by a Chinese couple.12

Paul Moskau was enraged when he found out that he was left off the Reds’ roster for the Japan tour. Moskau, already disenchanted after being sent to the minors at the end of spring training, exclaimed, “You feel like you are part of the team and twice they do this. Is Bonham going? Last time I talked to him, he was, with his arm in a cast.”13

Four other Reds players not making the trip were Davey Concepción, César Gerónimo, Ken Henderson, and Joe Morgan. Concepción wanted to stay in Venezuela to play winter baseball, while the other three were healing from injuries.14

Cincinnati farmhand Mickey Duval was one lucky guy. “[T]he Nashville Sounds (Double A) brought me to extended fall baseball in Tampa … and I did get to play with the big club for a month, but it was in Japan. When I was in Tampa, I was crushing it. I had a good year in Double A, and then [the Reds] said, ‘Do you feel like going to Japan? Gerónimo can’t make it.’ I got $9,000 for that month; I was only making $850 a month!”15

Accompanying the Reds was a delegation led by Kuhn, National League President Charles Feeney, and Reds President Dick Wagner along with six members of the Cincinnati front-office staff. National League umpire Lee Weyer also went along.

As they left, comedian Bob Hope said, “The only advice I have for them is have their kimonos made here. They’ll fit better. I can’t wait to see Johnny Bench in a kimono with rice in his hair.”16

On October 25, 1978, the Reds flew off to Japan and landed with Pete Rose sliding headfirst into commercial endorsements from Japanese companies like Mizuno.17 Pete acknowledged that he was accompanying the team despite being a free agent because he had business commitments in Japan. He even observed, “[The Japanese] might want me to play there next year too.” The Associated Press reported that at least one member of the Reds was in discussions about playing in Japan in 1979.18

The Reds contingent was greeted by cheering fans at Tokyo’s Narita Airport. At the welcoming press conference, Rose said, “I’m very happy to be here. I’m very curious to see and watch the reaction of Japanese fans and baseball players.” Sparky Anderson declared, “The Japanese are going to see some super baseball. I’m sure we will show some real fine baseball. … Japanese ballplayers and fans will agree that we were one of the finest major league teams to ever visit here.” Bench added, “Fans here will be in for some fine baseball, and it will be hard for (the Japanese) to believe the way Foster hits balls over the wall.” For his part, Foster promised, “I’ll give it my best shots.”19

The Big Red Machine started working out in smoggy Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo less than 24 hours after landing in Japan. “Ohayo Gozai Masu (Good Morning),” Johnny Bench greeted Japanese photographers. Anderson warned the players who were still suffering from jet lag, “Nobody will get crazy.” Infielder Dan Driessen remarked about the jet lag, “It’s manageable right now. It’s totally a new experience (to play in Japan).” Reds coach Alex Grammas promised, “[The Japanese fans] are expecting us to win, and we are going to win.” Meanwhile, Pete Rose boasted that he had turned down an offer to play for the Seibu Lions for “more than a million dollars.” He added, “Yes, I’ll play in Japan … 17 games (for the tour).”20

Game 1: October 28, Tokyo

Cincinnati faced the Yomiuri Giants in front of 47,000 rain-drenched fans at Korakuen Stadium. The lead changed hands four times before Kiyoshi Nakahata launched a game-winning two-run homer off reliever Mario Soto in the eighth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory. Foster and Champ Summers had home runs for the Reds.21

Sadaharu Oh touched starter Tom Seaver for a two-run home run in the bottom of the fourth. Seaver was on his second tour of Japan after having been on the 1974 New York Mets visit. Cincinnati players welcomed the charcoal fire pits in the Korakuen Stadium dugout to keep warm.22

Game 2: October 29, Tokyo

Some 50,000 Korakuen spectators watched as the Reds defeated the Yomiuri Giants 5-3 behind George Foster’s two-run double and a solo homer by Johnny Bench. Sparky Anderson said, “I felt good today. I asked my players to play an aggressive game from the start.” Anderson was particularly satisfied because Sadaharu Oh flied out with the bases loaded in the fourth inning.23

During the postgame press conference, Anderson exclaimed, “We are not hitting well. We have to be very aggressive. The Giants are fundamentally good.” Yomiuri reliever Shigeru Kobayashi gave up the home run to Bench, who noted, “He might be a good reliever (if he was in the major leagues).”24

Game 3: October 31, Hokkaido

Bench cranked out his second home run of the tour off reliever Mitsuo Sumi at Murayama Stadium in Sapporo. Mike LaCoss gave up only one hit in the 2-0 win over the Yomiuri Giants in front of 24,000 chilly fans. Snow-capped mountains were visible in the background. Anderson said, “I don’t feel good in a close game like today. LaCoss did a fine pitching job. We didn’t think much of the cold weather because we had experienced it in Montreal and San Francisco. My batters are gradually picking up.”25

Giants manager Shigeo Nagashima gave high marks to his starting pitcher, Kazuaki Fujishiro, who had pitched only three innings during the 1978 season: “I thought he could go all the way, but he got tired in the eighth. But I gave him a passing mark for holding the Reds scoreless in the first seven innings.”26

Game 4: November 1, Sendai

The Reds and Giants came away with a 5-5 tie. Ken Griffey went 3-for-5 with a home run and a triple. Johnny Bench hit his third homer of the tour in front of 30,000 fans in Sendai.27

One thing that stood out to the Americans was that teenage girls in cheerleader outfits served as batgirls during the game. After each use, they would take bats off the field to be cleaned and polished, then returned to the bat rack.28

Wherever the Cincinnati Reds went, their equipment manager, Bernie Stowe, went with them. Stowe said, “When we’re traveling, I’ve got to make sure everyone has the proper equipment. That it’s all packed and that it gets to the hotel and ballpark. I do it all by myself. If you get a system going, it’s not too bad. Everything falls into place.”29

Game 5: November 3, Tokyo

For the first time on the tour, the Yomiuri Giants were not the opponents when the Reds returned to Tokyo. Tom Seaver faced the Japan All-Stars and gave up three runs, eight hits, and two home runs, and walked three while striking out eight in seven innings.

