Podcast appearances and mentions of rob fitts

Send us Fan MailRob Fitts loves Japanese baseball and has been writing about it for years. His 10 books on baseball in Japan cover many aspects of the sport in the Land of the Rising Sun. Dr. Fitts joined Gordon and Mark to talk about his 2025 book "In the Japanese Ballpark" which is a series of vignettes covering aspects of what goes on during a NPB game. From players, to managers, to umpires, owners, fans, even beer girls, Fitts has a great feel for how to tell the story and explain Japanese baseball to fans outside of Japan. It's a great and engaging read and you can pick up your copy wherever you buy your books!Thanks again to Mercury Maid for the Intro & Outro music. Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!  Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com.  You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends to check us out!www.almostcooperstown.com

Send us Fan MailWe had intended to drop this episode on Monday the 11th after taking a week off due to some travel. But we recorded Wednesday night the 6th and so here's the latest episode as we want things to be timely!  The teams as of the weekend will have played about a quarter of the season. Does that mean Aaron Judge will hit 60 homers as he has 15 already? Not necessarily but you wouldn't be surprised would you? Framber Valdez did another crazy Framber thing. The bad teams aren't as bad as usual and the good teams not quite as good as they can be after 40 games. Our next episode features  author Rob Fitts who wrote a great book about Japanese baseball. Look for it Monday the 18th. Thanks again to Mercury Maid for the Intro & Outro music. Check them out on Spotify or Apple Music!  Please subscribe to our podcast and thanks for listening! If you can give us 4 or 5 star rating that means a lot. And if you have a suggestion for an episode please drop us a line via email at Almostcooperstown@gmail.com.  You can also follow us on X @almostcoop or visit the Almost Cooperstown Facebook page or YouTube channel.  And please tell your friends to check us out!www.almostcooperstown.com

This week, Mike and Bill welcome five-time SABR Research Award winner Rob Fitts to talk about his latest book, In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball. Fitts's book is a terrific point of entry for anyone interested in learning more about the unique and raucus experience of attending a Japanese ballgame. From beer vendors to front office executives to players to commissioners, Rob interviews those who work diligently to produce the most popular sport in Japan in this accessible and exceptional book. Mike and Bill talk with him about the research process, some of what he learned, and what has changed over the years in the Japanese game. Plus, happy birthday to Hank Aguirre and George Blaeholder! And farewell to Jim Duckworth, Tom Timmermann, Dave Morehead, and George Altman.  

November 4, 2009. It's Game 6 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies. The Yankees will clinch the series tonight on the back of one player, Hideki Matsui. He's a baseball player from Japan, one of the few who made the jump across the Pacific to play in America. In the last 15 years, many more Japanese players have made that move, including superstar Shohei Ohtani, arguably the most popular baseball player in the world today. But before Ohtani, before Matsui, there was Masanori Murakami, the first Japanese player to appear in MLB. How did Murakami go from a village outside of Tokyo to pitching in front of tens of thousands in America? And how did an international incident cut his U.S. career short, leading to a 30-year gap before the next Japanese player would arrive in the Major Leagues? Special thanks to Rob Fitts, author of Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer; Kerry Yo Nakagawa, founder and director of the Nisei Baseball Research Project; and Michael Clair, writer and senior manager for storytelling and special projects at Major League Baseball. You can hear him on MLB Morning Lineup, the league's daily podcast. To stay updated: historythisweekpodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Major League Baseball, like America, is at its best when it's diverse and reflective of the countries that play the game. So this week, 59 years after the anniversary of Masahiro Murakami Day at Candlestick Park, Mike and Bill, along with special guest and Murakami biographer Rob Fitts (robfitts.com), remember the first player of Japanese descent to play in the Big Leagues. Mashi's career took him from Japan to Phoenix to Fresno and San Francisco before finally returning to Japan in 1966. Along the way they discuss how the 20 year old came to be a Giant, why he was exactly what the club and San Francisco needed in 1964 and 1965, why he went back to his homeland, and why it took 30 years for another Japanese player to play in the Majors.

Today, we have the writer and historian Rob Fitts on the show. Rob is an expert on Japanese baseball and has written a great book on the first Japanese baseball club in the United States which was started in the early 20th century in Los Angeles. Enjoy this fun miscellaneous episode! About Rob Fitts His Website Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers Rob's Newest Book Support the Podcast Our Patreon Page

On this week's episode of SABRcast, Rob Neyer chats with author Rob Fitts. The pair discuss his expertise and research surrounding Japanese baseball, as well as his vast knowledge of baseball cards. Then Rob and SABR CEO Scott Bush discuss who won the weekend, including an update on SABR Virtual. For show notes, extra content, and a list of what Rob's reading, visit the SABRcast website at https://sabr.org/sabrcast.

