Issei Baseball
The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
2021 SABR Baseball Research Award
2021 Independent Publisher Book Awards, Silver Medal Winner
Baseball has been called America’s true melting pot, a game that unites us as a people. Issei Baseball is the story of the pioneers of Japanese American baseball, Harry Saisho, Ken Kitsuse, Tom Uyeda, Tozan Masko, Kiichi Suzuki, and others—young men who came to the United States to start a new life but found bigotry and discrimination.
In 1905 they formed a baseball club in Los Angeles and began playing local amateur teams. Inspired by the Waseda University baseball team’s 1905 visit to the West Coast, they became the first Japanese professional baseball club on either side of the Pacific and barnstormed across the American Midwest in 1906 and 1911. Tens of thousands came to see “how the minions of the Mikado played the national pastime.” As they played, the Japanese earned the respect of their opponents and fans, breaking down racial stereotypes. Baseball became a bridge between the two cultures, bringing Japanese and Americans together through the shared love of the game.
Issei Baseball focuses on the small group of men who formed the first professional and semiprofessional Japanese baseball clubs. These players’ story tells the history of early Japanese American baseball, including the placement of Saisho, Kitsuse, and their families in relocation camps during World War II and the Japanese immigrant experience.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
So how did America’s favorite pastime become Japan’s favorite sport? Historian Robert K. Fitts tells the true story of how Japan adopted baseball as its game of choice—and how some of its top athletes eventually brought their skills to the United States. Beginning in the 1870s, when American teachers and sailors taught the game to young men in Japan, Issei Baseball charts the rise of organized ball in the East and how Japanese immigrants brought their scientific approach to the game stateside in the 1900s. Fitts digs up rare statistics on the first Japanese-American teams, profiles inspiring and important players, exposes the prejudices they faced on the road and in the press, and describes how they triumphantly won respect with their skills. He also gives us a fascinating look into the wild days of semi-pro ball. Sports buffs and cultural historians alike will enjoy this brisk, deeply researched read.