Koji Yamamoto, Daisuke Yamashita, and Masayuki Kakefu homered the Japanese past the Reds, 6-4, in front of 50,000 spectators at Korakuen. After the game, Sparky Anderson remarked, “Since the Japanese players have made so much progress, Japanese teams can play US major league teams any time now and be competitive.”30

Game 6: November 4, Yokohama

The Big Red Machine rumbled into sunny Yokohama where they faced a combined team of Taiyo Whales and Yomiuri Giants. A crowd of 30,000 saw Cincinnati use timely hitting and good baserunning to pick up a 3-1 victory. Anderson praised his starting pitcher: “(Tom) Hume did a fine job pitching today. He had good control.”31 Sparky added, “[T]he Reds will play better in the remaining games.”32

There was a scare in the first inning when Ken Griffey was hit on head by a throw as he reached first base. He was stunned and fell to the ground but was able to walk to the dugout and was not seriously injured.33

While on the tour, Pete Rose received the news that 12 major-league teams had selected him in the free-agent draft. Rose exclaimed, “I was happy with the way it turned out. All the teams that I mentioned I would like to play with, except Boston, picked me. Most of them are contenders for a chance to win (the World Series) and all are offensive teams.”34

Game 7: November 5, Tokyo

The series returned to Korakuen Stadium, where the Reds defeated the Yomiuri Giants. 6-4. Bench hit his fourth home run of the tour in front of a crowd of 50,000. The Big Red Machine faced the Giants in nine of the 17 contests on the tour.35

Game 8: November 7, Nagoya

The series moved to Nagoya in central Japan as Cincinnati faced a combined Chunichi Dragons and Yomiuri Giants squad. Some 27,000 fans at Dragons Stadium saw Bench slug two home runs and Driessen and Lum one each. The four homers were part of a 13-hit attack that propelled the Reds to an 8-3 victory.36 Those three hitters each were presented with a bouquet of flowers as they crossed home plate after their home runs.37

National League umpire Lee Weyer was the only American arbiter on the tour. He said the Japanese players were courteous but noted, “I understand this year [the Japanese] had an argument which lasted one hour and 19 minutes. You would never see that in the United States.” Weyer observed that strikes were higher and that pitches at the knees are called balls.38

Game 9: November 9, Toyama

Seaver pitched seven innings, giving up four runs, six hits, and two walks, and striking out seven Yomiuri Giants in front of 22,000 fans in Toyama. The Reds won, 8-4. Isao Harimoto hit a home run off Seaver.39 The day before, Seaver had signed a five-year contract with the Reds. The 33-year-old right-handed pitcher said, “I am very happy with the contract and I’m looking forward to very productive years with the Reds.”40

Game 10: November 11, Nishinomiya

The Big Red Machine rolled over a combined Hankyu Braves and Yomiuri Giants team, 10-5, in Nishinomiya. Some 27,000 spectators watched Tom Hume win his third game of the tour despite the Japanese team leading through five innings. Champ Summers had two solo homers and Dan Driessen lifted a two-run round-tripper to lead the Reds’ 15-hit attack.41 The Associated Press noted that Sadaharu Oh “dropped his bat and was convulsed with laughter” after Pedro Borbón threw him a “blooper” pitch.42

Game 11: November 12, Osaka

A crowd of 46,000 saw the Reds beat a Japan all-star team 3-1 in Osaka. Mike LaCoss racked up his third win of the tour. The Reds’ record so far: eight wins, two losses, and one tie.43

Game 12: November 14, Osaka

A combined squad of Kintetsu Buffaloes, Nankai Hawks, and Yomiuri Giants lost 3-2 to the Reds at Osaka Stadium. The smallest crowd of the tour so far, 16,000, saw Cincinnati extend its winning streak to seven games.44 With his fifth-inning double, Pete Rose had hit in all 12 games so far.45

Game 13: November 15, Hiroshima

Bench tallied his seventh home run of the tour. Two-run homers by Foster and Griffey plus solo blasts by Bench and Mike Grace powered the Reds past a combined Hiroshima Carp and Yomiuri Giants team, 7-2. Tom Hume won his fourth game of the tour, giving up two runs and seven hits.46

Manabu Kitabeppu gave up four runs in the first inning in front of a crowd of 20,000 at Hiroshima’s Municipal Stadium. Jitsuo Mizutani hit a two-run homer off Hume.47

Bench, whose homer was his seventh of the tour, joked, “Some guys are known as ‘money’ players, I’ve become a ‘chocolate’ player.” Japanese custom dictates that players receive 5,000 yen and a box of chocolate bars when they hit a home run. Japanese fans nicknamed Bench, “The Candy Man.”48

Game 14: November 17, Kumamoto

The Reds came from behind to defeat Yomiuri, 3-2, running their win streak to nine. Bench hit his eighth home run of the series and added a tiebreaking double in the seventh inning to win the game, played at Fujisakidai Stadium in Kumamoto, Kyushu, in front of 26,000 fans. Foster belted his third homer of the tour.49 Mike LaCoss picked up his fourth victory. Pete Rose extended his hitting streak to all 14 games of the series.50

Game 15: November 18, Fukuoka

The Big Red Machine kept getting stronger and stronger as evidenced by their 9-1 win over a combined unit of the Crown Lighter Lions and Yomiuri Giants at Heiwadai Stadium in Fukuoka. Foster’s two-run blast and solo homers by Summers, Grace, and Vic Correll provided the fireworks before a crowd of 34,000.51

Game 16: November 19, Kokura

Cincinnati pummeled the Yomiuri Giants, 16-2, before 27,000 at Kokura Stadium in Kokura. Mike Lum, Johnny Bench, and Pete Rose hit two-run homers. Giants pitchers allowed 18 hits as the Reds earned their 11th consecutive victory.52

Game 17: November 21, Shizuoka

A crowd of 20,000 at Shizuoka Stadium in Hamamatsu watched the final game of the tour, a 3-2 Cincinnati victory. Sadaharu Oh, who had 805 home runs at the end of the 1978 season, connected for only his second round-tripper of the tour. Pete Rose was held hitless after hitting safely in the first 16 games.53 Tom Hume, the winning pitcher, was the winningest pitcher of the tour with five victories. The Reds totaled 28 home runs. Bench led with nine. Champ Summers led the team with a .370 batting average.

The Reds tallied 14 wins, 2 losses, and 1 tie in the 17-game series. Cincinnati won the last 12 games in a row, “displaying power, speed, and the determination to win even though the games were exhibitions.”54 Against the Yomiuri Giants, who hosted the tour, the Reds had seven wins, one loss, and one tie.

