Photo, above: 'Banzai Babe Ruth' tracks surprising tour of Japan   In 1944, from their foxholes on Cape Gloucester in the South Pacific, U.S. Marines fighting Japanese forces heard an unusual war cry from their enemies: "To hell with Babe Ruth!" Almost 10 years had passed since 500,000 Japanese had crowded the streets of Tokyo to welcome the Sultan of Swat and 14 other All-Star American baseball players taking part in a barnstorming tour of the country. Part diplomatic mission and part vacation for the American players, the 1934 tour was organized as a way to bring the two baseball-loving countries closer together during a particularly rough period.

As the baseball historian Robert K. Fitts recounts in his admirable and deeply researched new book, Banzai Babe Ruth, in 1934 the world was edging closer to war. A naval treaty between the United States, Britain and Japan was on the brink of failure. The Japanese army was conducting exercises in preparation for combat. Who better to ease tensions than America's ambassadors of the baseball diamond? The introduction of baseball to the Japanese is credited, Fitts writes, to one Horace Wilson, a Civil War veteran who taught English in Japan in the early 1870s.

In the intervening decades, several American players had visited Japan to promote the sport, but no roster was more star-studded than the team that arrived in Tokyo on Nov. 2, 1934.  Led by Cornelius McGillicuddy, the venerable manager of the Philadelphia Athletics better known as Connie Mack, the team featured nine future Hall of Famers. Besides Ruth — who took 20 pieces of luggage on the trip, including one bag carrying nothing but cans of chewing tobacco — the lineup featured New York Yankees first baseman and slugger Lou Gehrig, and A's home run king Jimmie Foxx. The Americans played 18 games against their rivals, the All-Nippon team, composed of many of Japan's top players, while tens of thousands of Japanese fans cheered in the stands. But there was more to this trip than baseball, Fitts writes. It's also a "tale of international intrigue, espionage, attempted murder." In particular, one player stood out from the others on the U.S. roster. He was . . .  [more]  See Hour Three,  The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923 by Robert Weintraub

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza (1 of 4)    Called one "of the best historians in the United States," "one of the great political historians of all time," and "the undisputed champion of chronicling American Presidential campaigns." David Pietrusza has produced a number of critically-acclaimed works concerning 20th century American history. Critics have compared his work to those of H. L. Mencken, Theodore H. White, Edmund Morris, and Doris Kearns Goodwin.

His, 1948: Harry Truman's Improbable Victory and the Year that Transformed America, a study of the dramatic 1948 presidential campaign, is a selection of the History Book Club, the Book-of-the-Month Club, and the Literary Guild.   ForeWord Magazine designated his book, 1960: LBJ vs JFK vs Nixon: The Epic Campaign that Forged Three Presidencies, as among the best political biographies. The Pulitzer Prize-winner Robert Caro has termed 1960 "terrific."

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza (2 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block C: Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza (3 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Rothstein: The Life, Times, and Murder of the Criminal Genius Who Fixed the 1919 World Series by David Pietrusza (4 of 4)

Hour Two

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block A: The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story Of... by John Rosengren  (1 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block B: The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story Of... by John Rosengren  (2 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block C: The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story Of... by John Rosengren  (3 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 2, Block D: The Fight of Their Lives: How Juan Marichal and John Roseboro Turned Baseball's Ugliest Brawl into a Story Of... by John Rosengren  (4 of 4)

Hour Three

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923 by Robert Weintraub  (1 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block B: The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923 by Robert Weintraub  (2 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block C:  The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923 by Robert Weintraub  (3 of 4)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 3, Block D: The House That Ruth Built: A New Stadium, the First Yankees Championship, and the Redemption of 1923 by Robert Weintraub  (4 of 4)

Hour Four

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown (1 of 2)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Imperfect: An Improbable Life by Jim Abbott and Tim Brown (2 of 2)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Stan Musial: An American Life by George Vecsey  (1 of 2)

Friday  17 October  2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Stan Musial: An American Life by George Vecsey  (2 of 2)

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