{"title":"Robert K Fitts","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"mashi-book-robert-k-fitts-9780803255210","title":"Mashi","description":"In the spring of 1964, the Nankai Hawks of Japan's Pacific League sent nineteen-year-old Masanori Murakami to the Class A Fresno Giants to improve his skills. To nearly everyone's surprise, Murakami, known as Mashi, dominated the American hitters. With the San Francisco Giants caught in a close pennant race and desperate for a left-handed reliever, Masanori was called up to join the big league club, becoming the first Japanese player in the Major Leagues. Featuring pinpoint control, a devastating curveball, and a friendly smile, Mashi became the Giants' top lefty reliever and one of the team's most popular players-as well as a national hero in Japan. Not surprisingly, the Giants offered him a contract for the 1965 season. Murakami signed, announcing that he would be thrilled to stay in San Francisco. There was just one problem: the Nankai Hawks still owned his contract. The dispute over Murakami's contract would ignite an international incident that ultimately prevented other Japanese players from joining the Majors for thirty years. Mashi is the story of an unlikely hero who gets caught up in an American and Japanese baseball dispute and is forced to choose between his dreams in the United States or his duty in Japan. Robert K. Fitts is the author of Banzai Babe Ruth: Baseball, Espionage, and Assassinationduring the 1934 Tour of Japan (Nebraska, 2012), winner of the Society of American Baseball Research's 2013 Seymour Medal for the best baseball book, and Wally Yonamine: The Man Who ChangedBaseball (Nebraska, 2008).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49530682769681,"sku":"CIN0803255217G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007533547793,"sku":"NIN9780803255210","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51510902587665,"sku":"CIN0803255217VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803255217.jpg?v=1761389182"},{"product_id":"remembering-japanese-baseball-book-robert-k-fitts-9780809326303","title":"Remembering Japanese Baseball","description":"Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game transports us onto diamonds and into dugouts on the other side of the globe, where the vigorous sportsmanship of the game and the impassioned devotion of its fans transcend cultural and geographic borders and prove that baseball is fast becoming an international pastime. Called Yakyu, baseball has been played in Japan since the 1890s but has only recently gained a substantial global following. Robert K. Fitts chronicles the nation's distinctive version of the sport as recounted by twenty-five of its players. Fitts's careful choice of subjects represents the experiences of a mix of American and Japanese players - including stars, titleholders, and members of the Japanese Hall of Fame. Informal, candid, and remarkably specific, these recollections describe teammates and opponents, corporate owners and loyal fans, triumphs and frustrations, collectively capturing all the spirit and emotion engendered by the game from decidedly personal vantage points. Throughout, readers glimpse the unique traits of baseball in Japan and discern how the game has evolved since its inception as well as how it differs from its American counterpart. An unparalleled introduction for an American audience, Remembering Japanese Baseball is augmented by photos of its twenty-five interviewees and a timeline demarking milestone moments in the game's Japanese history. Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa! and The Meaning of Ichiro, provides the foreword.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49789898555665,"sku":"CIN0809326302G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51822087667985,"sku":"NGR9780809326303","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0809326302.jpg?v=1757414380"},{"product_id":"banzai-babe-ruth-book-robert-k-fitts-9780803229846","title":"Banzai Babe Ruth","description":"Robert K. 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Issei Baseball is the story of the pioneers of Japanese American baseball, Harry Saisho, Ken Kitsuse, Tom Uyeda, Tozan Masko, Kiichi Suzuki, and others—young men who came to the United States to start a new life but found bigotry and discrimination.   In 1905 they formed a baseball club in Los Angeles and began playing local amateur teams. Inspired by the Waseda University baseball team’s 1905 visit to the West Coast, they became the first Japanese professional baseball club on either side of the Pacific and barnstormed across the American Midwest in 1906 and 1911. Tens of thousands came to see “how the minions of the Mikado played the national pastime.” As they played, the Japanese earned the respect of their opponents and fans, breaking down racial stereotypes. Baseball became a bridge between the two cultures, bringing Japanese and Americans together through the shared love of the game.  Issei Baseball focuses on the small group of men who formed the first professional and semiprofessional Japanese baseball clubs. These players’ story tells the history of early Japanese American baseball, including the placement of Saisho, Kitsuse, and their families in relocation camps during World War II and the Japanese immigrant experience.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50229096775953,"sku":"CIN1496213483G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030427664657,"sku":"NIN9781496213488","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1496213483.jpg?v=1751020843"},{"product_id":"wally-yonamine-book-robert-k-fitts-9780803213814","title":"Wally Yonamine","description":"Wally Yonamine was both the first Japanese American to play for an NFL franchise and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II. This is the unlikely story of how a shy young man from the sugar plantations of Maui overcame prejudice to integrate two professional sports in two countries. In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high-and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan's Baseball Hall of Fame.