A Happy New Year to all readers of the Baseball Bullet-In.
This year marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants ballclub. The Giants team was established by Yomiuri Shimbun chairman Matsutaro Shoriki in 1934, following the famous Babe Ruth-Lou Gehrig postseason All-Star barnstorming tour by American major leaguers.
That was the series when schoolboy phenom Eiji Sawamura struck out four big league superstars. Sawamura, after whom Japan's version of the Cy Young Award was named, fanned Ruth, Gehrig, Jimmy Foxx and Charlie Gehringer in a game in Shizuoka.