As to whether Japan was ready to compete in a global world series, Bench observed, “Maybe in 10 years. Hitting-wise, they have fewer flaws, but they don’t match up.” Sparky Anderson said, “Their best teams could compete … but I feel they would finish fourth or fifth. Bench and Foster could probably hit 60 to 65 homers a season over there, maybe 70. The fences are very short.” Foster, who also toured Japan when he was with the San Francisco Giants in 1970, said, “It’s tough for them to compete with our power. They have some outstanding pitchers who could do well over here and a few hitters. But Americans are bigger and have strength in their favor. They had a lot of submarine pitchers. But they don’t throw much breaking stuff.”55

Pete Rose said of one unnamed Japanese pitcher whom the Reds nicknamed Spiderman, “He came to a stop at four different points during his delivery.” Rose also marveled at the Japanese love of baseball: “I never saw an empty stadium. We arrived at 7:30 one morning and a kids league already had three innings in.”56

Sadaharu Oh impressed Anderson. “Prior to our last game, (Oh) came over up to me … and apologized for his showing,” the manager said. “He’s played in every game since March 1st. He’s very tired.” The Reds equipment manager Bernie Stowe admired Oh, saying, “That man signed 250 autographs and never complained once. I’ve never seen anything like it.”57 Tom Seaver said, “I think Oh would hit about 25 home runs a year in our major leagues and maintain close to a .300 batting average. He’s 38 years old but has the body of a man 30 years old.”58

Cincinnati coach Alex Grammas remarked, “Japanese baseball has improved tremendously since I was here 20 years ago with the 1958 St. Louis Cardinals. The players are bigger, more skilled and gradually becoming better hitters. Defensively, their infielders are almost as good as our major leaguers. Their No. 1 weakness is the throwing arms of their outfielders.” Tom Seaver could see some improvement since his first visit with the New York Mets four years earlier. “Their pitchers are throwing harder than in 1974. They have excellent control. Pitching is the strongest part of Japanese baseball.” He encouraged Japanese players to strengthen their arms through weightlifting.59

Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, talking about a global World Series, said, “No timetable has been set yet. But there is feeling that it might be closer, if still down the road.”60

The Japanese cost of living and exotic cuisine surprised many on the tour. Pete Rose’s wife, Karolyn, was shocked that they paid $47 for “just a steak, nothing with it. The meal came to $150 for one person.” A roast-beef sandwich cost $30 and a martini $5.50. Karolyn also tried blowfish, which she found rubbery. Ramona Lum said her husband, Mike, of Japanese ancestry, “was in hog heaven.” Johnny Bench sampled jellyfish, octopus, and fish eggs. Champ Summers ate raw fish. But Mike LaCoss stuck to more familiar fare: “They had hundreds of McDonald’s joints … and pizza and ice cream parlors too.”61

The Reds returned to Cincinnati on October 22. That same day, Pete Rose assembled a conference to give Jeeps to nine members of the Reds staff, saying, “These guys are my MVPs.” Coaches Alex Grammas, Ted Kluszewski, Russ Nixon, Ron Plaza, George Scherger, and Larry Shepard, along with trainer Larry Starr, equipment manager Bernie Stowe, and broadcaster Joe Nuxhall each received a Jeep. Rose said Nuxhall “would get up on Christmas Eve to throw batting practice for me.” Rose also treated himself to a Jeep.62

Five days after returning from Japan, Sparky Anderson was fired. He had led the Reds for nine years to five division titles, four pennants, and two World Series championships.63 Anderson said, “I was totally shocked. We’d just got back from Japan, and it was a super trip. Dick (Wagner) even congratulated me on how we’d done.”64 Melvin Durslag wrote, “Sparky lived in the fantasy that he was part of the Cincinnati family. So he got his family reward – two and a half weeks of barnstorming in Japan and a kick in the kimono.”65

Pete Rose fumed about Anderson being ousted, saying, “I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit for him.”66 Asked if he would consider signing with Cincinnati, Rose answered, “[T]he first thing I’d want would be for them to hire Sparky Anderson.”67 Rose said, “The Japanese have to think we got a bunch of kooks running this team.”68

One sportswriter, Fred Russell, speculated that Rose didn’t rule out eventually “playing a season or two [in Japan] when he’s about 45 years old.” Russell noted, “He has picked up $60,000 [$256,566 in 2022 dollars] while [in Japan], endorsing Japanese products.”69 Rose proudly wore and used anything with Mizuno on it – workout shirts, batting gloves, bats, gloves. Shortly thereafter, Pete signed a four-year contract with the Phillies for $3.2 million ($13,422,171 in 2022 dollars), the largest big-league contract at the time.70

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1 Associated Press, “Audacious Rose Charms (?) Visiting Japanese Writers,” Sarasota (Florida) Journal, April 6, 1978: C1.

2 Associated Press, “Pete ‘Tokyo’ Rose Proves to Be No Diplomat,” Lima (Ohio) News, April 6, 1978: 3-b.

3 Associated Press, “Pete Rose Turns Table on Japanese Reporters,” Corbin (Kentucky) Times-Tribune, April 6, 1978: 3.

4 Mike Fisk, “Big Red Machine: In Retrospect,” December 12, 2020, https://www.overtimeheroics.net/2020/12/26/big-red-machine-in-retrospect/.

5 Associated Press, “Phils Top List for Japan Trip,” Doylestown (Pennsylvania) Daily Intelligencer, December 3, 1977: 13.

6 United Press International, “Cincy Reds to Tour Japan,” Galveston Daily News, January 3, 1978: 2-B.

7 United Press International, “Bowie Kuhn In Japan,” Monessen Valley (Pennsylvania) Independent, May 27, 1978: 9.

8 Associated Press, “Reds to Invade Japan,” Big Spring (Texas) Herald, June 14, 1978: 2-B.

9 Dan Flaherty, “The Seasonal Narrative of the 1978 Cincinnati Reds,” September 27, 2021, http://thesportsnotebook.com/1978-cincinnati-reds/.

10 “Caught on the Fly,” The Sporting News, October 28, 1978: 28.

