To celebrate the 150th anniversary of Japanese baseball, the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) has published the two-volume set, Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan, Volumes I and II. Over 100 baseball teams from the United States and Hawaii have crossed the Pacific to play baseball in Japan since 1906. Nichibei Yakyu Volumes I and II are the first works in English that focuses on these international tours and volume 2 focuses on the latter portion of the 20th century and the 21st.
Since 1960 these tours have featured World Champions like the Baltimore Orioles and Los Angeles Dodgers, and have even incorporated the official opening Day of the Major League Baseball season, as well as triumphant returns to Japan for stars such as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui. 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 II contains chpaters on all 29 major league squads that travelled to Japan from 1960 to 2019. Each chapter is accompanied by game results and player statistics. Also included for the first time in any language are tables showing the all-time leaders from the Japan tours in various statistical categories, as well as the statistics of selected Japanese players against major league competition.
İçerik tablosu
INTRODUCTION
By Robert K. Fitts
1. SAN FRANCISCO BASEBALL RETURNS TO JAPAN: THE 1960 GIANTS GOODWILL TOUR
By Robert F. Garratt
2. NO ALIBIS: THE DETROIT TIGERS’ 1962 TOUR OF JAPAN
By Andrew Forbes
3. 1966:THE DODGERS RETURN
By Andy Mc Cue
4. CARDINALS TAKE CARE OF BUSINESS IN THE LAND OF THE RISING SUN (1968)
By Mark Kanter
5. ‘THEY BEAT US THE JAPANESE WAY’: THE SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS’ 1970 SPRING TOUR
By Steven Treder
6. ‘WE ARE TRYING TO CLOSE THE GAP, BUT IT IS VERY WIDE YET’: THE 1971 TOUR OF THE BALTIMORE ORIOLES
By Dennis Snelling
7. 1974 NEW YORK METS GOODWILL TOUR
By Henry Tran
8. BIG RED MACHINE’S LAST HURRAH: CINCINNATI REDS’ TOUR OF JAPAN 1978
By Robert Kiyoshi Shadlow
9. THE 1979 MAJOR LEAGUE ALL-STAR SERIES
By Carter Cromwell
10. A NEAR ESCAPE: THE 1981 KANSAS CITY ROYALS’ TOUR OF JAPAN
By Chris Hicks
11. THE 1984 BALTIMORE ORIOLES TOUR:THE FINAL ATTEMPT AT A TRUE WORLD SERIES
By Carter Cromwell
12. BASEBALL FROM MARS: THE 1986 SUPER MAJOR SERIES
By James Forr
13. 1988 MAJOR LEAGUE-JAPAN ALL-STAR SERIES
By Chris Hicks
14. ‘THERE’S NO JOY IN TOKYO’: THE 1990 SUPER MAJOR SERIES
By Robert K. Fitts
15. REDEMPTION: THE 1992 MLB VS JAPAN ALL-STAR BASEBALL SERIES
By Carter Cromwell
16. TOMMY LASORDA: BASEBALL’S GLOBAL AMBASSADOR AND THE LOS ANGELES DODGERS’ 1993 FRIENDSHIP TOUR OF JAPAN
By Mark Langill
17. THE 1996 SUN SUPER MAJOR SERIES
By Blair Williams
18. THE 1998 SUPER DOME ALL-STAR SERIES
By Eli Toney
19. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL’S HISTORIC OPENING DAY SERIES: 2000 NEW YORK METS VS. CHICAGO CUBS
By Scott Melesky, MA
20. THE 2000 ALL-STAR SERIES
By Dave Wilkie
21. MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL’S 2002 ALL-STAR TOUR OF JAPAN
By Roberta J. Newman
22. GODZILLA RETURNS: THE 2004 MLB OPENING SERIES
By Robert K. Fitts
23. THE 2004 MLB ALL-STARS TOUR OF JAPAN
By Trevor Raichura
24. END OF AN ERA: THE 2006 AEON ALL-STAR SERIES
By Coop Daley and Robert K. Fitts
25. 2008 OPENING SERIES BOSTON RED SOX VS. OAKLAND ATHLETICS
By Bill Nowlin
26. 2012 MLB OPENING SERIES: MARINERS VS ATHLETICS AT THE TOKYO DOME
By Susan Miyagi Mc Cormac
27. 2014 SUZUKI ALL-STAR SERIES SAMURAI JAPAN VS. MLB ALL-STARS
By Carter Cromwell
28. JAPAN DOMINATES: THE 2018 MLB ALL-STAR TOUR OF JAPAN
By Susan Miyagi Mc Cormac
29. 2019 MLB OPENING SERIES
By Shane Barclay
30. TOURS OF JAPAN STATISTICS
Yazar hakkında
Robert K. Fitts is the author of seven books on Japanese baseball and Japanese baseball cards. Fitts is the founder of SABR’s Asian Baseball Committee and a recipient of the society’s 2013 Seymour Medal for Best Baseball Book of 2012, the 2019 Mc Farland-SABR Baseball Research Award, the 2012 Doug Pappas Award for best research presentation at the SABR convention, and the 2006 and 2021 SABR Research Awards. He has twice been a finalist for the Casey Award and has received two silver medals at the Independent Publisher Book Awards. While living in Tokyo in 1993-94, Fitts began collecting Japanese baseball cards and now runs Robs Japanese Cards LLC. Information on Rob’s work is available at Rob Fitts.com.