Not a Typical College Road Trip

By David Marasco

In 1910 the University of Chicago baseball team undertook an unusual road trip. They accepted an invitation from Tokyo's Waseda and Keio universities for a series of games in Japan. The trip began in September, which meant special plans for the ballplayers. The athletes took Summer classes (including Japanese) as they would miss the Fall offerings. They took advantage of their time in Chicago to practice baseball. Their competition also made good use of the time. Waseda was coached by Albert "Stuffy" Place and Fred Merrifield, two UoC baseball alumni. Waseda spent two months training in Hawaii, where Ned Jones of the Japan Advertiser (Tokyo) claims that the team "more than held its own with all the teams that were brought out to meet them." Keio's coaching staff included minor leaguer Art Schaeffer and New York Giant Tommy Thompson. Their highlight was the 3-2 defeat of the USN cruiser New Orleans. The sailors of the New Orleans had toured the ports of the Pacific and won 19 straight games before running into Keio. The two Japanese teams were practicing for four hours a day in preparation for the Americans. But before Waseda and Keio could face Chicago the Maroons would have to get to Tokyo.

To reach Tokyo the Maroons first had to leave Chicago. By necessity they could not take Amos Alonzo Stagg, he had a football team to coach. The men selected to represent Chicago were thirteen in total, a number that would have spooked the typical superstitious ballplayer of the early century. The squad was lead by Professor Gilbert Bliss and consisted of Pat Page, Joe Pegues, Collings, Cleary, Boyle, O. Roberts, P. Roberts, Baird, Sunderland, Steinberecher, Ehrhorn and Paul. At 10:15 PM on the 2nd of September they left Union Station on the Burlington Oriental limited, headed for Washington state. The Chicago Tribune notes that four Japanese students were among the UoC crowd that gave the team its send off.

Along the way the team practiced at train stops. On the 3rd they entertained the locals in Clear Lake and St. Cloud with their drills. When they reached Kalispell, Montana they stopped for some games. There they split a pair. The morning game was a slugfest that saw UoC win 11-9. The second game featured a matchup of Page for Chicago and Thompson for Kalispell. Thompson had pitched well in the Northwestern League that year and held the Maroons scoreless until they pushed across two in the ninth. The locals responded with a pair in the bottom of the ninth and then won it in the tenth.

Rain prevented a scheduled game in Spokane, so the next opponent the Maroons faced was the Everett, Washington team. The game featured a steal of home by Collings, but the Maroons would drop the game 4-3. The next day UoC threw Page at Everett. Actually, Page threw at Everett, at one point hitting four men in a row. Outside of that episode he had an excellent game, giving up only a walk and a hit. This time the Maroons would prevail 3 to 2.

When the train pulled into the station in Seattle it was met by a crowd. Yamasaki, the Japanese consul in Chicago, had cabled ahead to his counterpart Mr. Abe in Washington. The Maroons got a Japanese escort to their hotel. The next day before a crowd of 2000 saw UoC play the Mikado team, the champions of the Japanese Northwest League. The Maroons sent G. Roberts to the mound against Otani. Roberts was able to one-hit Mikado, while the Maroons piled up fifteen runs at the expense of their hosts. Page notes that "Their pitcher had considerable speed and a good curve but their team play was a little ragged, probably due to overanxiety to register the first defeat to the travelers by a Japanese team." After the game they went to the Japan City club, where they sampled Japanese cuisine with the consul. That night the local alumni hosted another banquet for the team, there "every Maroon vowed to bring back to the Midway the baseball championship of the orient."

The team left Puget Sound on the good ship Kamakura Maru. As they travelled up the coast the players marvelled at the beauty of nature. After their first meal at the hands of their Japanese cook, the Maroons were glad that they were near the mainland. At the next port they hit the store hard for non-perishable foodstuffs. After a short period of good weather, the outlook changed. Page Page notes that the English department may see themes along the lines of "Echos from the Aft - the Blondes at the Rail." Despite their unhappiness with the ocean, the players kept busy on their voyage. They did calisthenics and threw the ball around. They were entertained by both Japanese sword exhibitions and Japanese dramatics from the passengers in steerage.