11 Lee Kavetski, “The Reds Are Coming!” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 26, 1978: 23.

12 Rory Costello, “Mike Lum,” August 3, 2017, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/mike-lum/.

13 Associated Press, “Moskau Lashes Out at Reds,” Middletown (Ohio) Journal, October 7, 1978: 10.

14 United Press International, “Five Reds Forgo Trip,” Defiance (Ohio) Crescent News, October 20, 1978: 22.

15 Jim Haught, “Mickey Duval: No Regrets,” 2021, https://haught corner.com/interview/mickey-duval-no-regrets/.

16 Associated Press, “Bob in Doghouse with Mrs. Hope,” Middletown (Ohio) Journal, October 24, 1978: 10.

17 Red Smith, “Pete’s New World,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, December 28, 1978: 22.

18 Associated Press, “Rose Looks Forward to Free Agent Draft,” Frederick (Maryland) News, October 26, 1978: C-3.

19 Associated Press, “Reds Arrive on Japan Tour,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 28, 1978: 19.

20 United Press International, “Reds Start First Workout in Japan,” Delphos (Ohio) Herald, October 27, 1978: 11.

21 Associated Press, “Reds Bow 7-6,” Xenia (Ohio) Daily Gazette, October 28, 1978: 6.

22 Associated Press, “Reds’ Japanese Tour Notes,” Elyria (Ohio) Chronicle-Telegram, November 15, 1978: D-7.

23 Associated Press, “Cincy Turns Back Giants by 5-3,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 31, 1978: 21.

24 United Press International, “Sparky Enthused at 1st Win,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, October 31, 1978: 21.

25 Associated Press, “Reds Shut Out Giants,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 2, 1978: 23.

26 United Press International, “Reds Capture Second Game,” Defiance (Ohio) Crescent News, October 31, 1978: 19.

27 Associated Press, “Reds, Giants Tie 5-5,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 3, 1978: 22.

28 Associated Press, “Reds’ Japanese Tour Notes,” Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, November 15, 1978: D-7.

29 Paul Long, “Bernie’s in Full Gear for Cincinnati,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 3, 1978: 22.

30 Associated Press, “All-Stars Stop Seaver, Reds 6-4,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 5, 1978: 22.

31 Associated Press, “Reds Take 3rd Win in Exhibition Tour,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 6, 1978: 21.

32 Associated Press, “Reds Take 3rd Win in Exhibition Tour.”

33 United Press International, “Reds Whip Japanese,” Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, November 4, 1978: D-2.

34 United Press International, “Pete’s Happy, Too,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 6, 1978: 20.

35 Associated Press, “Reds Pin 6-4 Loss on Giants,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 7, 1978: 21.

36 Associated Press, “Reds Blast Dragons,” Xenia (Ohio) Daily Gazette, November 7, 1978: 7.

37 Associated Press, “Reds’ Japanese Tour Notes,” Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, November 15, 1978: D-7.

38 “Umpire Expresses First Class Views,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 8, 1978: 19.

39 Associated Press, “Cincy Downs Giants,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 11, 1978: 23.

40 Associated Press, “Reds Sign Seaver to 5 Year Contract,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 9, 1978: 22.

41 Associated Press, “Cincy Wins 7th in Japan,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 13, 1978: 19.

42 Associated Press, “Reds’ Japanese Tour Notes,” Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, November 15, 1978: D-7.

43 Associated Press, “Reds Pin 3-1 Loss on Stars,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 14, 1978: 20.

44 United Press International, “Streak Hits 7,” Defiance Crescent News, November 14, 1978: 18.

45 United Press International, “Reds Win 7th Straight,” Delphos (Ohio) Herald, November 14, 1978: 7.

46 Associated Press, “Reds Roll to 7-2 Win,” Xenia Daily Gazette, November 15, 1978: 6.

47 United Press International, “Reds Bomb Tokyo,” Delphos Herald, November 15, 1978: 14.

48 Associated Press, “Reds’ Japanese Tour Notes,” Elyria Chronicle-Telegram, November 15, 1978: D-7.

49 Associated Press, “Bench, Foster Rip Giants,” Xenia Daily Gazette, November 17, 1978: 6.

50 United Press International, “Foster, Bench Propel Reds,” Defiance Crescent News, November 17, 1978: 25.

51 Associated Press, “Red Homers Key 9-1 Win,” Xenia Daily Gazette, November 18, 1978: 6.

52 Associated Press, “Reds Blast Giants,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 21, 1978: 22.

53 United Press International, “Reds Finish with Victory,” Defiance Crescent News, November 21, 1978: 22.

54 Associated Press, “Reds Tip Giants in Series Wrap-up,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 23, 1978: 22.

55 Associated Press, “Japanese Baseball 10 Years Away from Series-Caliber Play,” Dover-New Philadelphia (Ohio) Times-Reporter, November 23, 1978: C-1.

56 Associated Press, “Japanese Baseball 10 Years Away from Series-Caliber Play.”

57 Associated Press, “Japanese Baseball 10 Years Away from Series-Caliber Play.”

58 Fred Russell, “Reds’ Tour of Japan May Hasten Global Series,” The Sporting News, December 2, 1978: 52.

59 Russell.

60 Russell.

61 Associated Press, “Reds’ Yen for Japan,” Xenia Daily Gazette, November 25, 1978: 6.

62 Associated Press, “Presents Don’t Mean Farewell, but Race for Rose Picking Up,” Dover-New Philadelphia Times-Reporter, November 23, 1978: C-1.

63 Will Grimsley (Associated Press), “Junking the Red Machine,” Xenia Daily Gazette, December 1, 1978: 6.

64 Associated Press, “Unemployed, He’ll Play Lots of Golf,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, December 1, 1978: 24.

65 Melvin Durslag, “Some Reward for Sparky!” The Sporting News, December 16, 1978: 14.

66 Associated Press, “Pirates Move Up in Run for Rose,” Dover-New Philadelphia Times-Reporter, November 30, 1978: C-1.

67 Associated Press, “Street-Fighter Rose,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, December 7, 1978: 19.

68 Associated Press, “Reds’ Fans Erupt at Sparky’s Dismissal,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, December 1, 1978: 19.

69 Russell.

70 United Press International, “Hustling Really Paid for Rose,” East Liverpool (Ohio) Evening Review, December 6, 1978: 22.

71 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), 101; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.

