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All American Uniform Numbers

2011-11-30T18:06:46Z

A number of you have asked me what a player's number was during the tour, so here are the uniform numbers for the All Americans

1 McNair
2 Gehringer
3 Ruth
4 Gehrig
5 Foxx
6 Averill
7 Miller
8 Berg
10 Gomez
11 Whitehill
12 Brown
14 Cascarella
15 Warstler
17 O'Doul

Banzai Babe Ruth Now Available for Pre-Order

2011-11-18T22:50:44Z

I am thrilled to announce that my new book Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage & Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan is now available for pre-order on Amazon.com.

It is the story of the doomed attempt to reconcile the United States and Japan through a tour of Major League all stars in 1934. The Babe and baseball, however, could not overcome Japan’s growing nationalism, as a bloody coup d’état by young army officers and an assassination attempt by the ultranationalist War Gods Society jeopardized the tour’s success. A tale of international intrigue, espionage, attempted murder, and—of course—baseball, Banzai Babe Ruth shows how men from different cultures, temporarily united by their love for baseball, became tragically divided as their countries rushed towards war.

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Please follow this link to order and tell your baseball-loving friends

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December 1, 1934

2009-12-01T21:39:00Z

The All Americans played their last game on Japanese soil in Utsunomiya, a small city 60 miles north of Tokyo. In recognition of his untiring efforts throughout the tour, Ruth named Sotaro Suzuki as the game’s manager. Suzuki was apprehensive as national hero Eiji Sawamura would start for All Nippon. If the young hurler pitched well and the Americans relaxed and lost, everybody would blame him. The day was cold so Suzuki set up a charcoal burner in the dugout for warmth. His apprehension grew as fans passed the Americans sake bottles and the ballplayers, who had adapted well to Japanese drinking customs, heated the liquor over the burner. Despite the alcohol, and a dropped fly ball by an inebriated Earl Averill, Suzuki had little to worry about. The Americans pounded out nine runs in the first four innings. After two home runs by Bing Miller and one each by Earl Averill and Charlie Gehringer, the All Americans went home 14-5 winners. The players then returned to the Imperial Hotel, collected their luggage, and left for Tokyo Station to catch a train for the port of Kobe where they would board the Empress of Canada. At the station, they said tearful goodbyes to Japanese fans and friends and the Babe promised to try to return.

November 29, 1934 Part II and November 30, 1934

2009-11-30T18:46:00Z

By staying in Tokyo, Berg missed an opportunity to beef up his paltry .111 batting average. The ballpark at Omiya was small, holding just 8,000 spectators, with short outfield fences. Manager Daisuke Miyake started Kaichi Takeda for All Nippon. The All Americans wasted little time as they aimed for the short fences and crashed home run after home run. By the end of the first, they were up 10-0. The Major Leaguers added one in third, fourth, and fifth innings, to build a 13-1 lead. Up by such a large margin, All American pitcher Earl Whitehill lost his focus and gave up four in the sixth as Jimmy Horio finally came through with a three-run homer. Down by nine, Miyake brought in little Shinji Hamazaki for Takeda, but Hamazaki fared no better, giving up eight runs in the bottom of the sixth and two in the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth with the score 23-5, Miyake brought in a new pitcher, 18-year-old Victor Starffin.

Standing about 6’ 3” with blonde hair and blue eyes, Starffin looked a bit out of place on the All Nippon team. Victor was the son of a Russian military officer who had served Czar Nicholas II. During the Russian Revolution, the Starffins escaped by traveling in a freight train packed with typhoid patients and later hiding from the Red Army in a truck carrying corpses. The family settled in the city of Asahikawa in Hokkaido, Japan. Young Victor picked up baseball quickly and soon became a regional star. He hoped to play college ball, but in 1933 his father was convicted of murdering a young Russian woman who worked in his cafe. Through a combination of extortion and promises, Yomiuri representatives convinced the young man to forsake college and play for the All Nippon team.

The young Russian was wild at first, walking Lou Gehrig and later Earl Averill, but both his fastball and curve were working well and he struck out Jimmy Foxx between the two walks and induced Bing Miller to ground into a double play to end the inning. In all, the All Americans hit ten home runs—three by Gehringer, two by Ruth and pitcher Earl Whitehill, and one each by Foxx, Gehrig, and Hayes.

November 30th was final free day in Japan. They spent the day doing last minute shopping, saying goodbye to new friends, and preparing for the long journey home.

