#GoingDeep: Asian Games

The southpaw hurler spent his first 10 big league seasons, from 1912 to 1922, toiling unremarkably with the Philadelphia Athletics and Boston Red Sox, compiling a 77-72 record and 3.72 ERA. But now he was presented with the surprising information he had been traded to the New York Yankees, the defending American League pennant winners. This transaction and its subsequent career trajectory would help the Squire of Kennett Square with a bronze plaque in Cooperstown.

“I did not know of my trade to the Yanks until our ship was about to pass through the Golden Gate. Bill Lange (a New York Giants scout based in San Francisco who was a big league star in the 1890s) gave the information to the pilot and when he came aboard he told me the good news,” Pennock told a reporter. “I hardly believed it at first, as some of the members of the party circulated all sorts of stories of fake deals. Irish Meusel had everybody on the team swapped somewhere else, saying that the Marconi operator received it by wireless. So I thought I was only being kidded, but soon there came the realization that it was the truth. Then my joy knew no bounds. My wife and I fairly danced around the deck in delight and all the players showered us with congratulations.”

Pennock spent the next 11 seasons pitching for a Yankees team that would capture five AL pennants and four World Series crowns. His career record during this successful era in franchise history was 162-90, which included two 20-win seasons and eight campaigns with at least 11 wins. His 241 career triumphs during his 22 major league seasons led to election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948.

In 2022, a jersey Pennock wore during the 1922-23 Herb Hunter All-Americans tour that included stops in Japan, Korea, China, Manila and Hawaii was donated to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. Other ballplayers on the trek included future Hall of Famers Casey Stengel, Waite Hoyt and George “High Pockets” Kelly, as well as Bullet Joe Bush, Bibb Falk, Riggs Stephenson and Luke Sewell.

“I donated the Herb Pennock jersey because I believe in everything that the Hall of Fame stands for in terms of protecting the game and educating people as to the past and making a bridge to the present and even the future. It's just important. The Hall of Fame is an important institution,” said donor Dr. William Sear, a Georgia resident whose collection specializes on overseas tours. He acquired the Pennock jersey via auction approximately 20 years ago.

Pennock’s cream-colored uniform shirt has seven white buttons down the front placket, with the left sleeve sporting a red, white and blue embroidered shield-shaped patch with a Japanese flag in the center.

“The Hall of Fame is fortunate to have quite a few artifacts from historic overseas baseball tours from as early as 1874 to the modern day, but our collection has very few objects from the 1922-1923 Herb Hunter All-Americans tour of the Far East,” said Hall of Fame senior curator Tom Shieber. “This Herb Pennock jersey is a remarkable addition to our collection that helps us tell the important story of this and many other tours that helped spread goodwill and the game of baseball around the world.”

The 1922-23 offseason tour was the brainchild of the aforementioned Herb Hunter, a former big league utilityman with cups of coffee with the Giants, Cubs, Red Sox and Cardinals for four seasons between 1916 and 1921. Having been on a ballplaying tour of Japan in 1920, and coaching baseball at both Waseda and Keio Universities in Japan, the man later to known as “Baseball’s Ambassador to the Orient” took on the role of organizing the overseas excursion.

“Herbert Hunter, as coach of Waseda and Keio universities, has performed a great work in arranging such a tour,” Johnson said. “These players will be missionaries and will preach the glories of the greatest game in the world. They will represent America in Japan and may be the means of promoting a lasting bond of goodwill and understanding between the nations.

“I view this trip as an educational tour; the men are not to receive any pay but will be the guests of the colleges. This, of course, removes the trip from the barnstorming category. Therefore, no rules will be violated, and there can be no objections, as I see it, from any of the club owners,” Johnson said. “Perhaps someday we will have the champions of America meeting the winners of the Japanese series in a real world’s series. This may be my dream, but it is a dream I shall cherish until it materializes.”

In October 1922, it was announced that the Advisory Council of Baseball, made up of Commissioner Kenesaw M. Landis, National League President John Heydler and Johnson, had officially sanctioned the trip to be made by a team of big league ballplayers that fall.

The Hall of Fame Library has in its collection a folder of documents related to the 1922-23 tour of Asia, including a tentative itinerary, a brochure produced by the Spalding sporting goods company giving thumbnail bios of the participants, letters from Hunter and George Moriarty, and a blank player contract.

In a missive from Moriarty to Landis, dated Nov. 4, 1922, Moriarty – a longtime umpire – relayed news of Pennock’s first overseas action.

“The All Americas defeated the Keio University nine today in an interesting game, by a score of 6 to 0,” Moriarty wrote. “Pennock, for the All Americas, pitched an excellent game, and succeeded in holding the Keio batters practically helpless throughout the nine innings. The All Americas played a brand of baseball that was up to the major league standard in every respect. While the game was not a spectacular performance, it contained several fine fielding features, and Falk’s home run in the seventh inning provided the finishing touch for the occasion. Needless to say, the Japanese fans were highly pleased with the exhibition today. The attendance was approximately six thousand. You will please find enclosed herewith a review of the game, from the Japan Advertiser of November 5.”

As the Hunter team was travelling to Vancouver to board the steamer for Japan, a Landis letter made public explained his confidence in the outcome.

“While this trip,” the letter said, “is not in response to any official invitation from the government of Japan, the circumstances attending the invitation and its acceptance, to a considerable degree, distinguished it from a purely private enterprise and make it representative of American baseball. Consequently, the Advisory Council has authorized Mr. Moriarty to accompany the parts as its representative, as it is keenly interested in having the tour reflect credit upon our national game and its professional players. Of course, the players appreciate the necessity and importance of maintaining the high standards of play and sportsmanship and of personal conduct on and off the field, which they observe during the regular championship season. The personnel of the party is such that we have the utmost confidence that this will be done.”

Ultimately, the tour proved successful except for one noteworthy event. On Nov. 19, 1922, an American team made up of big-league players lost to an Asian team, in this case a 9-3 defeat at the hands of the Mita Club made up of Keio University alumni, for the first time. Hoyt, the future Hall of Famer, gave up all nine runs.

In a letter from Moriarty to Landis, dated Nov. 19, 1922, the umpire wrote of the defeat at the hands of the Japanese squad.

“The Mita Club defeated the All-Americas by a score of 9 to 3 today,” Moriarty wrote. “Pitcher Hoyt suffering from a weak arm, which is the result of his work as pitching-coach to the university players during the past week, was batted freely. Errors by the All-Americas also aided the opposition in the scoring. Pitcher Ono of the Mita club pitched a surprisingly good game, and the hits he allowed were well scattered. The Mita club is composed of several Keio University players, and some of its graduates. The attendance numbered approximately 5,000.”