Seventy-five years ago today, nearly 500,000 Japanese had lined the streets of Ginza to welcome Babe Ruth and the All American ballplayers to Tokyo.  Rows of fans, often ten to twenty deep, crowded into the road to catch a glimpse of Ruth and his teammates.  The pressing crowd reduced the broad streets to narrow paths just wide enough for the limousines to pass.  Babe Ruth rode in the first open limousine.  At 39, he had grown rotund and just weeks before had agreed to part ways with the New York Yankees.  His future in professional baseball was in doubt but his god-like charisma remained intact.  To the Japanese he still represented the pinnacle of the baseball world.  Millions followed his exploits in baseball magazines such as Yakyukai and Asahi Sports.  Sharing the car was his former teammate Lou Gehrig—The Iron Horse—now the world’s greatest player. 

The rest of the entourage, distributed 3 or 4 per car, followed: Connie Mack, the venerated 71-year old manager of the Philadelphia Athletics;  Jimmie Foxx, the Athletics burly third baseman known as “The Beast;” Earl Averill, the Snohomish, Washington native who had been the first American Leaguer to homer in his debut at bat—sportswriters tagged him the Earl of Snohomish when he played well and Big Ears on his off days; the slick fielding, power hitting second baseman Charlie Gehringer 

Confetti and streamers fluttered down from well-wishers leaning out of windows and over the wrought- iron balconies of the avenues’ multi-storied office buildings.  Thousands waived Japanese and American flags and cheered wildly.  Cries of “Banzai!  Banzai, Babe Ruth!” echoed through the neighborhood.  Reveling in the attention, the Bambino plucked flags from the crowd and stood in the back of the car waiving a Japanese flag in his left hand and an American in his right.  Finally, the crowd couldn’t contain itself and rushed into the street to be closer to the Babe.  Downtown traffic stood still for hours as Ruth shook hands with the multitude. 

Babe Ruth and the All Americans woke up early and breakfasted on oatmeal and hammocks at the Imperial Hotel.  A bit blurry-eyed from their welcoming party at the Maple Club the night before, the players were chauffeured to Meiji Shrine to pay their respects on the 82nd anniversary of the departed Emperor Meiji’s birthday.  It seemed like an innocent enough act at the time, but it would be a contributing motive for attempted murder.

Right- Babe and Claire Ruth and the All Americans visit the Meiji Shrine

After a lavish garden party at the home of the Marquis Okuma, the Major League squad boarded a private train to Chiba, where they would hold their first practice on dry land in eight days.  Thousands of fans came to the stadium to watch the All Americans practice.  In their enthusiasm to get closer to the players, they pushed against the flimsy wall separating the field from the bleachers, splintering it with a “wood-rendering crash.”

Right - Moe Berg (far left) enjoys the garden party as Sotaro Suzuki (far right) looks on.

At 12:20 a Japanese naval band struck up the tune Pacific Ocean and Sotaro Suzuki, dressed in a light three-piece suit and his usual fedora, led the All Americans through the tunnel behind home plate and on to the field.  Behind Suzuki strode Connie Mack wearing his elegant dark three-piece suit and high collar.  Next to Mack sauntered Ruth, hand stuck in the pockets of his red woolen All American team jacket.  According to Yakyukai writer Fujio Naoki, in contrast to the tall, stately Mack, the Babe “looked like an elephant.”  No matter.  The crowd thundered away when the recognized the god of baseball.  Ruth’s solemn face broke into a wide grin as he pulled his hands free to wave and doff his cap.  The rest of the All Americans marched behind in double file, each looking splendid in the red jacket, light grey uniform pants with blue striped socks and navy blue caps.  After the Americans came the Japanese, “looking like children” by comparison. 

Nearly all of the 60,000 seemed to focus on Ruth.  Naoki told the readers of Yakyukai, “the fans went crazy each time Ruth did anything—smiled, sneezed, or dropped a ball.”  One old man brought a pair of high-powered binoculars, amusing himself and neighboring fans by focusing on the Bambino’s famous broad nose, making his nostrils fill the lens.  The Babe relished the attention and transformed into a comedian.  During batting practice, he purposely missed some pitches—twisting himself around like a pretzel before falling over.  Later, he began a game of shadow ball—hitting an imaginary grounder to Rabbit McNair at short stop, who fielded it convincingly and started a double play, timed with perfect realism.  The antics, according to Ambassador Joseph Grew, brought “roars of laughter from the grandstands.”

The game itself was less interesting than Ruth’s antics.  It pitted the All Americans against the Tokyo Club, a team of recently graduated players from the Tokyo area, not the Japanese all star team known as All Nippon.  It took just a few minutes for the fans, and players, to realize the difference in skill level between the two teams—the ball even sounded louder when coming off the American bats.  The Americans seemed to score at will, pilling up 17 runs to Tokyo’s 1.  To the crowd’s disappointment, none of the Americans hit a home run.  Afterwards, the Babe apologized for not going deep, telling reporters, “I was a little tired today, but tomorrow I will do my best to hit a home run.”