NHK World-Japan’s Deeper Look host Del Irani visited the Yakyu-Baseball exhibit at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown to examine the history of Japan- U.S. relations through baseball.
In this two-part series, Irani interviews SABR’s Asian Research Committee Chair Robert Fitts about the the long history of Japan-U.S. baseball interaction, baseball diplomacy, and the cultural importance of Japanese playing in Major League Baseball.
Every Tuesday morning we will post an article from SABR’s award-winning books Nichibei Yakyu: Volumes I and II. Each will present a different chapter in the long history of US-Japan baseball relations. In this article Robert Fitts describes the first professional baseball tour of Japan.
The “King of Baseball” was on the prowl for a new opportunity. Mike Fisher, known by everybody as Mique, was a bom promoter and bom self-promoter. He was a risk taker, tackling daunting projects with enthusiasm and usually succeeding. He was the quintessential late-nineteenth-century American man; through hard work and gumption this son of a poor Jewish immigrant transformed himself into a West Coast baseball magnate.
Bom in New York City in 1862, Fisher grew up in San Francisco. Renowned for his speed, he played baseball in the California League during the 1880s before an industrial accident in March 1889 damaged his left hand and sidelined his career. Fisher soon became a policeman in Sacramento, rising to the rank of detective. During his time away from the game, he put on weight and by 1903 was a repeat champion in the fat men’s races held at local fairs.
In February 1902, a new opportunity presented itself when the California League offered Fisher the Sacramento franchise. Fisher pounced on it. In December 1902, the league transformed into the Pacific Coast League, but within a year Fisher relocated his franchise to Tacoma, Washington. Hampered by poor attendance, despite winning the 1904 championship, Fisher sold his share in the team but stayed on as manager as the franchise moved to Fresno in 1906. But his stay in Fresno was short as he left the team after the 1906 season. Without a franchise, Fisher turned to promoting and, in the fall of 1907, took a squad of PCL all-stars to Hawaii.
“So pleased is Mike Fisher with the reception that his team has met with here,” reported the Hawaiian Gazette, “that he is already planning for more worlds to conquer. He is now laying his lines for a trip to be made … next year, which will extend farther yet from home. … The plan, as outlined by Fisher, will include a start from San Francisco, with a team composed exclusively of players from the National and American leagues,” and a stop in Hawaii before continuing on to Japan, China, and the Philippines. It was the first time an American professional squad headed to the Far East.
By early December 1907, Fisher had teamed up with Honolulu athlete and sports promoter Jesse Woods to organize the trip. Woods sent a flurry of letters to Asian clubs to gauge their interest. In February, John Sebree, the president of the Manila Baseball League, responded “that Manila would meet any reasonable expense in order to see some good fast baseball by professional players.” In early March, Woods received a letter from the Keio University Baseball Club stating that they would help arrange games in Japan for the American team. The Hawaiian Gazette noted, “This was good news for Woods, who has been in doubt as how such a trip would be received by the Japanese. There has been so much war talk that Woods was afraid that Japanese might refuse to play baseball with us.” A letter in early April from T. Matsumura, the captain of the Yokohama Commercial School team, confirmed the enthusiasm for the tour in Japan: “When you visit our country, you would certainly receive a most hearty welcome from our baseball circles.” Isoo Abe, the manager of the Waseda University team, added, “We are preparing to give you a grand ovation. We are going to make you feel at home, and we will strive to make your visit to Japan to be one that will linger long in your memories.”
In late June, Woods sailed for Asia to finalize the details for the tour. The touring team was now known as the Reach All-Americans. With the name change, it is likely that the A.J. Reach Company sponsored the team but despite extensive research, the nature of the sponsorship is unknown. Woods’s reports from the Far East were encouraging. “I have all the arrangements made. Forfeit money is up everywhere, and everything is on paper. The team will take in Japanese and Chinese ports and Manila.”
While Woods was working out the itinerary, Fisher built his roster. As usual, he thought big. It would be “a galaxy of the best players in the country.” He began by engaging Jiggs Donahue, the Chicago White Sox’ slick-fielding first baseman, to manage and help recruit the team. “I do not know why Mike Fisher came to me to ask me to get up the team, for I did not know him,” Donahue told a reporter. “I will willingly undertake the work, however, for I believe it will prove to be a grand trip and a success.” Donahue quickly recruited fellow Chicagoans Frank Chance, Orval Overall, and Ed Walsh and began working on the leagues’ two biggest stars, Honus Wagner and Napoleon Lajoie. “Both Wagner and Lajoie are said to be enthusiastic over the plan,” reported the Inter Ocean of Chicago, “but cannot decide whether or not they will be able to arrange their affairs in such a way as to make the trip, which will last two or three months.” By June, Fisher had added New York Highlanders star Hal Chase, Chicago’s Doc White, and Bill Bums of the Senators. Although Wagner and Lajoie declined the invitation, Fisher’s team received a boost on August 23 when Ty Cobb announced that he would join the tour. The recently married star planned to take his bride on the trip as a honeymoon.
