#GoingDeep: Asian Games
The 1922 Red Sox finished last in the eight-team Junior Circuit, their 61-93 record 33 games behind the first-place Yankees. Pennock, a reliable portsider, won 10 of 27 decisions, the 28-year-old starting 26 of 32 games while ending the season with a 4.32 ERA. He’d be joining a team with an abundance of former Red Sox players, including fellow hurlers Waite Hoyt, Joe Bush, Carl Mays, Sam Jones, Dutch Leonard and Ernie Shore, as well as Babe Ruth, Wally Schang, Joe Dugan and Everett Scott.
“It means something to go with a team that is a pennant contender. I was beginning to tire very much of the Red Sox, but I would like to say here that Harry Frazee, the Red Sox president, always treated me fairly. I think he is a much misunderstood man,” Pennock said. “Of course, I have a new incentive and will throw my arm off to win for the Yankees. I was very pleased to read Connie Mack’s flattering story that he expected me to be the leading southpaw in the American League next season. I certainly am going to try to get that rating.”
New York acquired Pennock in exchange for $50,000 and three young players – pitcher George Murray, infielder Norman McMillan and outfielder Camp Skinner – who ultimately didn’t prove successful in Boston. But when the trade was announced, Frazee was convinced his team came out on top.
“Personally, I think it’s the smartest trade that has been made since I have been associated with the American League,” said Frazee, the man who had sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees three years earlier. “I think that the future will bear out my prediction that in George Murray alone we got full value for Pennock.”
Murray, a right-handed pitcher, would go on to win nine games over two seasons with Boston, finishing with a career record of 19-26.
Almost a decade later, Pennock’s wife, Esther, who had accompanied her husband on the goodwill tour of Asia, recalled their reaction to the unexpected trade to the Yankees in the August 1933 issue of Good Housekeeping magazine.
“I believe the biggest thrill I ever had in my life was the time I learned Herb had been traded to the Yankees,” she said. “We had been through the Orient with a picked team, playing exhibition games in Japan and China. That was in 1922-23, when Herb was with the Boston Red Sox. There had been some talk about new men for the Yankees, but everyone said the one thing the Yankees did not need was pitchers. The day we landed in San Francisco a friend met us at the boat with a newspaper that told of Herb’s being traded, and we really danced a jig. New York was our goal, and we had finally made it.”
“If baseball continues to advance with its present stride in Japan, I believe that we will be playing an annual international series before long,” Hunter told a reporter in May 1922. “The Japanese boys do not equal our major league stars in ability, but several members of the Waseda team could make good in the minor leagues. Interest in baseball increases every year and I find that the higher class of people are taking to it. However, boys from all classes play their own little corner-lot games.”
Hunter’s plans for selection of players for this particular tour included general sportsmanship combined with athletic prowess. Ballplaying ability, it was made clear, would not be the sole determining factor.
By June 1922, American League President Ban Johnson sanctioned Hunter’s tour.
The Sporting News, the self-described “Bible of Baseball,” editorialized its tacit approval of the tour in its Nov. 11, 1922 issue:
“There have been more ambitious tours undertaken by American baseballers to the Orient and even around the globe, but none that will be watched with greater interest than attaches to the trip now underway by a party recruited by Herb Hunter, because this jaunt has been given official sanction from the highest baseball authority and an official representative is sent along with it, in the person of George Moriarty, to see that it really is representative and so conducted that it will reflect credit on the national game and indeed be something like spreading the gospel of baseball.”
The “Baseball Mission to the Orient” left Vancouver on Oct. 19, 1922, on the Empress of Canada, a 22,000-ton steamer, bound for Japan. A number of the ballplayer’s wives made the trip, including Mrs. Pennock and their daughter Jane.
“First party agrees to pay all necessary travelling expenses, hotel bills, meals from the home of the second party, until the itinerary, including the return home of the second party, has been completed,” the player contract reads in part. “This agreement is intended to and does cover all legitimate travelling expenses that may be necessary and proper in order to carry into effect the terms of this contract. This shall include all sight-seeing or side trips taken under the direction and supervision of first party. It is further understood and agreed that all transportation, lodging and meals are to be first class in every respect and the best service available is to be obtained. It is also agreed that a liberal allowance will be made by first party for all reasonable tips necessary to procure first class service, it being the object of first party to travel and accommodate his players in what is known as style deluxe.”
With the American ballplayers set to arrive, Captain Koch of the Hong Kong baseball team told reporters: “We don’t intend to let any ball men, no matter how big they are, pass through Hong Kong without trying conclusions with us. Let them come and we will at least make them hustle.”
In January 1923, with the major league traveling party in Hawaii, Hunter received a complimentary message from Landis, according to the Honolulu Advertiser.
“Your performance has been a distinct contribution to baseball,” Landis wrote. “My congratulations and appreciation.”
Hunter’s response to Landis: “Thanks. We tried not to forget our purpose – that of playing America’s game like Americans.”
After traveling thousands of miles, the baseball touring group arrived back in the United States on Jan. 31, 1923. Hunter, in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, shared his thoughts on the experience.
“It’s grand to be back in good old U.S.A. I’m simply tickled to death to get back here in the States, though we have had the most wonderful time of all our lives in the Orient,” Hunter said. “The trip from the standpoint of international friendship we have done more than some of eminent diplomats or men of large affairs. I hope I may be able to take another team to Japan again in the near future. The boys over there played most wonderful baseball games, and it is only a question of time to show us that Japanese can hit and field just as well as our boys.”
As for his team’s only loss, Hunter explained, “Some people over there criticized us for letting the Japanese team win, as a compliment, but that is a gross accusation, because we did play with all our might, but we simply couldn’t solve the delivery of Ono, the Mita’s star pitcher, and we ultimately lost the game by a score of 9-3.
“Incidentally, that was the only game we lost in the entire trip. Our players were treated very generously and they were well pleased with the treatment. Aside from playing the game, our boys had a heap of good time.While Japanese players have acquired great skill and proficiency in pitching and fielding, batting has failed to meet other requirements. It would seem the pitchers have developed faster than the batters, but this apparent weakness, I believe, in time will be fully overcome.”
Bill Francis is the senior research and writing specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
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