When a group of major-league baseball all-stars traveled to Japan in November 1979 for a series of games, it represented a shift, of sorts. Since the end of World War II, most baseball tours of Japan had been by single teams. A US all-star team had not played in Japan since the Eddie Lopat All-Stars made the trek after the 1953 season.

The 1979 tour was dreamed up by Philadelphia Phillies Vice President Bill Giles and Cappy Harada, who was born in Santa Maria, California, to Japanese parents and at the time was director of the international division of the Major League Baseball Promotion Corporation.1 This was the first time the United States had sent complete American League and National League all-star teams to Japan for a series.

The American squad was divided evenly among American Leaguers and National Leaguers and was managed by the Orioles’ Earl Weaver and the Dodgers’ Tom Lasorda respectively. The schedule ran from November 7 to November 20, with the US teams playing seven games against each other and a combined US club playing twice against a team of Japanese players.

In the years since, the Japanese have consistently demonstrated their baseball prowess in various international competitions. But though it had made strides, the game in Japan in 1979 was still not the equal of the game in the United States, so the Japanese were eager to see the Americans play. Virtually every ticket for every game was sold in advance, with the most expensive costing $22,2 or about $89.79 in 2022 dollars.3

Of course, the Japanese weren’t unfamiliar with US players, since they could watch videotaped highlights of US games on television on Sundays, and newspapers and magazines in the country reported on the major leagues. An Associated Press story noted, “[Pete] Rose is at least as familiar a name in Japan as Jimmy Carter. The escapades of Reggie Jackson and the salary hassles of [Dave] Parker are followed with keen interest. Ever since American teachers introduced the game to Japan in the 1870s, the Japanese have looked upon America as baseball’s holy land – at the same time aspiring to build their own version to match it.”4

So actually seeing the Americans play in person was an exciting proposition.

Though some like Jim Rice, George Brett, and Jack Clark had to pull out of the tour beforehand for various reasons, the US roster was loaded. It included eventual Hall of Famers Rod Carew, Lou Brock, Ozzie Smith, Ted Simmons, Paul Molitor, and Phil Niekro. The California Angels’ Don Baylor was coming off the best season of his career, in which he had hit 36 home runs, driven in 139 runs, and was voted the American League’s Most Valuable Player. Others might be classified in the so-called Hall of the Very, Very Good – players like Parker, Cecil Cooper, Lance Parrish, Larry Bowa, Bill Madlock, Jim Sundberg, Dennis Martinez, Tug McGraw, and Ken Singleton. Singleton, in fact, finished second to Baylor in the MVP voting that year after hitting 35 home runs, driving in 111 runs, and posting a .938 OPS. There was also Rose, who would be in the Hall if not for his gambling issues.

“[Rose] is my favorite American player,” said Japanese Hall of Famer Sadaharu Oh, who holds the world career home-run record (868). “He never misses a game.”5

Nonetheless, a spokesman for the Japanese baseball commissioner’s office said the Japan team will be “playing to win.”6 And there was no doubt that it was a strong club. Compiled by a vote of sportswriters, it included eight players who would eventually gain induction into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame – first baseman Oh, plus outfielders Yutaka Fukumoto, Koji Yamamoto, and Tsutomu Wakamatsu, and pitchers Choji Murata, Keishi Suzuki, Hisashi Yamada, and Manabu Kitabeppu.

Oh, of course, was the biggest name. He had even received a National Hero Award from the Japanese government after exceeding Hank Aaron’s career record of 755 home runs. Sometimes referred to as the Bamboo Bambino by the Japanese news media, he had a slash line of .301/.446/.634 over 22 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants. He drove in 2,170 runs in his career, even though the Nippon Professional Baseball season was 22 to 32 games shorter than that of the American majors.7

“I really like to watch Oh swing,” Rose said. “He picks up his front leg but doesn’t go forward until he’s ready to commit himself. He keeps his hands and his weight back until he’s ready to swing.”8

In 1979, at the age of 39, Oh had just completed his next-to-last season and had hit 33 home runs while batting .285, driving in 81 runs, and posting a .980 OPS. To many, that would have been very good, especially at that age, but Oh found it unacceptable. “I had a very disappointing year,” he said. “I hurt my side and missed several weeks. I had 33 home runs … but drove in only 81 runs. Five years ago, I had ‘only’ 33 home runs but drove in 118. And besides, the [Yomiuri] Giants finished 10½ games out this year. Very sad.”9

Other Japanese players were nearly as transcendent as Oh, though not well known to most Americans. An 11-time all-star, Tsutomu Wakamatsu posted a .319/.375/.481 career slash line, won two batting titles, and as of 2023 still held the second-highest career batting average in Nippon Professional Baseball history for players with 4,000 or more at-bats. He was the Central League Most Valuable Player and MVP of the Japan Series in 1978. In 1979 he batted .306 with an .871 OPS. Koji Yamamoto was a 13-time all-star for the Hiroshima Carp, a 10-time winner of the Diamond Glove Award, and seven consecutive seasons the leader in assists among outfielders. At the time of the 1979 series, he was coming off a .293 season with a 1.002 OPS.

Yutaka Fukumoto played 20 seasons with the Hankyu Braves, a predecessor of today’s Orix Buffaloes, and posted a .291 batting average and .819 OPS, along with an otherworldly total of 1,065 stolen bases.

American Leon Lee, who played 10 seasons in Japan, observed that Fukumoto “was a great base runner, too, adding, “I remember many times he would lead off a game by getting on base, stealing second, getting sacrificed to third, and scoring on a sacrifice fly.”10

On the pitching side, Choji Murata won 215 games over 23 seasons, 22 of them with the Lotte Orions. He was a three-time Pacific League ERA champion and threw five one-hitters. He had finished the 1979 season with 17 victories, a 2.96 earned-run average, and a 1.09 WHIP.

