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100th Anniversary
Tour of Japan 1921-2021
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100th Anniversary: Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Tour of Japan
100th Anniversary of the famous Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Journey to Japan:
100th Anniversary: Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Tour of Japan
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1921 Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team Roster
“A Strong and Dignified Foreign Team” By Leonard Forsman
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xactly 100 years ago this month, the Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team left for Japan to play a series of baseball games against college, secondary school, and local semi-pro teams. They left Seattle aboard the Japanese freight/passenger ship Alabama Maru bound for Yokohama, Japan, on August 6, 1921, expecting to be gone for two months. What followed was a foreign adventure marked by crushing early defeats and a resurgent winning streak; financial troubles caused by a dubious Japanese manager and Japan’s unregulated sporting event industry and its mysterious connection with an American sporting goods manufacturer; a tragic bean ball incident; and a young group of Suquamish athletes who did their best to play ball and experience the culture and sights of an ancient country.
camps were closed, were reserved for baseball — usually doubleheaders. The Suquamish Tribal Team hosted many games on their famed waterfront field on the Port Madison Indian Reservation, the home of Chief Seattle. Visiting teams would travel to Suquamish by boat, often from Bainbridge Island or from Seattle, which boasted a competitive semi-pro circuit. The 1921 version of the team had gained a reputation as a competitive team that beat many of Seattle’s best. Suquamish outfielder Woody Loughrey described their status:
This is their story.
They were the younger generation, many of them had played baseball in Indian boarding schools, and they were ready to challenge the older Suquamish players, including a match where the youngsters challenged their elders to a game for their coveted uniforms. A game that the youngsters won!
Suquamish Players Earned Praise In the early 1900s, baseball was the major sport in Suquamish and other small towns in Kitsap County. Sundays, when the sawmills, shipyards, and logging
See, we played -- we played -- you might say all of the better teams in Seattle of our caliber. And we won just about all of it.1
Around this time word started to spread that there was a hunger for American baseball teams to play in Japan against their teams. The Spalding Sporting Goods Company started searching for squads to travel overseas for this unique opportunity. Now the exact relationship between Spalding and the Japanese “syndicate” that managed the visiting teams’ affairs while in-country is not clear, however the Suquamish players were under contract with Spalding and they expected to be paid to play. Spalding was looking for an American Indian team to travel over, for the Japanese had a great interest in Indian culture. After “trying out every Indian ball team on the coast,” Spalding chose the Suquamish to represent the western U.S.2 Once the offer was made, the Suquamish players began making travel arrangements. Passports needed to be obtained and, for seventeen-year-old Suquamish player Woody Loughrey, permission from his parents. Some of the other Suquamish players could not travel with the team, mostly due to work obligations, while a few feared how long it might take to get back, if they got back at all. In the end seven Suquamish players and one Port Gamble S’Klallam agreed to go on the trip. The promoters allowed four non-Indian players, or “boomers” from the “mainland,” to round out the team.3 On Deck: A Game of Catch The team went to Seattle and boarded their ship, and settled in for the 16-day journey across the Pacific Ocean. Woody Loughrey said the team “worked out on the ship, out on the open deck. See it got pretty rough all right” and on “the better days, why, we worked out up there playing catch and running up and down the deck.”4 Lawrence Webster recalled the team’s struggle with boredom on the long oversea journey: But after the third day or so, that continued rise and fall of those boats itself was awful monotonous, so we started playing catch on the boat. And we started out
Harold “Monte” Belmont Age 18 Suquamish Tribe OF
Louis George Age 31 Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe P/3B
Roy Loughrey Age 20 Suquamish Tribe OF
Woody Loughrey Age 17 Suquamish Tribe OF
John Lukanovic Age 23 Non-Indian OF/1B/P
Lee “Bill” Rose Age 31 Non-Native 1B/C/Utility
Art Sackman Age 17 Suquamish Tribe OF/P
James C. Smith Age 27 Non-Native 2B
Richard Temple Age 18 Suquamish Tribe CF/Utility
Charles Thompson Age 28 Suquamish Tribe 3B/SS
Lawrence “Web” Webster Age 22 Suquamish Tribe C/OF
Roy Woolsey Age 27 Non-Native P/OF/Coach