November 29, 1934 Part I

2009-11-30T18:20:00Z

In 1934, the Japanese government was obsessed with the perceived problem of foreign spies. The heads of urban police forces meet in December to discuss the problem and tourists complained about the rough treatment they received when visiting Japan including unauthorized searches of hotel rooms, and intensive questioning by police officers. Even the All Americans were searched when their ferry passed through the Tsugaru Straights straights en route to Hokkaido. In this context, the behavior of the All Americans’ backup catcher is particularly suspicious.

On November 29 as the team prepared to leave the Imperial Hotel for a game at nearby Omiya, Moe Berg announced that he felt ill and would remain behind. Berg was an unusual Major Leaguer. He had graduated from Princeton and Columbia Law, had attended the Sorbonne, spoke several languages fluently, a half dozen more (including Japanese) with some proficiency, and was one of the few Jews in the Majors. As a result, Berg was not “one of the guys.” He left his teammates directly after league games and in Japan often went sightseeing by himself. The other players liked Berg but found him mysterious.

Once his teammates left the hotel, Berg recovered, dressed in a kimono, put on geta (traditional wooden sandals), hid his 16mm movie camera under his clothes, purchased some flowers and announced that he would visit the American ambassador’s daughter Elsie Lyon, who was recovering from childbirth at St. Luke’s Hospital. Inside the hospital, Berg walked past Lyon’s room and climbed the stairs to the roof. The view was magnificent. St. Luke’s was among the tallest buildings in Tokyo and commanded views of downtown and Tokyo Bay. He pulled out his camera and took panoramic footage. Later, Berg would smuggle the film through Japanese customs and guarded it as he traveled through Korea, China, and Russia after the tour.

For years, stories circulated that Berg photographed Tokyo under orders from the United States government and that the film was used to plan Col. Jimmy Doolittle’s 1942 air raid on Tokyo. During World War II, Berg did become a spy—joining the OSS (the forerunner of the CIA) in 1943—and carried out missions to Italy and Switzerland. He even partook in an undercover operation to assess Germany’s nuclear bomb program and was ordered to kill a leading German scientist if they were close to a breakthrough.

In The Catcher Was A Spy, Nicholas Dawidoff concludes that Berg acted on his own during the trip to Japan and was not a government spy. But the question endures, why did Berg go undercover to film Tokyo from the roof of St. Luke’s? You’ll have to read Banzai Babe Ruth! to judge the new evidence on this oft-debated question.

November 28, 1934

2009-11-24T01:17:00Z

In Kyoto, the rain stopped and the morning of November 28 was clear but cold. The game began on time at 2 P.M. Eiji Sawamura took the mound for All Nippon amid “thunderous applause” by the 30,000 fans. Alas, the young hurler could not repeat his stellar performance. The All Americans jumped to a two-nothing lead in the bottom of the first, added five more in the third, and another three in the fourth. Sawamura was wild, walking seven and throwing a wild pitch. At Shizuoka, the Americans had been fooled by his curve and the late movement on his two-seam fastball, but in Kyoto the Major Leaguers refrained from chasing the curveball, letting most break harmlessly out of the strike zone for balls. When they did swing, the All Americans hit Sawamura’s pitches hard. On top of the seven walks, Sawamura surrendered eight hits before Ichioka removed him with one out in the bottom of the fourth. It was almost as if the Americans knew what type of pitch Sawamura was about to throw.

Kenichi Aoshiba, also from the Kyoto area, finished the game for All Nippon. He did only slightly better, giving up seven runs off seven hits in four and two-thirds innings, including a 100-yen winning home run to Bing Miller. Once again, the Japanese defense did little to help their pitchers. They booted the ball six times during the game. At the end of nine, the Americans had cruised to a 14-1 victory.

November 27, 1934

2009-11-24T01:14:00Z

The rain continued to fall throughout the night and by the time the train pulled into Kyoto at 9:25 AM, the promoters’ had postponed the afternoon game until the following day, November 28. The players spent the day visiting the ancient capital.

November 26, 1934

2009-11-24T01:08:00Z

It was pouring when the teams arrived in Shimonoseki at 7:40 AM and had been raining all night. Most of the players expected the game to be canceled, but they were scheduled to play in Kyoto the next day, leaving no opportunity for a makeup game. Ruth, therefore, acting as manager, agreed to play in the rain.