After the voyage of 16 days the Kamakura Maru pulled into its berth at Yokohama. The team was met by Professor Iso Abe of Waseda and Alfred Place, a UoC alumnus. With the two gentlemen was a large number of students from the two Tokyo universities. The press assaulted the ship, taking pictures and interviews. After clearing customs the players took rickshaws to the Imperial Hotel, where they would quarter for the first portion of their trip.

The Maroons were the guests of honor at a banquet hosted by Professor Abe. It was a 20 course monster, with dishes of both native and American flavor. The occasion was attended by the creme of society -- American Ambassador Thomas O'Brien, Waseda founder Count Okuma, Waseda's President Takata and Keio's President Kamada.

The Maroon's first appearance was a public practice attended by 3000. The team was well photographed by the crowd. Rain crabbed the first scheduled meeting, so the Maroons first met Waseda on October 4th. They won 9-2, with eight hits for Chicago and two for Waseda. Details of the game did not cross the Pacific. It cost the Chicago Tribune $1.30 a word to get cabled accounts from Japan, roughly $1,800 a column. Pat Page kept a journal that was later published in part, but the first game seems to have been lost.

Keio University met Chicago on the playing field on October 6th. 12000 came to see the game, and it is noted that women were included in the crowd, an oddity at the time. The only real scoring occurred in the third, a testament to the pitching of Pat Page and Sugase, who had beat the University of Wisconsin the year before. In the third O. Roberts doubled and was followed by an Ehrhorn walk. Sunderland plated the two with a triple, and then himself scored on a Page sacrifice. Keio would score an unearned run in the ninth to close the final to 3-1.

It rained on October 8th, limiting the crowd to a mere 7000. One of these fans was of high stature, "The game was marked by the presence of Count Okuma, founder of Waseda University. Addressing the Maroons, he said he and all of Japan greatly appreciated the skillful baseball ability of the Chicago men and admired their gentlemanly sportsmanship. He also stated that he rejoiced in noting the friendly social relations that existed between the American and Japanese college men." G. Roberts started for the Maroons and struck out 11 on his way to a shutout. The final would be 5-0 Chicago over Waseda, on the strength of good pitching and the hitting prowess of O. Roberts.

Keio gave the Maroons their closest game of the series on the 14th. In the third the Japanese were able to push a run across the plate. Chicago answered with a run in the fifth, and the game rumbled into extra innings. In the tenth Pegues was hit by a pitch and promptly stole second. After being bunted to third Pegues scored on a ball mishandled by the infield. 9000 saw the 2-1 Chicago victory.

Despite good weather, only 2000 saw the match between Waseda and Chicago on the 18th. The fans who did attend were quite vocal, and waved crimson and white banners throughout the game. Sunderland started for the Maroons and limited his opponents to a mere 4 hits, while his teammates found no problem with their puzzle. The Maroons notched a 15 to 4 victory.

On October 19 12000 saw Keio give Chicago yet another good run. Going into the bottom of the eighth it looked like the Maroons had the game in the bag. They enjoyed a 2-0 lead. Sasaki evened the matter with a solid hit with two men on. Once again Keio would push the Maroons to extra innings. Chicago didn't take any prisoners and scored 3 in the top of the tenth. The final was 5-2.

The sweep of the two three-game series gave Chicago the championship. They were awarded with a pair of bronze trophies. The Maroons didn't limit their competition to fellow students. They played a game against the Tomon club of Tokyo, a squad made up of Waseda players and alumni. The Japanese veterans did not help, Chicago took the day 11-2.

The games then shifted from Tokyo to Osaka, where Chicago played a three game series with Waseda. The first game was on the 25th. Many of the 12000 fans had spent the night on the field in order to secure good seats. Waseda finally played up to the level it was capable of playing. Waseda took the lead in the fifth, but in the end the Maroons took the day 8 to 4.