with about three dozen baseballs so we could keep our arms in shape. By the time we got over there, we had two, just two, not two dozen. That's all we had [the rest went overboard]. So, we hung on to those two and we got over, and we got some new ones that was made over in that country. And there was quite a bit of difference in the baseball. While the size was practically the same, theirs was dead, you'd hit it and it wouldn't go very far.5 The team arrived in Yokohama on Monday, August 22, 1921. Another team traveled on the same voyage, the Ballard Merchants, a talented Seattle semi-pro team, who were dubbed the “Canadian Stars” to make them more intriguing to the Japanese public than another Seattle team would. In fact, the fall of 1921 was the busiest American/Japanese baseball exchange in the
post-WWI period with eight American teams, including A big gathering of Japanese baseball fans turned out Sherman Indian School, making the voyage.6 at Yokohama Park yesterday afternoon to watch the foreign teams take their first workout. The Suquamish A ‘Foreign Team’ at Bat Warriors, whose chief in the present campaign in is Bill The Suquamish team had some “good” workouts at Rose, have eight full blooded North American Indians Yokohama Stadium and drew the interest of the local in their party. Most of the members of the party are stubaseball fans and other interested city residents. A dents of the Suquamish Indian School. A few only being local newspaper emphasized the youthful nature of the former members of the school.7 Suquamish team noting: The Suquamish team had their first game against Meiji The boys, who seem to be generally excellent as University on Sunday, August 28, in Tokyo before a ball-players, have shaken off the effects of their crowd of 10,000. Meiji defeated Suquamish 10-0 in trans-oceanic voyage, and cavorted around yesterday a game marked by wild pitching and several fielding in true “big league” style.7 errors. The “long and loosely played game” could be mostly attributed to the effects of the long ocean jourWhile another paper described the same scene: ney and some first game jitters.9
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100th Anniversary: Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Tour of Japan
Lawrence Webster recalled in one of his 1982 interviews that “Oh, by the way those first three games we played, we just got skunked. Especially that first one. We hadn't lost our sea legs yet.” 10 The Notorious ‘Clam Ball’ This game against Meiji was also the setting for a dramatic event in Suquamish and Northwest baseball history. During this game, starting pitcher Louie George was having control problems and faced the opposing pitcher named Tairiku Watanabe. George had tripled off
Watanabe in the previous inning and was left stranded after Watanabe struck out the next three consecutive Suquamish hitters. Now, Louie George had a unique pitch called a “clam ball” described by his nephew Ted George:
100th Anniversary: Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Tour of Japan
became stuff of legend. “The futility of hitters trying to hit that clam ball,” George said with a half-smile.11 His shortened thumb was due to a motorcycle crash injury. Lawrence Webster described the infamous Wanatabe at bat:
It was a pitch that rolled off a shortened thumb at a unique angle…rising as it approached the batter. Coming out of the hand of the renowned Suquamish pitcher Louie George was pitching that game for us, and he in the 1920s, it befuddled hitters…so the story goes… and when mixed with a blazing fastball and killer curve hit this one guy in the head with one of his fast balls.
I never could understand why the guy didn't duck. He just stood there. The only thing I could figure was Louie had thrown him a curve and, you know, generally start one of those pretty well toward the batter and then it will curve away. Well, he jumped way back from that and then it went right over the plate. So, when he got the next one, just a straight fast ball, I guess, he thought it would do the same thing. He just stood there and took it. Well, he had a concussion all right. I don't know. It was pretty bad. Of course, when we left he was still in the hospital from it. I heard, oh, it must have been almost a year later, that he had died from it. So, I was
kind of glad we didn't hear that while we were still in Japan. The Suquamish players forever lived with the memory of their best pitcher, Louie George, striking Watanabe with a lethal beanball. Louie felt long-term remorse for the tragic accident. Oddly, he was hit by a streetcar shortly after the beanball incident causing distress and this time, physical injury to his shoulder. However, in 2019, Yoichi Nagata, a Japanese baseball researcher and author, contacted the Suquamish Museum about a book chapter he was writing about the Suquamish
team’s 1921 visit to Japan. His review of newspapers and other accounts revealed a different fate for Tairiku Watanabe as translated below: Indians’ first pitcher George threw a slow ball similar to self-claimed fork ball [clam ball] and a straight ball, a ball with a curve…then the clam ball hit directly the left cheek of Meiji University ace Tairiku Watanabe who stood at the batter box. Fainted Watanabe was immediately taken to a hospital. Even now at the home town of Suquamish, it is said that Watanabe received a dead ball and died three days after. People worried about
Suquamish Baseball Through the Years The Suquamish baseball field during an early Chief Seattle Days celebration.