Continue to read the full article on the SABR website
The KBO League has ten professional teams, but every fan recognizes an unofficial 11th team: the Strongest Monsters (now the Blazing Fighters). The Monsters first appeared on JTBC’s variety show Strongest Baseball (known to Americans as A Clean Sweep, and currently airing on Netflix). The premise was simple: retired players who had once excelled in the KBO form a team and compete against high school, university, and minor league teams. If they fail to maintain a winning percentage above .700 for the season, the program ends. The logline was straightforward, but the results were surprising.
Strongest Baseball Shakes Up the Game in Korea
TV shows where retired players form a team and play baseball have existed before, with Back to the Ground on MBN as a prime example. But those programs stopped at simply evoking nostalgia for legendary players. Strongest Baseball went a step further, setting a .700 winning-percentage target and giving viewers a clear reason to cheer for the team as if it were a real professional club.
Strongest Monsters Team Roster, 2023 Season
Strongest Baseball rewrote the playbook for Korean baseball entertainment. On game days, Jamsil Baseball Stadium – the largest in Korea, with over 20,000 seats – was sold out. Like a pro team, the Monsters had their own fight songs and sold jerseys.
Above all, the true value of Strongest Baseball lies in how it sparked the popularity of the KBO League. By adopting a variety show format that anyone could enjoy without pressure, it allowed viewers to naturally learn the rules of baseball. As a result, it broke down one of professional baseball’s biggest entry barriers: its complicated rules. The Strongest Monsters also faced high school teams, introducing promising young players to the audience. Fans who had supported these prospects continued to follow them into the KBO once they were drafted. From 2022 to 2024, the years during which Strongest Baseball aired, KBO League’s annual attendance rose from 6.07 million to 8.10 million to 10.88 million. In boosting the league’s popularity, Strongest Baseball clearly served as a catalyst.
The future seemed bright, but that expectation fell apart. The Strongest Monsters roster now plays under the name Blazing Fighters, and the show’s title has changed from Strongest Baseball to Blazing Baseball. Meanwhile, the show Strongest Baseball remains, with a new roster preparing for broadcast. So, what happened in between?
The Conflict Between JTBC and Studio C1
The split into two programs began with a dispute between the broadcaster and the production company. The original Strongest Baseball was produced by Studio C1 and aired by JTBC. Each season began with open tryouts, and season four was no exception – until February 2025, just weeks before tryouts, when JTBC abruptly announced their cancellation.
Studio C1 quickly countered, stating that tryouts would proceed as planned. Indeed, they did, but the incident brought the JTBC–C1 conflict into the open. The next flashpoint was production costs: JTBC accused C1 of overbilling and withholding financial records and announced it would replace the production company.
C1 fired back, claiming JTBC had withheld live game revenue for two years without disclosing the amounts. They also declared they would continue producing the program independently. The dispute escalated into lawsuits, which are still ongoing.
From Strongest Monsters to Blazing Fighters
Fans’ attention shifted to the players – whichever side retained the Monsters’ core identity would inherit its fanbase. The winner was C1. Except for Sim Soo-chang and Oh Ju-won, the entire roster sided with C1. With the players’ backing, CEO Jang Si-won quickly began production on a new show, rebranding Strongest Baseball as Blazing Baseball and renaming the team Blazing Fighters.
Blazing Fighters on the field
Challenges persisted after the Fighters’ debut. When C1 uploaded Blazing Baseball episodes to YouTube, JTBC filed complaints, leading to repeated takedowns. The turning point came from business deals: despite legal risks, the Fighters signed a home stadium contract with the city of Daejeon, secured a uniform deal with Wilson, and sold patch ads to sponsors including Kakao Pay Securities.
C1’s biggest win was landing a live broadcast contract with SBS Plus, a major terrestrial channel. Now, for the first time, a baseball variety show streamed games like a professional team. To top it off, C1 launched its own platform, where fans could watch Blazing Baseball without fear of takedowns. While it has generated less buzz than seasons 1-3 (because those streamed on Netflix), Blazing Baseball still sells out Gocheok Sky Dome tickets in just five minutes.