Leon Lee’s brother Leron, who played in Japan for 11 seasons, remembered, “Choji Murata was … fabulous. He was the best pitcher I’ve seen except for Bob Gibson. In 1979, he pitched against the American All-Stars, and Ted Simmons … told me that Choji Murata was the best pitcher he ever faced in his life, bar none. That’s how good Murata was. He could throw 90 to 96 miles an hour consistently, had a great forkball, and he had this really funky windup with a high kick. I saw him throw an inside pitch that hit the bat below the label, broke it in half, and the ball had so much power that it went through the bat, hit the batter on his back leg, and rolled out into fair territory along with the head of the bat. Everybody in the stadium stopped for two or three seconds and looked. It was unbelievable for a ball to go through a bat and still have enough momentum to hit the batter in the leg and roll forward.”11

Though 1979 was a down year for Keishi Suzuki (10-8, 4.41 ERA), he spent 20 years with the Kintetsu Buffaloes and won 317 games with a 3.11 ERA and low 1.12 WHIP. He had eight 20-victory seasons and led the Pacific League in strikeouts eight times. Leron Lee learned about Suzuki very early on, the night before his first game in Japan, in fact. The team had a meeting to go over the opponents, and a scout went on and on about how good Suzuki was.

“I said to [teammate] Jim Lefebvre that if this guy pitches like the scout says, we’re not going to get any hits tomorrow,” Lee said. “And, sure enough, Suzuki pitched a one-hitter! That guy was the best left-handed pitcher I ever faced. I faced Steve Carlton and several pretty good pitchers in the big leagues, but this guy was unbelievable. He was an absolutely fabulous pitcher who could have pitched in the major leagues very easily.”12

An interesting aside is that when he was the Kintetsu manager, Suzuki’s disputes with pitcher Hideo Nomo indirectly played a role in Nomo’s eventual signing with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995.13

In 19 seasons with Hiroshima, Manabu Kitabeppu was 213-141 and ranks 17th all-time in pitching victories in NPB. He was an all-star seven times. In 1986 he won the ERA title, took the MVP and Gold Glove awards and was named to the “Best Nine,” which includes the best player at each position in both the Central and Pacific Leagues, as determined by a pool of journalists. During the 1979 season, just his fourth in the NPB, he had won 17 games and allowed an average of just 1.6 walks per nine innings.

Hisashi Yamada, Japan’s greatest submarine pitcher, was 284-166 in 20 seasons with the Hankyu Braves. His lifetime ERA was 3.18 and his WHIP a low 1.13. In the mid-1970s Yamada was the most dominant pitcher in Japanese baseball, winning three consecutive Pacific League MVP Awards (1976-1978). He was named to five Best Nine teams and 13 all-star squads, and won five Gold Glove Awards.14 In 1979 he had finished with a 21-5 record and a 2.73 ERA. Leon Lee said Yamada was the “toughest pitcher I ever faced in my 17-year professional career. He had great control and was never afraid to pitch inside. The biggest thing was that he completely controlled the tempo of the game and never gave the hitters time to get comfortable at the plate.”15 Leron Lee named players like Oh, Yamada, Murata, Suzuki, Yamamoto, and the Hanshin Tigers’ Masayuki Kakefu (also on the 1979 Japan All-Stars) among several he said could have been major leaguers.16

The schedule began on November 7 with the American League battling the National League at Yokohoma Stadium. The teams played each other again on November 8 (Kusanagi Stadium in Shizuoka), November 11 (Korakuen Stadium in Tokyo), November 12 (Seibu Stadium in Tokorozawa), November 13 (Nagoya Stadium), November 17 (Seibu Stadium in Tokorozawa), and November 18 (Yokohama Stadium).17

The NL stars won the first game 11-2 behind a 16-hit attack. The Chicago Cubs’ Dave Kingman hit a two-run homer, and Niekro picked up the win. In Game 2 the Nationals rallied from a 4-1 deficit to tie the game 5-5 on an eighth-inning sacrifice fly by Kingman. The contest was called after 10 innings because of a time limit in Japanese games.

Game 3 went to the American League, 6-3, and the AL followed that with a 6-5 victory in Game 4 before 21,000 fans at Seibu Stadium, as Kansas City’s Willie Wilson singled home the winning run in the bottom of the ninth inning. The National League had scored three runs in the first inning and another in the second to lead 4-0 before the AL rallied.

After that, though, the NL had its way, winning the last three games of the series by scores of 12-9 (after trailing by 7-0), 3-2, and 7-1 in the finale on a two-hitter by Niekro.

For the Japanese fans, though, the most anticipated games of the series were the two between the United States and Japan. A wire-service story just prior the tour noted that the US players would be “scrutinized, idolized and analyzed for what makes their game different from the Japanese national pastime of ‘besuboru.’”18 And there were differences. The Japanese relied more on small ball and fundamentals, and they utilized off-speed pitches more often. The Americans, on the other hand, focused more on the big inning, especially with a manager like Weaver. In addition, both the baseball itself and the ballparks in Japan were slightly smaller.

The first game took place November 14 before 31,000 fans in Nishinomiya, a city between Kobe and Osaka. Yamamoto, of the 1979 Japan Series champion Hiroshima Carp, hit a solo home run off US starter Niekro in the bottom of the second inning to give Japan a 1-0 lead. The Americans scored twice off Yamada in the top of the third inning, but the Japanese answered quickly with three runs in the bottom of the third to take a 4-2 lead.

The US team came back with a run in the fourth when Cooper tripled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Madlock, and the Americans got a two-run home run by Simmons off Suzuki in the sixth to lead 5-4. Bowa then hit a solo homer off Japan’s Shigeru Kobayashi in the seventh, and that proved to be the difference as Japan got an RBI single from Kakefu of the Hanshin Tigers in the bottom of the inning to account for the final 6-5 score.

Knuckleballer Niekro pitched three innings and allowed four hits, two walks, and two earned runs before being relieved by Oakland’s Rick Langford. Nonetheless, he baffled Oh, whom he struck out twice, once with the bases loaded and no one out. Oh said, “It felt like the ball was swaying left and right. I wasn’t able to hit it at all. It was a mysterious ball.”19 For the Japan side, Murata held the major leaguers hitless in the eighth and ninth innings, primarily with his forkball.

After the game, US manager Weaver said, “It was a close game. I was worried and felt relieved that we won. There was little difference today with the pitchers of either team. [The Japanese] certainly could play major league baseball.”20 That, of course, was 16 years before Nomo proved the point by signing with the Dodgers and earning All-Star and Rookie-of-the-Year honors in his first season.

Yukio Nishimoto, who had managed the Kintetsu Buffaloes to the 1979 Pacific League title and was leading the Japan All-Stars, said, “The Americans are speedier than the Japanese. … I’m afraid the difference is decidedly in their favor. We’d be lucky to win two games out of 10.”21

They got one six days later.

