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Babe Ruth and the 1934 Tour to Japan Photo Gallery
The Babe autographs a ball in Japan
The ocean liner the Empress of Japan arriving in Yokohama harbor on November 2, 1934.
The Babe greeted by some Japanese ladies
The Babe slides into second at Miji Shrine stadium in Toyko
The Babe lounging aboard the Empress of Japan ocean liner
Babe Ruth receiving flowers from a young girl during the 1934 tour to Japan.
The Babe and family aboard the ocean liner
The 1934 tour group, which will be featured in a future post
Players on the 1931 tour
Babe Ruth autographed ball from the tour
Japanese All-Stars
American players enter the field
The Babe having some fun with Japanese youngsters.
Some of the players in Japan
Jacket worn by Moe Berg on the tour
The presence of Babe Ruth made the 1934 tour by far the most successful.
Commemorative Japanese stamp of the 1934 tour
Lefty and wife June O'Dea aboard Star of Japan en route to tour of Japan
Let’s Recall Baseball’s Highly Successful 1934 Barnstorming Tour to Japan!
And can you guess why it was so successful?
Amidst all the hoopla and hype of the Cubs and Dodgers opening the 2025 baseball season in Japan – with superstar Shohei Ohtani as the biggest attraction – it might be fun to recall an earlier trip to Japan: the highly successful 1934 barnstorming tour.
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There had been earlier tours to the Land of the Rising Sun, including one in 1931, but none compared to the 1934 trip. As you may have guessed, the reason it was so successful was due to the presence of a certain 1930s superstar who was at the time hugely popular in Japan. It’s summed up nicely in this quote from Tom Shieber of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum:
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“The 1934 tour would have never happened without Babe Ruth, because – even though he was at the end of his playing career – he was still the most popular and famous athlete of his day.”
First a little background:
The earlier 1931 barnstorming tour was organized by ex-journeyman ballplayer, Herb Hunter. Even though the tour included considerable baseball talent and was considered a success, it lacked substantial drawing power and mass appeal…meaning, of course, that the great Bambino, Babe Ruth, wasn’t a part of it.
Herb Hunter’s Japanese contacts were pressing him hard to work out a deal to bring Ruth over. Christy Walsh, the Babe’s personal manager, began negotiations with Hunter for just such a deal. By 1934, Hunter turned future operations over to the very capable Lefty O’Doul. Under Lefty’s guidance, a deal was struck with the Japanese organizers, and soon Babe Ruth was the top billing for a 1934 return tour to Japan.
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The Stage is Set for the 1934 Tour
As the 1934 baseball season drew to a close, the Yankees had again found themselves on the sidelines. They were now a good two years removed from the Babe’s fabled “Called Shot” at Wrigley Field in the 1932 Fall Classic. Before spring training would arrive, the Babe would find himself exiled to the National League and lowly Boston Braves, with the allure of a future manager possibility thrown in to sweeten the pot. As we all know, he would never be a manager, and the short-lived fiasco mercifully ended less than two months into the new season as the Babe played his last game on May 30.
Of course, in November, 1934, all that lie in the future. The excitement level had to be off-the-charts for the barnstorming party, including the players and their wives, as they set sail heading west towards the Orient aboard the Empress of Japan. The world’s number one, larger-than-life international celebrity was safely in tow aboard the ship.
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The 12-city extravaganza featured a formidable entourage of baseball talent (see featured photo above, identifications available upon request). Included were some of the biggest stars of the game: Earl Averill, Lou Gehrig, Charlie Gehringer, Lefty Gomez, Connie Mack, Jimmie Foxx, and of course, the star attraction, Babe Ruth. Less recognizable names on the tour included Earl Whitehill, Eric McNair, Frankie Hayes, Bing Miller, Joe Cascarella, Lefty O’Doul, “Rabbit” Warstler, spy Moe Berg, A’s trainer “Doc” Ebling, and umpire John Quinn.
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Thousands Turn Out to Greet the Babe!
And what a reception the American “ambassadors of goodwill” received! It was reported that over 500,000 Japanese lined the streets of Tokyo for the welcoming parade, all hoping to catch a glimpse of the great Bambino. Try to picture the scene with the always-animated Babe cheerfully acknowledging the warm reception by waving Japanese and American flags, while flashing the huge Babe Ruth grin as he rode through the massive sea of adoring fans (see below).
Eighteen games were played on the barnstorming tour, and the All-Americans, as they were billed, won every game against some of the top Japanese players of the day. Each game was played in front of tens of thousands of fans, all hoping to see the 39-year-old Ruth blast a homer. Always the showman, the Babe didn’t disappoint and lived up to the billing, connecting for 13 round-trippers. His daughter Julia later recalled how popular her dad was during the games, as the delirious crowd of Japanese fans would stand and stomp their feet every time he came to bat and roar, “Beibu Rusu! Beibu Rusu!”
Remarkably, much of the tour was filmed by Jimmie Foxx using eight-millimeter black-and-white film. A digitized copy is now preserved in the National Baseball Hall of Fame museum. Here’s a link to the great footage. Spy Moe Berg, fluent in many languages including Japanese, also had a movie camera and was secretly filming important Japanese locations for later use by the wartime American government.
The tour was a huge success and helped establish professional baseball in Japan, with the presence of Babe Ruth being a key factor. Could there have been a better worldwide ambassador for baseball in the 1930s than the great Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth?
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Gary Livacari
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Photo Credits: All from Google search
Information: Excerpts edited from an article on National Baseball Hall of Fame website; and from the 1934 Tour to Japan Wikipedia page
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