The Trials of Strongest Baseball
Meanwhile, Strongest Baseball has faced headwinds before even airing. Only two players from the original Monsters stayed with the JTBC version. JTBC quickly filled the roster with other retired players, but a bigger issue arose when hiring a new manager.In late June, JTBC announced Lee Jong-beom, a coach for kt wiz, as the new Strongest Baseball manager – right in the middle of the KBO season. With kt in a tight pennant race, the loss of a coach angered the team’s fans, who directed their frustration at both Lee and JTBC. Lee explained that he accepted the job because he believed “reviving Strongest Baseball will greatly advance Korean baseball,” but public opinion remained cold. Already criticized by the original fanbase, the show now lost neutral viewers as well.
Thumbnail of the teaser for Strongest Baseball
Strongest Baseball is slated to premiere in September, but its teaser videos are filled with more comments supporting Blazing Baseball and criticizing JTBC.
So now the question is, will Blazing Baseball keep its old fanbase and remain on top? Or will Strongest Baseball use JTBC’s corporate power to turn the tide? Whether JTBC or C1 ultimately prevails, one fact remains: this is a turning point in Korean baseball entertainment as well as the growing popularity of the game in Korea.
How this saga ends could have a massive impact on whether Korean baseball continues its shocking rise and the way it will be seen on the international stage for years to come.
Every Tuesday morning we will post an article from SABR’s award-winning books Nichibei Yakyu: Volumes I and II. Each will present a different chapter in the long history of US-Japan baseball relations. In this article Carter Cromwell discusses the first US university baseball team to tour Japan.
Links between Japan and the Seattle area are nothing new. They were first forged in the late nineteenth century when Japanese began immigrating to the Pacific Northwest, and they’ve strengthened over the years. One of the consequential connections has been baseball.
In 1905 a team from Japan’s Waseda University toured the American West Coast and played against various US teams. That led to a trip to Japan three years later by a group of a dozen University of Washington players, and those two journeys set the stage for frequent travels by Japanese and Seattle teams. The 1914 Seattle Nippon was the first Japanese American club to go to Japan, and the 1921 Suquamish Tribe became the first Native American team to do so. Teams from the University of Washington also made trips to Japan in 1913, 1921, and 1926 (and then returned 55 years later, in 1981). Before World War II, 13 clubs from the Pacific Northwest traveled to Japan, and about a dozen Japanese university teams made the reverse trip. The 1908 University of Washington tour was the first US collegiate tour of Japan and the first by a mainland US team. It was made possible by arrangements completed by Professor Isoo Abe, a Japanese college athletic instructor who had been the driver behind Waseda’s trip to the United States in 1905. Professor Abe—known in Japan as the “Father of University Baseball”—had been impressed by the hospitality shown by the University of Washington and the Seattle residents during the 1905 visit. In addition, the University of Washington had accepted the largest number of Japanese students in the United States at the time and was familiar to the Japanese people.
Abe had persuaded his university to subsidize the 1905 tour, despite the fact that Japan was fighting a war with Russia at the time. Baseball historian Kerry Yo Nakagawa said, “From a baseball standpoint, [Waseda was] the best team in Japan, and they wanted to test the water of American baseball at the university level. They wanted to dissect the American game, use it as a laboratory to learn.”
Three years later, that still held true, and Waseda invited the University of Washington to come to Japan. Washington did not send its official team, but all 11 players making the trip had played for the Huskies and were from the state of Washington. They included first baseman Webster Hoover of Everett, pitcher Huber Grimm of Centralia, right fielder Byron Reser of Walla Walla, second baseman Arthur Hammerlund of Spokane, catcher Roy Brown and pitcher Earle Brown of Bellingham, third baseman Ralph Teats and center fielder Leo Teats of Tacoma, and shortstop Walter Meagher, pitcher Ed Hughes, and left fielder Percy Logerlof of Seattle. Howard Gillette managed the team.
Continue to read the full article on the SABR website
The Baseball’s Bridge Across the Pacific exhibit made a powerful return at the 2025 MLB All-Star Game in Atlanta, drawing thousands of fans to Truist Park from July 12–15. Presented by the Nisei Baseball Research Project with Major League Baseball, the Japanese American Citizens League, and MLB’s Diverse Business Partners program, the showcase celebrated the enduring legacy of Japanese American baseball, U.S.-Japan baseball relations, and its influence on the global game. This year’s edition featured new Georgia connections in Japanese baseball, rare artifacts, tributes to baseball pioneers Hank Aaron and Sadaharu Oh, and thought-provoking art by Ben Sakaguchi, while honoring the late MLB Ambassador Billy Bean. With its blend of history, culture, and human stories, the exhibit strengthened its call for a permanent exhibit in a museum and teased plans for the 2026 All-Star Game in Philadelphia during America’s 250th birthday celebration.
