6/14/2010:
Baseball is America's game, but it has become the world's game. Today's major league baseball teams include players born in other lands - such as Justin Morneau from Canada; Francisco Liriano from the Dominican Republic; and Japan's Ichiro Suzuki.
Today's datebook looks back to June of 1911 when a Japanese college team played two games with the University of North Dakota. The Japanese were introduced to baseball in the early 1870s by an American teacher named Horace Wilson. Baseball caught on stronger when American sailors demonstrated the game in Japan in 1898. College students at Waseda University began to play baseball and, in 1903, hired an American coach named Fred Merrifield. With great enthusiasm, the "active and muscular" Japanese players caught on to the new game. A fierce rivalry quickly arose between Waseda and Keio University of Tokyo.
In 1905, the Waseda University team made its first tour of the U.S., playing against college teams. In 1911, both Waseda and Keio University sent their teams to the U.S. The Keio team played two games against UND. In the first game, on June 13, the "final score was 8 to 6 in North Dakota's favor." The game was "decidedly interesting," wrote a Grand Forks Herald reporter, "because of the unusual sight of a team composed entirely of Orientals playing the great American national game."
The game was played before the "biggest crowd that ever attended an athletic event" at UND and the Keio team pleased the crowd by showing that they "knew baseball thoroughly" - with "sensational" fielding and with strong and accurate throws from the outfield. Their relief pitcher mixed his pitches well, "winding up for a speedy one and then floating" a change-up to make the UND batters swing early. The game was close because UND committed six errors and UND's pitcher, Campbell, allowed an uncharacteristic seven walks.
The second game, on June 14th, 99 years ago on this date, was a different story. The Japanese team sent its best pitcher, Sugase, to the mound, and he allowed only five hits in a 4-3 victory. Sugase showed "fine control" and used his "good curves" to shut down UND's hitters. The Keio University fielders again "played clever, scientific baseball" and their fielding was even "snappier and neater" than in game one. UND's pitcher, Robinson, was "erratic at first, but steadied and threw good ball" thereafter.
The two games drew good crowds, with 1,100 fans at game one and 675 at game two. The Keio team left Grand Forks for Spokane, Washington, on their way back home, where the team resumed its homeland rivalries.
The game grew slowly in Japan as the country became America's enemy and then a post-war ally. By the 1990s, the face of baseball changed as Japanese players, like the incomparable Ichiro, made America's game truly international.
Sources:
"Japanese Lost First Game To North Dakota," Grand Forks Daily Herald, June 14, 1911, p. 2.
"Slants From the Land of the Rising Sun," Grand Forks Daily Herald, June 14, 1911, p. 2.
"Keio University Wins From North Dakota, 4-3," Grand Forks Daily Herald, June 15, 1911, p. 2. [for the story on the June 14, 1911, game]
"Notes of the Game," Grand Forks Daily Herald, June 15, 1911, p. 2.
"Japanese Team Storms Midway; Seeks Revenge," Chicago Daily Tribune, May 6, 1911, p. 17.
"Japanese As Baseball Players," Oakland Tribune, February 24, 1905, p. 9.
"Sidelights on Indiana's Game With Waseda," Indianapolis Star, June 11, 1911, p. 3.
"Keio Shut Out," Colorado Springs Gazette, May 14, 1911, p. 19.
"How the Japanese Play Baseball, Snapped at the Waseda-Gopher Games," Minneapolis Sunday Tribune, May 28, 1911, p. 1, Sports Section.
"Waseda Ball Team Arrives For Game With Gophers," Minneapolis Tribune, May 25, 1911, p. 14.
"Japanese Players Big Hit in Chicago," Minneapolis Tribune, May 7, 1911, p. 1, Sports Section.
Hurler Sugase written about in "Americans Defeat Great Jap[anese] Pitcher; Sugase, Idolized at Keio University, Easy for Giants and White Sox," New York Times, December 8, 1913, from online N.Y. Times Archive.
"A Short History of Japanese Baseball, SABR Asian Baseball Committee," http://asianbb.sabr.org/japanesebaseballhistory.html, accessed on September 8, 2006.