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50367597773073,"sku":"CIN0803213816G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803213816.jpg?v=1781704388"},{"product_id":"nichibei-yakyu-book-robert-k-fitts-9781970159905","title":"Nichibei Yakyu","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":50994025890065,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50994026938641,"sku":"NIN9781970159905","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52687959261457,"sku":"NLS9781970159905","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1970159901.jpg?v=1751348658"},{"product_id":"banzai-babe-ruth-book-robert-k-fitts-9780803245815","title":"Banzai Babe Ruth","description":"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. Robert K. Fitts graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and received a PhD from Brown University. Originally trained as an archeologist of colonial America, Fitts left that field to focus on his passion, Japanese baseball. He is also the author of Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game and Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball (Nebraska, 2008).","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007435702545,"sku":"NIN9780803245815","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51917053853969,"sku":"CIN0803245815VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803245815.jpg?v=1761390550"},{"product_id":"wally-yonamine-book-robert-k-fitts-9780803245174","title":"Wally Yonamine","description":"Wally Yonamine was both the first Japanese American to play for an NFL franchise and the first American to play professional baseball in Japan after World War II. This is the unlikely story of how a shy young man from the sugar plantations of Maui overcame prejudice to integrate two professional sports in two countries. In 1951 the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants chose Yonamine as the first American to play in Japan during the Allied occupation. He entered Japanese baseball when mistrust of Americans was high—and higher still for Japanese Americans whose parents had left the country a generation earlier. Without speaking the language, he helped introduce a hustling style of base running, shaking up the game for both Japanese players and fans. Along the way, Yonamine endured insults, dodged rocks thrown by fans, initiated riots, and was threatened by yakuza (the Japanese mafia). He also won batting titles, was named the 1957 MVP, coached and managed for twenty-five years, and was honored by the emperor of Japan. Overcoming bigotry and hardship on and off the field, Yonamine became a true national hero and a member of Japan’s Baseball Hall of Fame. In addition to the foreword by Hawaiian senator Daniel K. Inouye, this Nebraska Paperback edition features a new preface by the author, commemorating Yonamine at his death in early 2011.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51007548227857,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007551701265,"sku":"NIN9780803245174","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51602477220113,"sku":"CIN0803245173VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0803245173.jpg?v=1781704406"},{"product_id":"mashi-book-robert-k-fitts-9781496219510","title":"Mashi","description":"In the spring of 1964, the Nankai Hawks of Japan’s Pacific League sent nineteen-year-old Masanori Murakami to the Class A Fresno Giants to improve his skills. To nearly everyone’s surprise, Murakami, known as Mashi, dominated the American hitters. With the San Francisco Giants caught in a close pennant race and desperate for a left-handed reliever, Masanori was called up to join the big league club, becoming the first Japanese player in the Major Leagues.                  Featuring pinpoint control, a devastating curveball, and a friendly smile, Mashi became the Giants’ top lefty reliever and one of the team’s most popular players—as well as a national hero in Japan. Not surprisingly, the Giants offered him a contract for the 1965 season. Murakami signed, announcing that he would be thrilled to stay in San Francisco. There was just one problem: the Nankai Hawks still owned his contract.                  The dispute over Murakami’s contract would ignite an international incident that ultimately prevented other Japanese players from joining the Majors for thirty years. Mashi is the story of an unlikely hero caught up in an American and Japanese baseball dispute and forced to choose between his dreams in the United States and his duty in Japan.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51030345416977,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51030347612433,"sku":"NIN9781496219510","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1496219511.jpg?v=1782383053"},{"product_id":"nichibei-yakyu-book-robert-k-fitts-9781960819154","title":"Nichibei Yakyu","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51059333660945,"sku":"NIN9781960819154","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52131088531729,"sku":"NLS9781960819154","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1960819151.jpg?v=1751283559"},{"product_id":"in-the-japanese-ballpark-book-robert-k-fitts-9781496244079","title":"In the Japanese Ballpark","description":"Baseball is the national pastime of both the United States and Japan, but the two countries approach and play the game differently both on the field and away from it. To shed light on these differences and help fans gain a greater appreciation for Nippon Professional Baseball, Robert K. Fitts turns to the true experts, the people who play, oversee, promote, and watch the game, to find out what makes Japanese baseball special. In the Japanese Ballpark features engaging interviews with twenty-six baseball personalities to provide a behind-the-scenes look at the game.   Fitts speaks with participants in the games such as players, managers, and an umpire; support staff including an interpreter, trainer, and data analyst; front office personal such as an owner, general and assistant managers, and marketing directors; ballpark workers including cheerleaders, a mascot, beer vendor, and usher; and professionals who surround the sport, such as baseball writers, a player agent, and a sports card dealer; as well as a league commissioner. Through their personal experiences, these individuals reveal the inner workings of the Japanese game and explain the cultural aspects that make Nippon Professional Baseball different from Major League Baseball.  In the Japanese Ballpark features interviews with Bobby Valentine, Trey Hillman, Matt Murton, Robert Whiting, Marty Kuehnert, Tomoko Namba, Ambassador Ryozo Kato, and many others. 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