Over 100 baseball teams from the United States and Hawaii have crossed the Pacific to play baseball in Japan. Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan is the first book written in English that focuses on these international tours.

​

Discover in this book, how:

• The female Philadelphia Bobbies team tour ended in tragedy

• Babe Ruth tried to prevent World War II

• Lefty O’Doul helped reunite the US and Japan through baseball

• A Native American baseball team was cheated and stranded 5000 miles from home

• A Negro League team helped start Japanese professional baseball

• Japanese Americans used baseball to build a bridge between the two cultures

• Joe DiMaggio and Jackie Robinson finished their careers in Japan

• ​

These, and many other stories, introduce readers to the fascinating world of Japanese baseball.

​

Volume One focuses on tours between 1907 and 1958. During this time period, many of the sport’s greatest stars—including Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Joe DiMaggio, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson—played in the Land of the Rising Sun. These tours helped spread the game across the globe, spawned thousands of individual friendships, and helped bring nations together through the mutual love of baseball.

​

Volume One contains individual chapters written by leading members of the Society for American Baseball Research on all 15 professional squads that traveled to Japan before 1960 as well as four collegiate and eight amateur/semipro teams. Each chapter is accompanied by game results and, when available, player statistics.

​

​

CONTENTS

​

• PREFACE By Allan H. “Bud” Selig 

• INTRODUCTION By Robert K. Fitts 

• 1907 ST. LOUIS BASEBALL TEAM FROM HAWAII By Yoichi Nagata 

• 1908 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON TOUR OF JAPAN By Carter Cromwell 

• 1908 REACH ALL-AMERICAN TOUR By Robert K. Fitts 

• VOYAGETOTHELANDOFTHERISINGSUN: THE WISCONSIN BADGER NINE’S 1909 TRIP TO JAPAN By Joe Niese 

• RESTART OF LEGEND: THE WASEDA-CHICAGO RIVALRY 1910-2008 By Christopher Frey 

• DECLARATION OF VICTORY: THE MEANING AND ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE STANFORD UNIVERSITY BASEBALL TEAM’S 1913 JAPAN TOUR By Yusuke Suzumura 

• THE 1913-14 CHICAGO WHITE SOX-NEW YORK GIANTS WORLD TOUR By Stephen D. Boren and James E. Elfers

• RETURNING HOME: THE 1914 SEATTLE NIPPON AND ASAHI JAPANESE AMERICAN TOURS By Robert K. Fitts 

• ALL-STARS, AMATEURS AND ACRIMONY: GENE DOYLE’S 1920 TOUR By John J. Harney 

• THE 1921 NATIVE AMERICAN TOURS OF JAPAN By Yoichi Nagata, Robert K. Fitts, and Mark Brunke 

• 1921 VANCOUVER ASAHI’S TOUR TO JAPAN By Satoshi Matsumiya 

• THE DIAMOND STAGE: HERB HUNTER’S 1922 TOUR OF JAPAN By Adam Berenbak 

• KENICHI ZENIMURA, “THE FATHER OF JAPANESE AMERICAN BASEBALL,”AND THE 1924, 1927, AND 1937 GOODWILL TOURS By Bill Staples Jr. 

• THE SAN JOSE ASAHI’S 1925 TOUR OF JAPAN AND KOREA By Ralph M. Pearce 

• RETHINKING THE PHILADELPHIA BOBBIES 1925 TOUR IN JAPAN: “EMBARRASSMENT TO THE NATION” OR “GREAT SUCCESS”? By Kat D. Williams, Ph.D. 

• GENTLE BLACK GIANTS: NEGRO LEAGUERS IN JAPAN, PHILADELPHIA ROYAL GIANTS TOUR, 1927 By Bill Staples Jr. 

• TY COBB’S LAST HURRAH: THE 1928 COBB TOUR By Tom Hawthorn 

• HERB HUNTER’S DREAM TOUR: 1931 -A RABBIT, TWO LEFTYS, AND AN IRON HORSE VISIT A DANGEROUS JAPAN ByDennis Snelling 

• MURDER, ESPIONAGE, AND BASEBALL: THE 1934 ALL-AMERICAN TOUR OF JAPAN By Robert K. Fitts

• THE 1935 WHEATIES ALL-AMERICANS: A BOXFUL OF GLOBAL AMBITION By Keith Robbins 

• THE GREATEST PIECE OF DIPLOMACY EVER: THE 1949 TOUR OF LEFTY O’DOUL AND THE SAN FRANCISCO SEALS By Dennis Snelling 

• JOE DIMAGGIO’S LAST HURRAH: THE 1951 LEFTY O’DOUL ALL-STAR TOUR By Robert K. Fitts 

• THE COLD WAR, A RED SCARE, AND THE NEW YORK GIANTS’ HISTORIC TOUR OF JAPAN IN 1953 By Steven K. Wisensale 

• THE 1953 EDDIE LOPAT ALL-STARS’ TOUR OF JAPAN By C. Paul Rogers III 

• GOOD OPTICS: THE 1955 YANKEES TOUR By Roberta J. Newman 

• THE BUMS IN THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN: HOW THE 1956 DODGERS’ TOUR OF JAPAN MARKED THE END OF A DYNASTY By Robert K. Fitts 

• CROSSROADS: THE 1958 ST. LOUIS CARDINALS TOUR OF JAPAN By Adam Berenbak 

Pdf Version

The pdf/kindle version of Nichibei Yakyu is available on Amazon or the SABR website (free for members)

​

Paperback

​

The pdf/kindle version of Nichibei Yakyu is available on Amazon, or the SABR website for $32.95

​

​

 

​