The players checked into the San-yo Hotel, ate, and changed into their uniforms. Dressed to play, they boarded a ferry to cross the famed Straits of Shimonoseki (more properly known as the Kanmon Straits). Cars met the players at the docks and brought them to the Itatsu Grounds in the town of Kokura. The condition of the field was laughable. Ankle deep mud covered the dirt infield and pond-like puddles dotted the outfield. Normally, the game would have been called at this point, but between 20,000 and 30,000 fans had squeezed into the tiny stadium waiting to watch the great Americans stars. Despite the driving rain, they had begun to arrive early in the morning and the seats were filled hours before game time. The outfield contained no bleachers, just a glassy slope where spectators huddled together. The rains had flooded the area and 11,000 squatted or knelt with water up to their hips. Among the dedicated, wet fans sat a man with an ancient samurai sword. He had walked 80 miles to attend the game and announced that he would present to sword as token of friendship to the first American to hit a home run.

The game itself was a joke. Ruth, Gehrig, Averill, and Rabbit McNair played in rubber boots and Ruth borrowing an umbrella from a fan, huddled under it while playing first base. The score remained a zero for the first three innings before the Americans started to hit. Three came across in the fourth and Averill won the sword by hitting a long fly into the soggy fans sitting beyond right field. An inning later with the bases loaded, Ruth stepped to the plate and dug in with his big rubber boots. The crowd laughed and began chanting, “Home Run! Home run!” According to Osamu Mihara, after the count went to 3-0, Ruth stepped out of the batter's box and gestured to the fans that he would hit a home run. Shinji Hamazaki threw the next pitch down the middle and the Sultan of Swat connected with a mighty swing. The ball rose in a majestic arc and sailed over the right field seating area and into the mist beyond. Initially stunned by the blast, the wet and happy fans erupted with a “tremendous ovation” for the Bambino. The All Americans ended with eleven hits and eight runs, but the Osaka Mainichi noted that “they can hit almost at will” and would have hit many more “had they cared to run out every hit.” On the mound, Cascarella dominated the Japanese hitters with “baffling hooks and drops” as he scattered seven hits and gave up a single run for the victory.

Immediately after the final out, the drenched players hurried back to the ferry and to their hotel in Shimonoseki to change. Several hours later, they were back on the train headed north to Kyoto.

November 25, 1934

2009-11-23T18:43:00Z

The Japan Weekly Chronicle called Sunday’s game “a dull sort of affair.” It was another split squad match with Ruth’s men (Warstler, Karita, Ruth, Foxx, Averill, Nidegawa, Nakajima, Berg and Aoshiba pitching) taking on Miller’s men (Mihara, Horio, Gehringer, Gehrig, McNair, Miller, Yajima, Hayes, and Brown on the mound). To attract a crowd, the All Americans held rematch of the longest home run contest between Ruth, Gehrig, Averill, and Foxx. This time, Foxx won with a 396 foot shot, but the contest failed to attract a large crowd. Only 30,000 showed up and there were “sizable gaps” in the stands.

As the fourth game in as many days, the players looked tired. They played mechanically, just going through the motions. Ruth’s ankle had recovered enough for him to play but he fared poorly at the plate, gaining a single in three at bats and flying out with bases loaded in the sixth. Once again, the All Americans failed to hit a home run—the last one had been Gehrig’s game winner off Sawamura in Shizuoka. But to nearly everybody’s surprise, 19-year-old Usaburo Shintomi, who had joined the All Nippon straight from Kokura Kogyo High School and was playing third base for Miller’s team, whistled a line drive into the left field stands off Aoshiba. It was only the second Japanese home run of the series. To add spice to the listless game, the local promoters convinced Lefty Gomez to pitch the ninth inning for both teams. He set both sides down easily.

After dinner, the players boarded a southbound sleeper train to Shimonoseki, a city at the southwestern tip of the main Japanese island of Honshu.

November 24, 1934

2009-11-23T18:39:00Z

The All Americans woke up early at the Koshien Hotel on Saturday, November 24 and were brought to Matsuzakaya department store, one of Osaka’s largest, at 10 A.M. After shaking hands and smiling for pictures, they were presented with souvenir silk scarves and fed lunch before rushing off to the ballpark.