The KBO League was founded in 1982. But long before its launch, baseball was already part of Korean life. From the first known instance of baseball on the Korean Peninsula in 1894 to 1981, how did Korean baseball connect with the wider world?
The first established baseball team with a primarily Korean roster was the Hwangseong YMCA Baseball Team, founded in 1904. Philip L. Gillette (1872–1938), an American Protestant missionary, evangelized various Western sports to Korea: basketball, skating, baseball, and more. Among them, baseball captured the attention of many young Koreans. A game played by catching a ball with a large glove and hitting it with a wooden bat to score runs was unlike anything Koreans had seen before.Gillette formed the team, ordered baseball equipment directly from the United States, and trained the players himself. Their first game, against the German School team in 1906, marked the beginning of competition beyond Seoul, as the YMCA squad traveled to Kaesong, Pyongyang, and other cities to face school teams there.
Poster from the 2002 film “YMCA Baseball Team”
Full-scale international exchange began in 1912. From November 5 to 12 of that year, the team traveled to Japan to play a series of games against Japanese students. On November 7, 1912, they recorded their first-ever victory against a Japanese school. In an era when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, news of a win over Japan gave great encouragement to Koreans enduring those dark times.
However, the following year, missionary Gillette was expelled, and several players were wrongfully arrested. The team was ultimately disbanded.
Despite ongoing Japanese colonial rule, baseball persisted. In 1922, a Major League All-Star team visited Korea. In 1925, the University of Chicago baseball team and an American women’s baseball team also came to play, keeping the spirit of international baseball alive. Another milestone came on May 23, 1923, when Heo Seong, fresh from studying in the U.S., founded the Joseon Baseball Umpires’ Association, Korea’s first organized umpiring body.
The real turning point came in 1925 with the construction of Dongdaemun Baseball Stadium (then called Gyeongseong Baseball Stadium, demolished in 2007). With a dedicated ballpark in place, numerous amateur clubs sprang up, mostly led by young Koreans.
After liberation from Japan in 1945, eight industrial-league teams were founded: the Financial Union Baseball Team, Joseon Transportation Baseball Team, Gyeongseong Electric Baseball Team, Joheung Bank Baseball Team, Namsun Electric Baseball Team, Joseon Electric Baseball Team, Samguk Coal Baseball Team, and Jungang Industrial Baseball Team. In the fall tournament of 1946, six more teams joined – such as the Post Office (Communications Bureau) Baseball Team, the Railway Bureau Baseball Team, and the Seoul City Bureau Baseball Team, further expanding the industrialz`-league ecosystem.
Even during the post–Korean War slump in baseball, change was in the air. In 1956, a Zainichi Korean student team visited from Japan, followed by a Japanese industrial-league team in 1961. These exchanges opened the door for Japanese players to come to Korea, and for Korean players to go to Japan’s professional leagues.
One famous case was Baek In-chun, a former industrial-league player who joined Japan’s Toei Flyers (now the Nippon-Ham Fighters). In the opposite direction, Kim Sung-keun came from Japan to continue his baseball career in Korea’s industrial league. Whereas industrial teams before the 1960s were mostly run by public institutions, Korea’s rapid industrialization in the 1960s–70s saw banks and private companies forming and operating their own corporate teams.
Industrial-league baseball reached its peak in 1975, the year the Lotte Giant (precursor to today’s Lotte Giants) was formed. These industrial teams didn’t compete in a regional-franchise-based league like modern pro teams; instead, they were company teams made up largely of employees, operating in a kind of workplace baseball system.It wasn’t until the spring of 1982 that professional baseball, the KBO League, officially began. While industrial-league baseball gradually faded into history after that, baseball as a sport became deeply woven into everyday Korean life.
Every Tuesday morning we will post an article from SABR’s award-winning books Nichibei Yakyu: Volumes I and II. Each will present a different chapter in the long history of US-Japan baseball relations.
We will begin with the first foreign baseball club to visit Japan: the St. Louis team from Hawaii which arrived in 1907 and played ten games.