Major League Baseball, like America, is at its best when it's diverse and reflective of the countries that play the game. So this week, 52 years after the anniversary of Masahiro Murakami Day at Candlestick Park, Mike and Bill, along with special guest and Murakami biographer Rob Fitts (robfitts.com), remember the first player of Japanese descent to play in the Big Leagues. Mashi's career took him from Japan to Phoenix to Fresno and San Francisco before finally returning to Japan in 1966. Along the way they discuss how the 20 year old came to be a Giant, why he was exactly what the club and San Francisco needed in 1964 and 1965, why he went back to his homeland, and why it took 30 years for another Japanese player to play in the Majors.

There are three Americans in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. One is Horace Wilson, the professor of English who brought his students outside for a game in 1872, thus introducing baseball to Japan. Another is Wally Yonamine, the Hawaii-born Nisei who played professional baseball in Japan in the 1950s (after one season as a running back in the NFL), winning three batting titles and numerous selections to All-Star teams. And the third is Frank “Lefty” O’Doul. A power-hitting outfielder who won two National League batting titles, O’Doul was a member of two teams of American players who toured Japan in 1931 and 1934. O’Doul fell in love with Japan during these visits.  He returned to the country in 1935 to assist in the creation of the Tokyo Giants, a professional team that toured the United States. And he came back again in 1949, this time as the manager of the minor-league San Francisco Seals. With much of the country still in ruins from the war, the Seals’ four-week tour lifted Japanese morale and helped repair Japanese-American relations.  Emperor Hirohito invited O’Doul to the palace to offer his personal thanks. General MacArthur called the Seals’ tour “the best piece of diplomacy ever.” Lefty O’Doul is one of the principal characters of Rob Fitts‘ history of the 1934 tour of Japan by Major League players. O’Doul was joined on the team of “All Americans” by future Hall-of-Famers Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Gehrig, as well as legendary manager Connie Mack. But the marquee attraction was Babe Ruth, at that time coming to the end of his playing career yet still the biggest star in baseball. Rob’s book, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), shows that Ruth was also an international star. Japanese fans swarmed around him at every stop on the tour, and they cheered for his home runs, even when they were part of another lopsided win by the Americans. Japanese fans’ admiration of Ruth and the other American players, and the overall success of the tour, convinced organizers that there was a place for professional baseball in Japan, alongside the well-established and popular high school and college leagues. Two years after the tour, Japan’s professional league played its inaugural season, featuring the Tokyo Giants and six other clubs. For his own part, Ruth came away from the tour with a great affection for Japan. He was then bitterly disappointed seven years later by the attack on Pearl Harbor. As Rob explains in his book and the interview, even during the weeks of the tour, when thousands of Japanese were cheering American players in the streets and stadiums, the forces that would lead to war were moving in society and the military. Babe Ruth and baseball were unable to keep that war from coming. But Lefty O’Doul and baseball were at least able to help repair the damage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are three Americans in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. One is Horace Wilson, the professor of English who brought his students outside for a game in 1872, thus introducing baseball to Japan. Another is Wally Yonamine, the Hawaii-born Nisei who played professional baseball in Japan in the 1950s (after one season as a running back in the NFL), winning three batting titles and numerous selections to All-Star teams. And the third is Frank “Lefty” O’Doul. A power-hitting outfielder who won two National League batting titles, O’Doul was a member of two teams of American players who toured Japan in 1931 and 1934. O’Doul fell in love with Japan during these visits.  He returned to the country in 1935 to assist in the creation of the Tokyo Giants, a professional team that toured the United States. And he came back again in 1949, this time as the manager of the minor-league San Francisco Seals. With much of the country still in ruins from the war, the Seals’ four-week tour lifted Japanese morale and helped repair Japanese-American relations.  Emperor Hirohito invited O’Doul to the palace to offer his personal thanks. General MacArthur called the Seals’ tour “the best piece of diplomacy ever.” Lefty O’Doul is one of the principal characters of Rob Fitts‘ history of the 1934 tour of Japan by Major League players. O’Doul was joined on the team of “All Americans” by future Hall-of-Famers Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Gehrig, as well as legendary manager Connie Mack. But the marquee attraction was Babe Ruth, at that time coming to the end of his playing career yet still the biggest star in baseball. Rob’s book, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), shows that Ruth was also an international star. Japanese fans swarmed around him at every stop on the tour, and they cheered for his home runs, even when they were part of another lopsided win by the Americans. Japanese fans’ admiration of Ruth and the other American players, and the overall success of the tour, convinced organizers that there was a place for professional baseball in Japan, alongside the well-established and popular high school and college leagues. Two years after the tour, Japan’s professional league played its inaugural season, featuring the Tokyo Giants and six other clubs. For his own part, Ruth came away from the tour with a great affection for Japan. He was then bitterly disappointed seven years later by the attack on Pearl Harbor. As Rob explains in his book and the interview, even during the weeks of the tour, when