Banzai Babe Ruth

Baseball, Espionage, and the Assassination during the 1934 Tour of Japan

By: Robert K. Fitts

Narrated by: Robin Bloodworth

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

In November 1934 as the United States and Japan drifted toward war, a team of American League all-stars that included Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, future secret agent Moe Berg, and Connie Mack barnstormed across the Land of the Rising Sun. Hundreds of thousands of fans, many waving Japanese and American flags, welcomed the team with shouts of Banzai! Banzai Babe Ruth!

The all-stars stayed for a month, playing 18 games, spawning professional baseball in Japan, and spreading goodwill. Politicians on both sides of the Pacific hoped that the amity generated by the tour and the two nations shared love of the game could help heal their growing political differences. But the Babe and baseball could not overcome Japan's growing nationalism, as a bloody coup d tat by young army officers and an assassination attempt by the ultranationalist War Gods Society jeopardized the tour's success.

A tale of international intrigue, espionage, attempted murder, and, of course, baseball, Banzai Babe Ruth is the first detailed account of the doomed attempt to reconcile the United States and Japan through the 1934 All American baseball tour. Robert K. Fitts provides a wonderful story about baseball, nationalism, and American and Japanese cultural history.

©2012 Robert K. Fitts (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Excellent story, reader needs pronunciation chart

Would you recommend this book to a friend? Why or why not?

Yes and no. I would recommend the book as it is a fascinating account of history that isn't covered in any text book, in English or in Japanese. (My kids, who came up in the Japanese education system, never heard of many of the incidents.)

But the reader, Robin Bloodworth, detracts from the story by getting most names of people and places wrong. Not simply poorly pronounced, but saying valid names of completely different people.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Banzai Babe Ruth?

How the Babe showed extreme patience with the thousands asking for his autograph in multiple places throughout the book.

Also, when photographers placed film roles on the legs of carrier pigeon to carry back to the newspapers, my first thought was how good the bandwidth for photo sharing was in in 1934.

How could the performance have been better?

Robin could have read the first chapter of any Japanese language textbook that explains that vowels are pronounced the same every time. I find myself on the verge of shouting the correct words at him as I listen. I can live with gaijin getting the "R" wrong, but almost EVERY VOWEL in names of people or places? Aihara and Iihara are two very different names, yet he says the latter as the former.

And saying "Rusa" instead of "Rusu"! Argh! That's just unacceptable!

Also, did Lefy O'Doul, a San Francisco native, really have a Jersey thug accent? I'd have never thought that.

Do you think Banzai Babe Ruth needs a follow-up book? Why or why not?

The natural follow up book to this would be Nagata Yuichi's "The Tokyo Giants North American Tour of 1935" (Toho Shuppan, 2007, ISBN 978-4-86249-076-6). It would need to be translated from Japanese, though.

Any additional comments?

Please re-record this with somebody in studio who can give direction to the reader about how names should be pronounced. The reader doesn't have to have perfect native pronunciation, but he/she needs to at least get vowels right.

Heavy on boxscores, light on espionage

What did you like best about Banzai Babe Ruth? What did you like least?

I liked the descriptions of 1930's Japan, and the perceptions and commentary of the players to the land and the people. I can identify with that as a foreign resident of Tokyo.

What was most disappointing about Robert K. Fitts’s story?

As stated in my headline, there is a lot... A LOT!... of play-by-play of baseball games between the American all-stars and various Japanese teams, with attempts at some shoehorned drama (a potential no-hitter broken up in the 4th inning). But very little in the way of the espionage and assassination that is promised in the title. To be fair, it is dealt with, and played out, but it accounts for only a fraction of the entire story. Some individual stories are followed through, but others are kind of forgotten.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

His voice was not objectionable, but as a previous review states, he mangles several names and Japanese words. As a resident of Japan, I notice these more than outsiders, of course, but the sheer number of mispronunciations becomes quite annoying. Even a little preparation could have helped with simple place names like "Edo", universities like "Waseda", and names like "Daisuke". To a non-resident or non-Japanese speaker, it may not matter so much, but it does reflect poorly on the professionalism of the enterprise.In addition, his attempts to differentiate quotes from Japanese people is rather disconcerting. It's not identifiably Japanese (could be used for Polish or Egyptian, for all anyone would know). And he even uses it at times to quote American newspapers. (Presumably a mistaken reading of italicized or quoted text.)

Could you see Banzai Babe Ruth being made into a movie or a TV series? Who should the stars be?

There would have to be some dramatic catalyst for the story to be screen-worthy. The Moe Berg aspect was a non-story, but that might be manufactured into an interesting fictional plot.

Any additional comments?

If you enjoy baseball, as I do, the book holds some interest, with regard to the exploits of Hall-of-Famers from the 30's traveling abroad as goodwill ambassadors (and not always covering themselves in glory doing so). But as a complete story with the intertwined elements of political intrigue, espionage and the road to war... it falls a bit flat.

Interesting listen

Like the topic of American players touring in Japan. Too much game play details and recaps, but the information was adequate. The Japanese war history didn't keep my attention. Favorite part was the recurring mention of Moe Berg and his alleged involvement spying for the US.

Very interesting period of US-Japan relations

I really enjoyed this book and learned much about the US and Japan prior to World War II. It was amazing to learn the behind the scenes stories and see how much of an impact baseball has had on both the US and Japan. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves history, Japan, or baseball. I only wish the person who narrated the book has practiced correct Japanese pronunciation. The way many of the Japanese words were mispronounced was very distracting.