At least 50,000 fans packed Koshien Stadium to watch the All Americans. Osakans have a reputation as boisterous people and the fans did their city justice, shouting and cheering throughout the game. Masao Date, who had pitched so well for seven innings two days earlier, dominated the Americans for the first three innings. But in the fourth, an error by second baseman Isamu Mihara put Foxx on first and rattled Date. The Japanese ace then walked Averill and gave up consecutive hits to Bing Miller, Frankie Hayes, pitcher Earl Whitehill, and Rabbit McNair. By the time, little Shinji Hamazaki came on in relief, Date had surrendered four and the game was essentially over. Hamazaki fared no better. He limited the damage in the fourth to just another run, but gave up two more in the fifth and another four in the sixth before leaving the game. On the other side, Whitehill pitched masterfully, shutting out the Japanese in all but one inning. The only hiccup came in the sixth when Mihara singled up the middle, Karita walked, and Isamu Fuma came through again with another RBI triple. Fuma would later score on an Inokawa ground out. At the end of nine, the All Americans finished with 15 to All Nippons’ 3. Despite 12 American and 7 Japanese hits, there were no home runs. Even Ruth hadn’t come close, hitting two singles before a Kenichi Aoshiba pitch hit him on the ankle in the seventh and he had to be helped off the field. Doc Ebling went straight to work in the dugout massaging the swollen joint and Ruth told reporters that he expected to play the following day.

November 23, 1934

2009-11-23T18:18:00Z

With Gomez on the mound, the All Americans won easily 6-2. The Major Leaguers took a 4-0 lead into the sixth when Gomez walked the pitcher Tanaka, allowed a double to Sugitaya, a single to Mihara, and a triple to Fuma. All Nippon scored twice but it would have been more if Gehringer hadn’t turned an unusual double play. With nobody out and Sugitaya on third and Mihara on first, Karita hit a sharp grounder to third. Foxx fielded it, looked Sugitaya back to the bag and threw to second to force Mihara. As Foxx threw, Sugitaya dashed home, but Gehringer fired a strike from second base to nip him at the plate. The Americans added two more runs in the seventh to pull away and Gomez shut down the Japanese bats to win in just an hour and a half. By dusk, the players had checked out of the hotel and were on the limited express to Osaka.

November 22, 1934

2009-11-23T18:10:00Z

It was back to baseball on Thursday, November 22 as the teams clashed at Narumi Ballpark in Nagoya. Joe Cascarella, who had been pounded for 23 hits and 13 runs in the intrasquad game 11 days before, took the mound for the Americans. Inspired by Sawamura’s performance and the near victory in Shizuoka, the Japanese attacked Cascarella early. Kumeyasu Yajima began the game with a triple down the right field foul line and scored moments later as Hisanori Karita singled up the middle. Hot hitting catcher Toshiharu Inokawa singled for the third consecutive hit. With runners at first and second and no outs, Miyake ordered his cleanup hitter, Minoru Yamashita, to sacrifice. Yamashita dutifully laid down the bunt to advance the runners and Karita scored on the next play as Isamu Fuma grounded out to second. Star second baseman, Shigeru Mizuhara, who was hitless in four games, struck out to end the inning, but for only the second time in 11 games, the Japanese led a ballgame.

The lead last for just five batters as nervousness, or lack of experience, caused the Japanese to commit two errors in the bottom half of the inning. Three singles later, the All Americans led 3-2. At that point, Masao Date settled down and shut out the mighty All Americans for the next six innings. The Japanese batters, meanwhile, were hitting Cascarella hard. Fourteen hits, including a triple by Date, two RBI hits by Fuma, and an RBI single by Karita put All Nippon on top 5-3 entering the bottom of the eighth.

Earl Averill led off the eighth with a walk. On the mound, Date was visibly tired. Many waited in anticipation for Miyake to take the ball from Date and bring in Sawamura to finish the game, but the manager remained in the dugout. Date next walked Bing Miller and surrendered a weak single to catcher Charlie Hayes that drove in Averill. It was now 5-4 with runners on first and second and nobody out. Miyake remained in the dugout and Date remained on the mound. A sacrifice bunt and sacrifice fly scored Miller to tie the game. With two outs, Charlie Gehringer drove the ball into right field to knock in the go ahead run, and ended up at third after Yajima bobbled the ball. A last, an exhausted Date induced Ruth to ground to second for the third out. The Japanese lead was gone. They now trailed 6-5.