Located on the pathway between the US mainland and Japan, Hawaii was important in the history of US-Japan baseball exchanges. The baseball ties between the two islands began in 1907, triggered by a rivalry between two Tokyo universities.
In June 1907, Suejiro Ito was dispatched to Hawaii by the Toyo Migration Company to survey the labor situation of the 50,000 Japanese immigrants working in the sugar and pineapple fields. There, he came across a rumor that Waseda University was negotiating with Stanford University for a baseball team tour of Japan. Ito, a graduate of Keio University, thought, “I wanted my alma mater to be the first to invite a foreign team to Japan. Before Waseda.”
For many years the college teams were the pinnacle of baseball in Japan. Right after the turn of the twentieth century, a group of teams in the Tokyo area, Waseda, Keio, Gakushuin University, First Higher School, and the Yokohama Cricket and Athletic Club (YC&AC: a sports club of foreign residents), battled to be the top team in Japan. The two universities, Waseda and Keio, developed a fierce rivalry. The Waseda-Keio match was called the Sokei-sen (the abbreviation for Waseda-Keio game), and it was watched with great interest by baseball fans across the country.
The history of the Sokei-sen began as follows. Keio University founded its official university baseball club in 1892. Waseda, on the other hand, had to wait for nine years, until 1901, for its baseball club to be bom. In 1903 the latecomer Waseda University sent a written challenge to Keio University. Following proper etiquette, Waseda asked in a humble manner for the more experienced Keio team to teach them baseball. The letter read, “Our team is still underperforming, and our players are still immature. We would be honored to have a lesson from you in the near future.” The first game of the Sokei-sen was played on November 21, 1903, with Keio beating Waseda, 11-9.
However, things changed in 1905. Waseda upset Keio, not on the field but in the international scene. Waseda carried out a monumental tour of North America, becoming the first Japanese team to visit the United States. The Waseda team, led by baseball director Isoo Abe, swung around the US West Coast, winning seven games and losing 19 against colleges, high schools, and semipros. Although the results were not encouraging, Waseda brought back to Japan the latest in baseball techniques and strategies, known as “scientific baseball,” including the hit-and-run, second-shortstop cooperative play, and pregame warmup, as well as equipment such as baseball shoes and gloves. Waseda willingly shared the new knowledge with other teams. With this, Waseda became the leaders of Japanese baseball.
After the US tour, the Waseda-Keio rivalry flared up even more. In the fall of 1906, the two teams planned a three-game series. After Keio won the first game, the school’s cheering group congregated outside the home of Waseda’s founder, Count Shigenobu Okuma, and shouted, “Banzai Keio!” The Waseda students viewed this as an extreme insult. At the second game, Waseda packed the stands with 1,200 cheerers, in clear violation of the agreement that limited the cheering groups to 250. The horde celebrated Waseda’s victory by marching to the former home of the late Keio founder Yukichi Fukuzawa (who had died in 1901) and yelling, “Banzai Waseda!” Fearing a riot at the third game, Keio president Eikichi Kamata and Isoo Abe of Waseda agreed to cancel the final match. The Sokei-sen would not be played for years to come.
The void left by the extinction of the Sokei-sen caused a sense of crisis in Japan’s top baseball world. A number of attempts were made to revive the Sokei- sen, but all failed. For example, at the end of 1906, the Tokyo Sports Press Club made a vain effort to mediate between the two schools. Another attempt was made in the summer of 1907 when Leroy E. McChesney, baseball captain of the YC&AC, proposed a formation of Japan’s first baseball league “Keihin Yakyu Domei,” but Keio refused to join. Waseda won the first and last championship, as the league lasted only one fall season.
Ito was annoyed that Waseda had been the first Japanese team to travel abroad so he wanted to make sure that Keio would be the first to invite a foreign team to Japan. Luckily enough for Ito’s plan, Kakugoro Inoue, a graduate of Keio University and member of Japan’s House of Representatives, stopped in Honolulu on the way back from a four-month tour of Europe and the United States. On August 22, Ito met with Inoue to ask for his cooperation for Keio to bring over a baseball team from Hawaii. Inoue gave his word (“I will give my all for our alma mater”) and left for Japan.
Ito selected the St. Louis College alumni team for the Japan tour, because it had recently won the 1907 championship of the Honolulu Baseball League. The Pacific Commercial Advertiser thought highly of the team: “The makeup of this team is nearly as strong as any aggregation which could be picked up in the Territory [of Hawaii].” The Hawaiian Star noted that a Japanese student who had seen St. Louis play believed that the team would be a very attractive drawing card if it came to Japan.