thousands of Japanese were cheering American players in the streets and stadiums, the forces that would lead to war were moving in society and the military. Babe Ruth and baseball were unable to keep that war from coming. But Lefty O’Doul and baseball were at least able to help repair the damage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are three Americans in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. One is Horace Wilson, the professor of English who brought his students outside for a game in 1872, thus introducing baseball to Japan. Another is Wally Yonamine, the Hawaii-born Nisei who played professional baseball in Japan in the 1950s (after one season as a running back in the NFL), winning three batting titles and numerous selections to All-Star teams. And the third is Frank “Lefty” O’Doul. A power-hitting outfielder who won two National League batting titles, O’Doul was a member of two teams of American players who toured Japan in 1931 and 1934. O’Doul fell in love with Japan during these visits.  He returned to the country in 1935 to assist in the creation of the Tokyo Giants, a professional team that toured the United States. And he came back again in 1949, this time as the manager of the minor-league San Francisco Seals. With much of the country still in ruins from the war, the Seals’ four-week tour lifted Japanese morale and helped repair Japanese-American relations.  Emperor Hirohito invited O’Doul to the palace to offer his personal thanks. General MacArthur called the Seals’ tour “the best piece of diplomacy ever.” Lefty O’Doul is one of the principal characters of Rob Fitts‘ history of the 1934 tour of Japan by Major League players. O’Doul was joined on the team of “All Americans” by future Hall-of-Famers Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Gehrig, as well as legendary manager Connie Mack. But the marquee attraction was Babe Ruth, at that time coming to the end of his playing career yet still the biggest star in baseball. Rob’s book, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), shows that Ruth was also an international star. Japanese fans swarmed around him at every stop on the tour, and they cheered for his home runs, even when they were part of another lopsided win by the Americans. Japanese fans’ admiration of Ruth and the other American players, and the overall success of the tour, convinced organizers that there was a place for professional baseball in Japan, alongside the well-established and popular high school and college leagues. Two years after the tour, Japan’s professional league played its inaugural season, featuring the Tokyo Giants and six other clubs. For his own part, Ruth came away from the tour with a great affection for Japan. He was then bitterly disappointed seven years later by the attack on Pearl Harbor. As Rob explains in his book and the interview, even during the weeks of the tour, when thousands of Japanese were cheering American players in the streets and stadiums, the forces that would lead to war were moving in society and the military. Babe Ruth and baseball were unable to keep that war from coming. But Lefty O’Doul and baseball were at least able to help repair the damage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There are three Americans in the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. One is Horace Wilson, the professor of English who brought his students outside for a game in 1872, thus introducing baseball to Japan. Another is Wally Yonamine, the Hawaii-born Nisei who played professional baseball in Japan in the 1950s (after one season as a running back in the NFL), winning three batting titles and numerous selections to All-Star teams. And the third is Frank “Lefty” O’Doul. A power-hitting outfielder who won two National League batting titles, O’Doul was a member of two teams of American players who toured Japan in 1931 and 1934. O’Doul fell in love with Japan during these visits.  He returned to the country in 1935 to assist in the creation of the Tokyo Giants, a professional team that toured the United States. And he came back again in 1949, this time as the manager of the minor-league San Francisco Seals. With much of the country still in ruins from the war, the Seals’ four-week tour lifted Japanese morale and helped repair Japanese-American relations.  Emperor Hirohito invited O’Doul to the palace to offer his personal thanks. General MacArthur called the Seals’ tour “the best piece of diplomacy ever.” Lefty O’Doul is one of the principal characters of Rob Fitts‘ history of the 1934 tour of Japan by Major League players. O’Doul was joined on the team of “All Americans” by future Hall-of-Famers Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, and Lou Gehrig, as well as legendary manager Connie Mack. But the marquee attraction was Babe Ruth, at that time coming to the end of his playing career yet still the biggest star in baseball. Rob’s book, Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan (University of Nebraska Press, 2012), shows that Ruth was also an international star. Japanese fans swarmed around him at every stop on the tour, and they cheered for his home runs, even when they were part of another lopsided win by the Americans. Japanese fans’ admiration of Ruth and the other American players, and the overall success of the tour, convinced organizers that there was a place for professional baseball in Japan, alongside the well-established and popular high school and college leagues. Two years after the tour, Japan’s professional league played its inaugural season, featuring the Tokyo Giants and six other clubs. For his own part, Ruth came away from the tour with a great affection for Japan. He was then bitterly disappointed seven years later by the attack on Pearl Harbor. As Rob explains in his book and the interview, even during the weeks of the tour, when thousands of Japanese were cheering American players in the streets and stadiums, the forces that would lead to war were moving in society and the military. Babe Ruth and baseball were unable to keep that war from coming. But Lefty O’Doul and baseball were at least able to help repair the damage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices