Wally Yonamine: The Man who Changed Japanese Baseball

(University of Nebraska Press, 2008)

"Fitts creates a book in which the life of Wally Yonamine almost jumps off the page.  Expertly researched and crafted book. This is a must-read and a must-add to the bookshelf for those with an interest in the history of Japanese baseball, and a worthwhile read for any baseball fan looking to broaden their knowledge of this great game that has spread around the globe." -BaseballBookReview.com

Visit the Wally Yonamine: The Man who Changed Japanese Baseball web site

Buy Author signed copies at RobsJapaneseCards.com or unsigned copies at Amazon.com

Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game

(Southern Illinois University Press, 2005)

Winner 2005 Society of American Baseball Research & The Sporting News Award for Best Baseball Research

Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game is the first oral history of baseball in Japan published in English. Written in the style of Glory of Their Times, Remembering Japanese Baseball features the narratives of 25 men who played in Japan from 1948 to 1996. Through their stories, readers will understand the history of Japanese ball and see how the game changed over time.

Learn more about Remembering Japanese Baseball

Holiday Sale

Signed copies at RobsJapaneseCards.com for just $7

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Banzai Babe Ruth! 

(University of Nebraska Press, forthcoming)

Learn more about Banzai Babe Ruth!

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Follow the Events of the 1934 Tour in the

75th Anniversary All American Tour Diary

An Introduction to Japanese Baseball Cards

(home published)

The first history of Japanese baseball cards published in English.  This 24 page booklet is designed to help beginning and intermediate collectors understand and identify Japanese cards.   Major types of Japanese cards from 1898 to 2001 are discussed and depicted.  Includes color pictures of 60 cards.

Only Available at RobsJapaneseCards.com

Inventing New England's Slave Paradise : Master/Slave Relations in Eighteenth Century Narragansett, Rhode Island

(Routledge, 1998)

Many historians have argued that Northern slavery was mild and that master/slave relations were relatively harmonious. Yet, Northern slavery, like Southern, was characterized by the conflict between the masters' desire to control their slaves and the slaves' resistance to this domination. For a variety of political, social, and intellectual reasons, 19th and 20th century historians ignored this inherent conflict in discussions of Northern slavery. Fitts' research focuses on how and why historians sanitized the history of slavery in Narragansett, Rhode Island, and then shows the inadequacy of these interpretations by examining several of the planters' and slaves' conflicting strategies of control and resistance.

Available at Amazon.com

Born in Philadelphia in 1965, Robert K. Fitts graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1987 and earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Brown University in 1995. 

As an archaeologist, Fitts specialized in slavery in eighteen-century New England and in Victorian New York City, publishing eight academic papers in peer-reviewed journals. 

In 2000, Fitts left archaeology to write about the history of Japanese Baseball.  His articles have appeared in The National Pastime, Baseball Research Journal, Journal of American Culture, Tuff Stuff and on MLB.com.  His first book, Remembering Japanese Baseball won the 2005 Society of American Baseball Research & The Sporting News Award for Best Baseball Research.

Fitts also created the web site RobsJapaneseCards.com, the world's largest site dedicated to Japanese baseball cards.