The largest crowd of the tour saw the two teams the following day. Whatever progress Waseda had made was erased when they went down on the bad side of a 20-0 blowout. The Maroons gave Waseda 11 outs in the form of sacrifices, and yet they still crushed the opposition. Waseda was 2-hit. After the game the two squads visited Nara, an ancient capital of Japan.

On the 27th the Maroons would play their last game against Japanese competition. Waseda would play decent ball, but again get blown out, this time 12-2. After the game the Maroons were presented a silver cup by Osaka Mainichi Shimbun. They then visited Kyoto and finally left Japan from the port of Kobe.

After departing the team headed for American territory - the Philippines. They set sail upon the good ship Kaifong, "meeting the Chinese at Shanghai and again at Hong Kong." It is unclear if that means that they played games against the locals or if they simply went ashore. They ran into choppy seas and a good deal of seasickness, so going ashore for any reason was a popular move. When they arrived they were the guests of a Mr. F. R. White, who was a UoC graduate and was the head of the bureau of education.

In the Philippines the Maroons were dealt their first loss. Their first game was against the Marines of Manila, the champions of the local professional league. Wet weather made for sloppy play, and poor fielding on the part of the Maroons lead to three runs for the Marines in the 4th and another tally in the fifth. UoC would be shutout for a 4-0 loss. It would be their only loss of the trip. The Maroons would get their revenge in the well-attended rematch. They took the day 4-1, but a rubber match could not be scheduled.

The next game in the Philippines was against an All-Star team of natives. While the Filipinos did well for themselves in the field it was noted that they weren't much with the bat. Page saw a rosy future, "There is no reason, with a little more practice, why these natives should not make good ball players in a short time."

The second game of the day was against the Twelfth Infantry from Ft. McKinley. This was a team that was good enough to arouse a serious rivalry with the famous 25th Infantry at the turn of the century. While the 25th Infantry itself was stationed in the Philippines at the time, no match was scheduled between them and the Maroons. It would have been interesting to see how UoC would have fared against the all-Black team that funnelled so many of its soldiers into the Kansas City Monarchs. In any case, the Maroons beat the 12th by a score of 3-0. The game was called after five innings at the request of the soldiers.

The Maroons were the guests of the alumni at the University club. They enjoyed a banquet and dance in their honor. When the time came to leave the Philippines the team broke up. Ehrhorn was offered and accepted a teaching position. Boyle and Steinbrecker decided that they would also stay. The rest headed back for Japan, and on the way stopped in at Hong Kong where they spent a few hours. In Hong Kong Cleary, Pegues and Professor Bliss left for Europe. The Roberts brothers cashed in their chips in Tacoma and Baird vanished in Nebraska. On the 26th of December the remnants of the Maroons returned to Union Station, greeted by a crowd of 200.

With the Maroons back in Chicago the story is over, no? Not at all, the 1910 tour would have a ripple that would become a tsunami in Japanese baseball. A young man named Suishu Tobita was a player on the Waseda team that was defeated by Chicago. He did not take the losses well. According to Robert Whiting's "You Gotta Have Wa," Tobita quit baseball and vowed revenge. "I'll beat Chicago if I have to die to do it." He got his chance nearly a decade later when he was offered the job as manager of Waseda. Tobita quickly instituted a training system that became known as shi no renshu -- death training. Whiting quotes Tobita himself, "A manager must love his players... but on the practice field he must treat them as cruelly as possible, even though he may be crying about it inside. That is the key to winning baseball. If the players do not try so hard as to vomit blood in practice, then they can not hope to win games. One must suffer to be good."

Tobita eventually did beat Chicago, in fact recorded three wins and a tie in 1925, and along the way he elevated Waseda to the top of the baseball heap in Japan. Tobita then moved over to the newspaper world and helped shape Japanese baseball from his column in the Asahi Shimbun. His ideas on training took hold in the Japanese baseball world and are still followed to this day. The University of Chicago's 1910 visit to Japan left its mark on the game.