Josh Bahlmann
17 April 2018
Banzai Babe Ruth Review
Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination is an extreme narrative that accounts for the events of an attempted goodwill tour of Japan by some of the United State’s Major League Baseball’s top talent ballplayers. The book covers much of the brainstorming and motivation behind the tour’s goals and ambitions as well as the events that occurred on the field while at the same time making connections of those event’s influences on national and international affairs within Japan and with the United States. In this carefully prepared display of history which is dominated by the larger-than-life player, Babe Ruth; author, Robert Fitts, attempts to correct the errors of previous books about the Tour of Japan 1934. Banzai Babe Ruth …show more content…
Because of his thorough research, Fitts is able to disprove the perception that catcher, Moe Berg, who was also a world traveler and multilinguistic, joined the team in order to act as a spy for the United States government. For example, Berg enjoyed filming forbidden scenes and objects, taking advantage of every opportunity like any other tourist, making his actions seem like acts of espionage, but it was not until later that he joined the Office of Strategic Service and engaged in espionage, but in Germany.
Baseball was first introduced to Japan in the 1870’s as a recreational sport. Two men are largely credited with its introduction in the country. The first was Horace Wilson, an American professor teaching in Tokyo,
17 April 2018
Banzai Babe Ruth Review
Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, & Assassination is an extreme narrative that accounts for the events of an attempted goodwill tour of Japan by some of the United State’s Major League Baseball’s top talent ballplayers. The book covers much of the brainstorming and motivation behind the tour’s goals and ambitions as well as the events that occurred on the field while at the same time making connections of those event’s influences on national and international affairs within Japan and with the United States. In this carefully prepared display of history which is dominated by the larger-than-life player, Babe Ruth; author, Robert Fitts, attempts to correct the errors of previous books about the Tour of Japan 1934. Banzai Babe Ruth …show more content…
Because of his thorough research, Fitts is able to disprove the perception that catcher, Moe Berg, who was also a world traveler and multilinguistic, joined the team in order to act as a spy for the United States government. For example, Berg enjoyed filming forbidden scenes and objects, taking advantage of every opportunity like any other tourist, making his actions seem like acts of espionage, but it was not until later that he joined the Office of Strategic Service and engaged in espionage, but in Germany.
Baseball was first introduced to Japan in the 1870’s as a recreational sport. Two men are largely credited with its introduction in the country. The first was Horace Wilson, an American professor teaching in Tokyo,