A crowd of 42,000 at Tokyo’s Korakuen Stadium watched the Americans score single runs in the third inning (a home run by Parrish off the left-field foul pole against Japan starter Naoki Takahashi) and in the seventh (a sacrifice fly by the California Angels’ Carney Lansford) to lead 2-0. Six US pitchers held the Japanese scoreless until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Kinji Shimatani of the Hankyu Braves electrified the fans by ripping a 2-and-0 pitch from Cleveland’s Sid Monge for a three-run homer to give the Japanese a 3-2 lead. And that was enough, as Kitabeppu pitched the eighth inning and Tatsuo Komatsu of the Chunichi Dragons the ninth to get the save.22

Since the US and Japanese teams played just two games against each other, the final statistics do not represent a large sample size. For the Americans, Cecil Cooper was 2-for-3 in the one game he played, and Ted Simmons was 2-for-7 in two games with a home run and two RBIs. They were the only Americans to get more than one hit in the two games, as the team batted a minuscule .172. The US pitchers posted a 3.18 earned-run average over 17 innings and held the Japan stars to a .210 batting average.

Virtually all the Japanese position players participated in both games, with Yasunori Oshima (Chunichi) batting .500 (1-for-2), Kakefu and Fukumoto each .429, and Hideji Kato (Hankyu) .333. On the pitching side, Murata did not allow a run in four innings while striking out five batters. Takahashi gave up just one run in four innings, while Yamada allowed two runs in three innings of work. The Japan ERA in the two games was 3.50.

Overall, the tour was considered a success, though there was some complaining by players about the travel. One day, for example, eight buses and trains were necessary to get the group from a hotel in Tokyo to a ballpark and then to Nagoya.23

There was also some controversy when first Carew and then Rose went home early and Kingman had to be talked out of going home the same day Carew left.24 Japan’s Kyodo News Service quoted Rose as saying he had suffered a leg injury while going after a pop fly “and it’s been getting worse.” Rose had also arrived in Japan ahead of the others and had announced beforehand that he would not be staying until the end.25

As for Carew, American League spokesman Bob Fishel said he had injured a tendon in his right heel before the trip.26 Carew, however, said that the injury was just part of the reason for his leaving after playing in two games. He also felt league officials had not come through on prior commitments for endorsement and appearance income. He said he had been hesitant to make the trip but did so because of promises that he could make $40,000 to $50,000 in endorsements and appearances, in addition to the base pay of $11,000 to players on the winning team and $8,500 to those on the losing club.

“Now I can’t help but feel that we were told these things simply so that we would say ‘yes’ to making the trip,” Carew said. “I definitely doubt that I’d ever make another. I had wanted to stay home, but they made it sound as if it was something I couldn’t pass up.”27

The Pittsburgh Pirates’ Bill Madlock said, “We’d been led to believe there would be ways to pick up extra money for endorsements. It just didn’t happen.” Cecil Cooper added, “I really was disappointed. I thought we would be involved in a lot more endorsements and things like that. Only a few players got them. I don’t think I would come back.”28

The expectation of ancillary income was due in part because Rose had been to Japan the previous year with the Cincinnati Reds and had been in demand for endorsements, television appearances, and autograph sessions. Joe Reichler, who at the time helped run the Major League Baseball Promotion Corporation, was quoted as saying, “I think a lot of the players saw how well [Rose] did and figured the same thing would happen to them. [But] there really were no firm commitments along these lines.”29

Milwaukee Brewers pitcher Lary Sorensen felt that that it was “not a big issue teamwide. Maybe it was for a few of the main guys. But I was young and just happy to be there.”30 And Singleton said in a 2021 conversation that “it didn’t matter to me one way or the other. Some guys may have been concerned about it, and it would have been OK if it had happened to me, but it was no big deal that it didn’t.”31

In the past there had been incidents of Americans going to Japan and behaving in a rude, arrogant, boorish manner. This time, they were generally considered to be well-behaved, though interpreter Toyo Kunimitsu sometimes saw them differently, as described in Robert Whiting’s seminal book about Japanese baseball, You Gotta Have Wa.

The [US] All-Stars were rather tacky and rude,” said Kunimitsu, who worked as translator for foreign players with the Yakult Swallows and, later, the Chunichi Dragons. “Once we were on a long bus ride [and] John Candelaria, the pitcher for the [Pittsburgh] Pirates, had been drinking a lot of beer and had to urinate. So he urinated into a bucket and threw it out the window. I was shocked. The driver was really angry. He wanted me to throw Candelaria off the bus, but finally agreed to let him stay when Candelaria said he would stop drinking beer. I saw a lot of bad examples of spoiled Americans on that tour.”32

Nonetheless, the Americans took the games seriously, and many had positive memories.

Parker had not wanted to come on the tour because of a bad knee, but he finally agreed and played in most of the games, even playing some in center field and sliding on his bad knee. The New York Yankees’ Bobby Murcer was said to have been upset that he did not get more playing time. Kingman, usually not accommodating to the media, stood on the sidelines after the first US-Japan game and answered question after question from reporters through an interpreter. Simmons could have returned home after the last AL-NL contest, but he volunteered to stay for the second game against Japan and played the entire game.33

“To me, this was the trip of a lifetime,” Simmons said. “I really have no complaints. I enjoyed it, and so did my wife. Japan is a country I [had] always wanted to visit, and to be able to do it this way is terrific.”34

Singleton said, “It was a great trip. We were treated well and enjoyed it tremendously.”35 Pitcher Rick Langford of Oakland said, “It’s an honor and a pleasure to be here [in Japan].”36 And Sorensen and Angels pitcher Mark Clear, both newlyweds, considered the trip to be their honeymoons.37

“I was just 23, had never been to Japan and had just gotten married, so I thought ‘Wow, what a great opportunity to travel and see some of the world,’” Sorensen said. “They treated us with great respect, and the games were great because the fans were so enthusiastic. It was like going to a football game in the U.S.