Ruth brought in Jimmy Foxx to pitch the ninth. With one out, Fuma tripled into the right-center alley to put the tying run just 90 feet away. Osamu Mihara, Waseda’s former star second baseman, was due up next. Mihara had just one hit and five strikeouts in 14 at bats against the Americans, so Miyake decided to bring in the 5’ 1” pitcher Shinji Hamazaki to pinch hit. Hamazaki was not inept with the bat. When not pitching for Keio University, he played the outfield and had hit .308 during the 1927 Big Six season. But still, it seems a strange choice. The All Americans brought the infield in to defend against the squeeze and also prevent Fuma from scoring on a ground ball. Hamazaki swung away and struck out. Mamoru Sugitaya, the solid outfielder with seven hits against the Major Leaguers, popped out to second to end the game.

Both Lou Gehrig and the Japan Times criticized Miyake’s managerial decisions. Each felt that the Japanese might have won the game had Miyake brought in Sawamura in the eighth inning, or had tried a squeeze play to score Fuma in the ninth.

November 21, 1934

2009-11-20T21:38:00Z

The team arrived in Nagoya, Japan’s fourth largest city with 989,000 inhabitants, on November 21. No game was scheduled so they spent the day touring Nagoya Castle and a porcelain factory.

November 20, 1934

2009-11-20T21:19:00Z

The All Americans left the Imperial Hotel early on the morning of November 20 for the northern suburb of Shizuoka. At 1 P.M. Eiji Sawamura took the mound for All Nippon. Only a few months before, Sawamura had been pitching for Kyoto Commercial High School. The schoolboy star had been hit hard in his first start ten days earlier, giving up 12 hits and three home runs. But at Shizuoka, the sun rose directly behind the pitcher’s mound, shining in the batters’ eyes and silhouetting the hurler. Picking up any pitch under these circumstances would have been difficult, but Sawamura also had command of his pitches that afternoon, setting up the Major Leaguers with hard fastballs and finishing them off with a devastating curve.

After Rabbit McNair flied to left to begin the game, Sawamura struck out Gehringer, Ruth, Gehrig and Foxx in succession. The young Japanese shut down the mighty Americans for six full innings, striking out seven and allowing only two hits, before Gehrig homered with one out in the seventh. It would be the Yanks only run but it was enough as Earl Whitehill held the Japanese to just three singles. Immediately after the game, the Americans praised Sawamura and Mack invited the young pitcher to join the Philadelphia Athletics. Sawamura, however, opted to remain in Japan.

As news of the game spread through Japan, Sawamura became a national hero. Although the All Americans had dominated All Nippon so far, most Japanese felt that with dedication and practice their countrymen would surpass the Major Leaguers, just as they believed their military had surpassed the Western powers. The game became a symbol of Japan’s struggles against the West. True, the Japanese had not won, but they showed that they were capable to conquering their opponents. As years past, the importance of the game grew and Sawamura’s statue increased as he became a symbol of Imperial Japan.

November 19, 1934

2009-11-19T22:39:00Z

Another off day for the All Americans. In the evening they attended a dinner held by the American Association of Tokyo at the Imperial Hotel. They dined on fruit cocktail, cream of tomato soup, salmon steak with butter sauce, grilled chicken a l'Americaine, salad, biscuit Tortoni and coffee.

November 18, 1934

2009-11-18T19:23:00Z

On Sunday afternoon, November 18, Officer Hakamada patrolled his route in downtown Yokohama. Although it was just above freezing, thirty thousand people had come to watch the American baseball team play, so the area around the stadium needed extra attention. He strode along the back of stadium towards the entrance. Perhaps Hakamada heard the crack of the bat, but he must have heard the tumult as a ball flew over the outfield wall, bounced, and landed at his feet. The policeman stooped and pocketed his souvenir, probably already thinking of the story he would tell when he returned to the station. Hakamada soon discovered that the mighty clout had been hit by none other than the Babe himself.

Hakamada’s souvenir wasn’t the only ball to leave the park that day. For the second consecutive day, Ruth hit two homers and Gehrig, Foxx and Averill each tallied one. The Japan Times noted “there was no letting up by the visiting American professional ball players” as they piled up 21 runs on 23 hits.

At long last, the Japanese also began to hit. They had scored six on ten hits the day before and against a tough Lefty Gomez, they gathered another ten hits and four runs in Yokohama. Hisanori Karita led the attack with three hits, including a double, but the highlight came with two outs in the ninth as fans filed out of the stadium when Toshiharu Inokawa smashed the first Japanese home run of the series into the left field bleachers.