The captain of the St. Louis team, Pat Gleason, brimmed with confidence and excitement: “We will certainly show those Japs something that they do not know about baseball, and the chances are we will come back with another championship tacked on our pennant.” It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for many of the St. Louis players who had never been away from the islands.
Continue to read the full article on the SABR website
This YouTube video contains a hodgepodge of colorized footage from various 1950s MLB tours. This 13 minutes, 30 second video has scenes from the 1949 San Fransisco Seals tour, the 1953 New York Giants tour, the 1955 New York Yankees tour, and the 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers tour, as well as some Tokyo Big Six University action. Keep your eyes open for some rare footage of Hawaiian superstar Wally Yonamine.
Hunhee Cho and Eunwoo Jung will present How GenZ’ers in Korea Sparked a New Era of 10 Million Baseball Fans
Join us on September 4, 2025 at 8 pm EST for SABR’s Asian Baseball Research Committee Monthly Zoom Presentation.
Baseball is hot in Korea! With nearly 11 million fans annually, the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) is surging in popularity, especially among Gen Z Koreans. This post-pandemic boom has sparked new attention from researchers and industry watchers alike.
In this virtual presentation, Hunhee Cho and Eunwoo Jung will share findings from their quantitative and qualitative studies examining this cultural and sporting shift. Their research offers fresh insights that may also hold relevance for Major League Baseball (MLB) and Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB). A live Q&A will follow the presentation. We invite your questions and reflections.
After throwing out the first pitch at Yankee Stadium prior to the game on July 29, 2025, Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese to play in the Major Leagues, held a press conference at the stadium. Now 81 years old, Murakami recalled his days with the San Francisco Giants in 1964 and 1965 and recounted his interactions with MLB stars.
David Adler of MLB.com covered the event and penned this fun article.
As many sources still list 1896 as the earliest known baseball game in Korea, the SABR Asian Baseball Committee has decided to call attention to this 2016 article by baseball historian Patrick Bourogo that provides evidence that the game was played in Korea as early as 1894.
During Induction Weekend 2025, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum officially opened the Yakyu-Baseball exhibit with a private viewing for Hall of Fame players and NPB greats. After seeing the exhibit, Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch moderated a press conference with Bobby Valentine, Jack Morris, Cal Ripken Jr., and Ozzie Press to talk about the exhibit and their experiences on the 1986 MLB All-Star tour of Japan. Among the many stars with ties to Japan to visit the exhibit were Ichiro Suzuki, Hideo Nomo, Masanori Murakami, LeRon Lee, Tuffy Rhodes, Adam Jones, Peter O’Malley, and Bobby Valentine.
All-time NPB batting leader LeRon Lee, Masanori “Mashi” Murakami, and Bobby Valentine
Valentine noted, “I think it’s a spectacular exhibit. … Not only are the aesthetics … pleasing but the knowledge that you gain by walking around that room [will lead to] a lot of understanding. I am really happy to be part of it.”
Ichiro examines his case in the Yakyu-Baseball exhibitHideo Nomo poses by his display at the Yakyu-Baseball exhibitMasanori Murakami points out his hat and glove in the Yakyu-Baseball exhibit
The exhibit focuses on how baseball has brought the countries and people of Japan and the United States closer together. Displays emphasize trans-Pacific interactions including player exchange, goodwill baseball tours, and the exchange of ideas and culture. Viewers will learn to appreciate Japan’s rich baseball history. To learn more about Yakyu-Baseball please see the links below for detailed discussions of the exhibit, which will be on the third floor of the Hall of Fame Museum for at least the next five years.
Koji Sato with Ichiro Suzuki
Koji Sato, the President of the Japanese American Association of New York, Inc, sees the exhibit as “a great honor. I have so much pride that Japanese baseball is being recognized in the United States. Growing up, I watched Japanese baseball but never thought that there would be such Japanese outstanding players such as Ichiro and Shohei Ohtani playing in the Major Leagues. Showing the 150 years of yakyu/baseball being played in the two nations and having an exhibit showcasing how it evolved is something worth seeing for all baseball fans. To have Ichiro join the ranks of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Joe DiMaggio and Willie Mays is an incredible accomplishment. To be included in such elite company brings a sense of pride and joy to Japan and the Japanese people. I am hoping that with the induction of Ichiro into the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Yakyu-Baseball exhibit that there will be a lot of interest by Japanese tourists to visit.”
For details on the Yakyu-Baseball exhibit, please check out these articles.
SABR Asian Baseball Research Committee Blog 