“The whole trip was an autograph session,” he added with a laugh. “Whenever we’d go out, people would point at us and then ask for autographs. For the majority of us, it was a fabulous tour, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a lot of fun.”38

Sorensen remembered a couple of amusing occurrences, one on the team plane. The Pirates had recently upset Weaver’s Baltimore Orioles to win the 1979 Word Series and, in the process, had adopted the Sister Sledge hit song “We Are Family” as their unofficial anthem. During a flight, Sorensen noticed Candelaria, Parker, and Madlock sneaking toward the front of the plane where Weaver was sitting.

“They had a big boom box and blasted out ‘We Are Family,’” Sorensen said. “It didn’t bother Earl, but we all thought it was funny.”39

Sorensen recalled another time when a Japanese TV reporter was in the US dugout and providing live commentary during a game. As he was wont to do, Weaver got into a profanity-laced argument with a couple of the American umpires, and the reporter translated what was being said for his Japanese audience. However, when Weaver said something like “You’re a bleeping, bleep, bleep,” the reporter was stumped for a translation and simply repeated Weaver’s exact words over the air.40

Lou Brock, who had retired after the just-completed 1979 season, was honored after the final game for his fine career, and Lasorda gave big thanks to the Japanese, in particular chief sponsor Junichi Wada. “It was a great gift Mr. Wada gave the Japanese people,” Lasorda said. After the final game, both teams paraded around the perimeter of the stadium, and the fans came as close as possible to the field to give them a standing ovation.41

“Overall, it was a good experience,” Larry Bowa said. “There were problems with travel, and we all got tired. Going to Japan, however, was quite an experience.”42

Had the Japanese game made up some ground in its quest of equaling or surpassing the Americans? Weaver said after the first game that Japanese baseball had made tremendous improvement since his previous visit in 1971.43 All the players, he added, looked like potential home-run sluggers.

Sorensen felt somewhat differently, though he could see that there was quality in the Japanese roster.

At the time, I think the Japanese game was at the Triple-A level. The biggest thing was the size difference; we had size and skill sets that, at the time, were noticeably different. They didn’t have any (Shohei) Ohtanis then, although that’s changed over time. But there’s no question that they had some really good players, were fundamentally sound, and were very well prepared. They took the game very seriously, probably more so than we did, and they were more aggressive with small ball than we were. Skillwise, they had some infielders that could probably have been major leaguers. And while most of their pitchers didn’t throw hard, they were tough because they could throw a bunch of different pitches with different deliveries and from several arm angles.44

Singleton said he “wasn’t too impressed with the Japanese pitchers then, though they did a good job of mixing their offerings and using off-speed pitches.” He commented, “I was more impressed with them when I went back to Japan with the Orioles after the 1984 season. Since then, of course, they’ve had quite a few pitchers come over to the major leagues and do well. The two games were really competitive, though. We were more about power – the Japanese players would watch us in batting practice and were impressed. On the other hand, the Japanese played small ball really well.”45

As the Japan Times noted, “the gap that existed between American and Japanese baseball has been narrowed by the two U.S.-Japanese games.”46

(Click images to enlarge)

 

Notes

1 Hal Bodley, “Nippon No Gold Mine, Stars Find,” The Sporting News, December 15, 1979: 48.

2 Associated Press, “46 U.S. Major Leaguers Start Japan Tour,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 7, 1979: 18-19.

3 https://www.usinflationcalculator.com. Last accessed August 2022.

4 “46 U.S. Major Leaguers Start Japan Tour,” 18-19.

5 GNS Wire Service, “1979 Disappointing Year for Oh,” Santa Fe New Mexican, November 22, 1979: 28.

6 “46 U.S. Major Leaguers Start Japan Tour,” 18-19.

7 Between 1959 and 1980, Central League teams played between 130 and 140 games a season.

8 GNS Wire Service, 28.

9 GNS Wire Service, 28. Oh’s recollection was off. He never hit 33 home runs and drove in 118 runs in the same season. Five years earlier (1974) he hit 49 home runs with 107 RBIs. In 1975 he did hit 33 home runs but drove in 96 runs, not 118. In 1978 he had 118 RBIs with 39 homers.

10 Leon Lee, email interview, November 20, 2021.

11 Robert K. Fitts, Remembering Japanese Baseball (Carbondale, Illinois: Southern Illinois University Press, 2005), 136-137.

12 Fitts, 138.

13 https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Keishi_Suzuki.

14 https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Hisashi_Yamada.

15 Leon Lee, email interview.

16 Fitts, 138.

17 “All-Star Tour,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 22, 1979: 18.

18 “46 U.S. Major Leaguers Start Japan Tour,” 18-19.

19 Isao Chiba, Japan-U.S. Baseball Exchange History (Tokyo: Baseball Magazine, 2004), 64.

20 Associated Press, “America All-Stars Rebound, Topping Japan’s Team 6-5,” Japan Times, November 15, 1979: 8.

21 “America All-Stars Rebound,” 8.

22 Chiba, 64.

23 Bodley, 48.

24 Bodley, 48.

25 Associated Press, “Underlying All-Star Problems Face Touring Team in Japan,” Santa Cruz (California) Sentinel, November 16, 1979: 49.

26 Associated Press, “Rod Quits Star Tour of Japan,” Pacific Stars and Stripes, November 17, 1979: 18.

27 “Underlying All-Star Problems Face Touring Team in Japan,” 49.

28 Bodley, 48.

29 Bodley, 48.

30 Lary Sorensen, video interview, December 6, 2021.

31 Ken Singleton, telephone interview, December 13, 2021.

32 Robert Whiting, You Gotta Have Wa (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 135-6.

33 Wayne Graczyk, “Baseball Tour Successful,” Japan Times, November 23, 1979: 11.

34 Bodley, 48.

35 Singleton, telephone interview.

36 Graczyk, 11.

37 Karl Cicitto, “Mark Clear,” Biographical Sketch on SABR website, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/mark-clear/.

38 Sorensen, video interview.

39 Sorensen, video interview.

40 Sorensen, video interview.

41 “Baseball Tour Successful,” 11.

42 Bodley, 48.

43 “America All-Stars Rebound,” 8.

44 Sorensen, video interview.

45 Singleton, telephone interview.

46 Graczyk, 11.

47 These tables include all participants in the two games. Yoshikazu Matsubayashi, Baseball Game History: Japan vs, U.S.A. (Tokyo: Baseball Magazine, 2004), 102; Nippon Professional Baseball Records, https://www.2689web.com/nb.html.