[Photo album]: Inter-Hemisphere Non-Pro Baseball Championship 1950 (The First Post-WWII Barnstorming Team in Japan)

[Tokyo?]: N-B-C [publisher in Japanese script], 1950. Hardcover. Near Fine. Small quarto. Measuring 11¼" x 10¼". Printed title page, section of blank leaves at the end with a printed leaf "Personal Memories." Unpaged. Silk string tied patterned silk over boards. 30 gelatin silver photographs (including one folding panorama) affixed to thick card leaves with separate affixed printed captions. Most images are approximately 6" x 4½". Paper over front hinge split, but still tight, fraying at edges of the boards, thus very good; small chips or creases at the the inside corners of a few images internally about fine with very slight wear.

The baseball-mad Japanese had made Japan an obvious destination for barnstorming tours of professional baseball teams for the first four decades of the 20th century up until the War. The Japanese were eager to restore the practice and in 1948, the National Baseball Conference under J. G. Taylor Spink, whose 1938 plan to establish non-professional international World Series had been aborted by the War, reconsidered the plan. While it did not come to fruition, a Japanese all-star team comprised of college players was anxious to try their skills against an Ameircan team. They invited as their opponents, the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Capeharts, winners for three years running of a national semipro championship tournament. Taking place just five years after the War had ended and three months after the beginning of the Korean War, travel had not yet been normalized for tourists, so the players had to be temporarily sworn into active duty military service during their stay.

After General MacArthur's wife threw out the first ball, the Capehart's won the first game as the result of two home runs from former Chicago Cub Salvador Madrid. The teams two ace southpaw pitchers, Pat Scantlebury and Lefty LaMarque, both veteran all-stars of the Negro Leagues proved unhittable by the Japanese collegians. The Capehart's won four games to one, the only Japanese win was a 1-0 12 inning game, when several he American starters were unable to play because of severe food poisoning.

This album was almost certainly issued as a gift from the Japanese hosts for the participants in the tour. The images show the Capeharts arriving by plane and being greeted by Major General Marquat and Japanese dignitaries, receiving flowers, parading down the Ginza in cars preceded by a brass band, and a welcome party and dance, parading into the various stadiums, flag-raising ceremony, Mrs. MacArthur throwing out the first ball, a birdseye view of the packed stadium (the panorama), the teams posed together, a meeting with the Crown Prince, games in Osaka (where the manager of the Capeharts accepting the key to the city) and Kyoto, pictures of the Capeharts in the dugout, walking in the rain with paper parasols, an action shot of an umpire calling a Japanese player (Champ Ocate) out at the plate, another scoring play at the plate, one of "The Capeharts rejoicing over world's non-professional baseball championship, September 15, 1950" (posed with a giant trophy), other views of the playing field, etc.

A rare and perhaps unique souvenir of the first post World War Two barnstorming baseball tour of Japan featuring the triumphant Fort Wayne Capeharts. *OCLC* locates no copies. Much of this information about the tour comes from an article by Bob Buege on the SABR website.