Since leaving Shizuoka on the 20th, the MLB All Stars and All Nippon team had played two games at Narumi Stadium in Nagoya. The game on the 22nd was a tight, one run victory for the All Americans, their second in a row after the 1-0 win in Shizuoka. The second game on the following day was an easier win for the Americans with them prevailing 6-2. No home runs were hit by either team in the two games.
Narumi Stadium was built in the late 1920's and closed in the late 1950's. Parts of the ballpark are still standing and are the grounds for the Meitetstu driving school.
Following the second game, the teams boarded an express train for Osaka. They would play two games over the weekend of November 24-25 at Koshien Stadium in Nishinomiya, just to the west of Osaka. The stadium was 10 years old and had a seating capacity at the time of 70,000. The ballpark's fences were a long way from home plate as it was 360 feet down the foul lines, 420 feet to the power alleys and 394 feet to straight away center. The size of the park didn't present too many issues for the All Americans, though, as they won 15-3 over All Nippon, the first time they scored in double digits since the game in Yokohama six days earlier. They did, however, fail to hit a home run for the third straight game.
The US and Japanese teams split into two mixed teams for the game on the 25th. One team was managed by Babe Ruth and the other by Bing Miller. Miller's team won the game 5-1. The sole home run in the game was hit by Usaburo Shintomi, playing for Miller's team so the MLB All Stars homerless streak had reached four games.
After the game, the teams would board a west-bound train and traveled overnight to the western tip of Honshu. They dressed in uniforms at the hotel before taking a ferry across the Straits of Shimonoseki to play a game in Kokura in a downpour. The All Americans won the muddy game 8-1 with Earl Averill and Ruth both homering. Following the game, the teams were ferried back across the Straits and caught a train heading back east to Kyoto. They'd play three more games in Japan with the All Americans winning each handily - 14-1 in Kyoto on the 28th, 23-5 in Omiya on the 29th and 14-5 in Utsunomiya on December 1st. They had at least one home run in each game with Ruth hitting his final two home runs on Japanese soil in Omiya.
The All Americans would depart Japan from Kobe on December 2nd and travel first to Shanghai before continuing on to the Philippines. They would play four more games - one in Shanghai and the other three in Manilla - before the tour concluded. It would be the last major tour of Japan by professional American baseball players until 1949.
Outside Koshien Stadium is a small square featuring several monuments. There is a plaque for Tomoaki Kanemoto's consecutive innings played streak and a statue of a Tiger commemorating the Hanshin Tigers' 50th Anniversary in 1985. The first monument placed there, however, was for Babe Ruth. It was erected in 1949, the year after Ruth passed away.
A copy of this plaque resided in the Sports Legend Museum at Camden Yards in Baltimore, located outside Oriole Park and just a few blocks east of the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum:
Baltimore's version of the plaque was a gift from the Tigers and made from the original mold by the sculptor. The museum also featured a display of items of Ruth's from the tour:
Sadly, the museum in Baltimore closed in 2015. I don't know where the Ruth items are although it's likely that they're either on display or in storage at the Babe Ruth Birthplace & Museum. These photos are ones that I took when I visited the Sports Legend Museum in November of 2013.
One last time - I used Rob Fitts' book Banzai Babe Ruth as the primary source for this post. I highly recommend Rob's work.
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