Recently, the Baseball Hall of Fame uncovered a rare and cool piece of baseball history – a home movie from Jimmie Foxx capturing parts of the 1934 Barnstorming Tour of Japan that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Charlie Gehringer, Connie Mack among others. The 1934 tour was organized by Matsutara Shoriki, who owned the Japanese newspaper, Yomiuri Shinbun. He decided to see just how popular and successful baseball could be with the Japanese population by organizing the biggest exhibition with professional American players yet. Watch clips from Foxx’s video below, as well as an interview with Robb Fitts, author of Banzai Babe Ruth:
To learn more about the 1934 Tour in detail, please visit BRC’s section on the subject.