    After the game, the Americans congregated at the Yokohama Country and Athletic Club for dinner and dancing. The organization dated back to 1868 when a handful of homesick British merchants decided to create a cricket team. Later, the club became famous as the loser to the Ichiko baseball team in 1896. After speeches by the club’s president, Mack, Ruth and Quinn, staff removed the dining tables and cleared the floor for dancing “which continued until a late hour.”

November 17, 1934

2009-11-17T20:31:00Z

With the royal receptions and fan enthusiasm, the All Americans must have been surprised to learn that tickets remained for the game on Saturday, November 17 at Meiji Jingu Stadium. To lure addition fans, Yomiuri announced that the All Americans would hold a home run contest prior to the game. The contest would decide who was the greatest home run hitter—Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx, or Earl Averill. Furthermore, burly slugger Jimmy Foxx would play all nine positions—one for each inning—during the course of the game, and Connie Mack would manage the All Nippon team.

The added events did little to boost attendance as just 32,000 showed up for Saturday’s game. After batting and fielding practice, fans readied for the home run contest—some, sitting in the outfield bleachers, brandished fishing nets ready to capture the flying balls. The rules were simple. Joe Cascarella would pitch two rounds to each batter and prizes would be awarded to the player who hit the most and the longest home runs. Fittingly, the aging all-time home run king retained his crown. The Bambino blasted four over the outfield walls, including a 410 footer, to win both prizes. Averill finished second with three, Foxx third with two, and Gehrig, who had an off day, failed to hit one out.

The contest merely warmed up the sluggers as Ruth, Gehrig, and Foxx all went deep during the 15-6 rout of the All Nippon team. Much to everybody’s surprise, All Nippon took an early lead by scoring three in the second inning. It was the first time they had scored first during the tour. But tiny Shinji Hamazaki, the 5’2” former star hurler from Keio University, couldn’t contain the American lineup. Gehrig homered to lead off the third inning and Foxx followed by hitting the longest home run in the history of Meiji Jingu Stadium. The ball landed three-quarters up the high left field bleachers, bounced once and careened out of the stadium into the empty lot below. The All Americans scored four more to take the lead and tacked on nine additional runs off poor Hamazaki, who was left on the mound to suffer for the entire game.

Although the final score suggested otherwise, the Major Leaguers did not take the game seriously. Not only did Foxx play each position as advertised, but the other players (except for catcher Frankie Hayes and the pitchers Clint Brown and Joe Cascarella) also played a different position each inning. Portly Ruth even took a turn at short stop.

November 14-16, 1934

2009-11-13T19:52:00Z

The players had November 14 off to sightsee around Tokyo.

On Nevember 15, the All Americans congregated at 12:30 in the Imperial Hotel’s ballroom for a luncheon sponsored by the America-Japan Society. Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, and Iyesato Tokugawa addressed the assembly.

Tokugawa, who was the ninth generation direct descendant of Ieyasu Tokugawa (the shogun who united Japan in the early 17^th century), concluded: “between two great peoples who can really understand and enjoy baseball, there can be no national differences or diplomatic complications which cannot be solved in the same spirit of sportsmanship and fair play.”

With the exception of a tea party at the American Embassy, the players had November 16 off.

November 13, 1934

2009-11-13T19:37:00Z

The teams woke up early and traveled to Toyama—a small town on the Japan’s western coast, just under 200 miles northwest of Tokyo. Temperatures feel below freezing and a light snow fell, frosting the infield. Just 75,000 people lived in Toyama but 18,000 of them came to the ballpark to watch one of the most popular players in Japan, former Keio star Shigeru Mizuhara, challenge the All Americans.

Mizuhara’s debut against the Major Leaguers did not last long. After giving up ten runs in four innings, manager Daisuke Miyake removed Mizuhara and let Eiji Sawamura finish the game. The game ended with an 11-0 All American victory as Earl Whitehill have up just three hits.

But the fans went home happy. The Osaka Mainichi summed it up best, “it is no longer a question of victory or defeat; the only concern of the baseball followers is how many home runs the renowned fence busters will make in the game. In that light the Toyama fans were not disappointed.”

November 12, 1934

2009-11-12T21:25:00Z

Monday, November 12, was free as would be Wednesday, the 14th. During these days the All Americans split up to shop, lounge around the hotel, or sightsee. Julia Ruth, for example, visited Nikko—said by many to me the most beautiful historic site in Japan. Others went to the national museums at Ueno or local shrines.