The 1930s Baseball Barnstorming Tours to Japan, Part II: The 1934 Tour
Gary Livacari
The Babe at the plate in Japan
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“The1934 Tour to Japan” Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:
The Babe sides safel into second on the 1934 tour.
The entire American All-Stars team (complete player ID’s available upon request)
The Babe having some fun with Japanese youngsters.
The Babe during the welcoming parade attended by over 500,000 Japanese
Newspaper account of the 1934 tour
American players walk on to the field in Toyko
The Babe lounging aboard the Empress of Japan ocean liner
The Babe with wife Claire and daughter Julia aboard the ocean liner, the Empress of Japan
Part of the American entourage with their wives: Eric McNair, Doc Ebling, Babe Ruth, Bud Hellerich, Lefty Gomez.
The Babe greeted by some Japanese ladies
Portrait shots of the entire American team (ID’s available upon request)
Jacket worn by Moe Berg on the tour
Some of the players in Japan
Complete group photo
American players enter the field
Babe Ruth receiving flowers from a young girl during the 1934 tour to Japan.
The Babe and family aboard the ocean liner
The ocean liner the Empress of Japan arriving in Yokohama harbor on November 2, 1934.
Babe Ruth autographed ball from the tour
Commemorative Japanese stamp of the 1934 tour
Group photo in Japan
The Babe autographs a ball in Japan
Scene from the 1934 tour, Lou Gehrig visible
Babe with wife and daughter as they start on their round the world trip
The 1930s Baseball Barnstorming Tours to Japan, Part II: The 1934 Tour
“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.” Tom Shieber, National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
Some of you will remember my post from a couple weeks ago where I highlighted the 1931 barnstorming tour to Japan. In today’s post, I’ll feature by far the most popular and successful of the numerous tours to Japan, the 1934 tour.
Why, you may ask, was this one so much more popular than previous tours to the Land of the Rising Sun? The answer is actually quite simple: this one included among its various baseball dignitaries the great Bambino himself, Babe Ruth, who, at the time, was hugely popular in Japan.
In the featured photo, we see Babe Ruth hitting his first home run of the tour in Miji Shrine stadium in Toyko. Check out the Babe’s size compared to the diminutive Japanese catcher.
If you remember, the 1931 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, 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, financial concerns caused Hunter to get out of the baseball touring business, and he 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.
First a little background:
As the 1934 baseball season came 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. With the Babe fading, the center of the baseball world seemed to be slipping away from New York. The spotlight was now shining brightly in St. Louis, where an improbable group of baseball characters, led by the zany Dizzy Dean and known as the “Gashouse Gang,” had just won the 1934 World Series. Of course, all that would change in a couple years when a young Italian kid from San Francisco named Joe DiMaggio would arrive on the New York scene.
Whether or not he knew it at the time, the Babe’s tenure in New York was over. 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.
The 12-city extravaganza featured a formidable entourage of baseball talent. 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. Also among the group was Bud Hellerich, who had founded the Louisville Sluggers Company more than 50 years prior.
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.
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 war-time American government. The Japanese were not completely innocent either, as many of the players were shadowed during their stay in Tokyo, and their bags were searched back at their hotel.
The tour was a huge success and helped establish professional baseball in Japan, with the presence of Babe Ruth being a key factor. The Japanese All-Stars, headlined by star player Matsutara Shoriki, remained together after the American barnstorming tour ended. The All-Stars later emerged as Japan’s first professional baseball team which is said to still be in existence.
The next year, 1935, the Americans returned the favor by extending an invitation to the Japanese All-Star team, now billed as the Great Tokyo Baseball Club, to visit the United States. They played against an assortment of amateur, college and minor league teams.
The tour was covered in a book published in 2012, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination During the 1934 Tour of Japan, by Robert K. Fitts. Many of you will remember that Rob Fitts recently authored an interesting post for us here on Baseball History Comes Alive!, Solving the Mystery of Togo Hamamoto.
There are many souvenirs from the 1934 tour including posters, jerseys, autographed balls, and caps. Many of these items have found their way into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and into the hands baseball memorabilia collectors. One item, a cap worn by the Bambino during the tour was reportedly sold for over $300,000.
Following the conclusion of the Japanese leg of the barnstorming tour, the group continued on for more games in Shanghai, China and Manila. Most players then returned home, while the Ruth family—Babe, Claire, and Julia— continued on an extended around-the-world trip that lasted over four months.
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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