WW II era Red Eye Giants
Suquamish ballplayers after winning the Pastime Tavern Classic in Yakima, WA. Front row, L-R: Wayne George, Greg George, Tony Israel, Chuck Deam, Manny Verzola, Mike Adams. Back row, L-R: Jay Morgan, Matt Charwood, Tony Forsman, Randy George, Rick Arango.
A Suquamish Tribal member is seen posing with a baseball bat (far left) on the Suquamish waterfront next to the remains of Old Man House in this photo taken around 1870.
1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 Inspired by a proud legacy of Tribal baseball players, today’s Suquamish youth continue to enjoy and excel at the game. Here pitcher David Sigo III winds up against Luther Mills IV at bat. Catcher Ryan Boure is a direct descendent of the 1921 Team’s Louie George. In the only known photo of the Suquamish Tribal Team in Japan, the entire team is pictured here across the middle row. L-R: Richard Temple, Bill Rose, Woody Loughrey, Charles Thompson, Art Sackman, Roy Loughrey, Lawrence Webster, John Lukanovic, Harold Belmont, Roy Woolsey, James Smith, Louie George
The Suquamish baseball field near the current dock and close to where the House of Awakened Culture now sits.
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100th Anniversary: Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Tour of Japan
Watanabe, but after that, he recuperated at Yugahara warm spring, and returned to the mound for fall league matches.12 So, the story of deceased Japanese baseball player, passed down for nearly 100 years, finally was corrected by Mr. Nagata bringing some relief to the descendants of Suquamish ball players and hopefully some peace to the spirits of the original team members. The Barmstorming Begins After playing two more games (both lopsided losses) in Tokyo, the Suquamish team traveled north while their “Canadian” shipmates went south. As the Suquamish team got rid of their sea legs, their play improved. The Suquamish team got on a winning streak as they played teams from northern towns such as Ryugasaki, Fukushima, Niigata, and Mito. Lawrence Webster described how these games were arranged and hosted: We'd play their college team or high school team whatever it is one day. And most of the games were set up for two days, consecutive days. If we beat them, then we had to play their town team, which would -may be the college team plus some more players. And every night after the first game, whether we won it or -- well, we won all of those we made on a tour -- they set up a banquet. I sometimes think they were trying to
get us too drunk to play the next day. Of course, they'd -- outside of the meal, they'd have beer, whiskey, and sake lined up in front of you. And some other wine, I couldn't read the name on it. There was one thing I did learn on that trip was not to drink sake. Of course, they like to serve that warm…It didn't agree with me at all. Woody Loughrey described their successful competition in the north: …they were hard to pitch to, because they have [a] certain height and down below your knees or what to pitch in between there. And they were pretty short in there. They are hard to pitch to and they are tricky on the base running. They steal on you. They will do anything to get you -- you know, get you off beam. And they are pretty tricky. They are good ball players. Fast. Also fast. But the only thing we had advantage on them, we could hit. We could hit better than they did. And our pitcher was better. They are slower than the pitcher. So that's how we come to win our 18 games. We won 18, lost 3, and tied just 1. Wild cheers Just like in their early games in Yokohama, the Suquamish generated lots of excitement when they arrived in the Japanese towns. The townspeople would greet them in the streets and at the ballparks. The ballplay-
ers also took time to try and teach the game to the local youth who were brought out of school to learn the game. Mr. Nagata documented a typical scene at Fukushima where “baseball fans who brought their lunches fought for a good seat, and rushed into Fukushima Junior High in the morning…One hour before the start of the game, the ground was double surrounded by [3,000] people” who wildly cheered “when the Suquamish team entered in a uniform with the crimson face of a tribal warrior.” An unidentified Suquamish player also entertained the crowd during the game when they had a hit or stolen base “turned around to the spectator seats and bowed, or he put on his hat sideway, and while clapping hands, jumped up and down, and delighted spectators.” 13 The ballplayers also were able to take in local culture at Fukushima. One well-documented event occurred at a park outside of town where two of the Suquamish ballplayers unknowingly violated cultural protocol as described by Lawrence Webster: Fukushima was a town near this park. It was kind of a national park with them. And we went up and toured that one day. And they had two bridges on it. This one bridge was for the commoners. I found this out later. And that's the one we went in on…Art Sackman and I got separated from the gang…And the other was kind of a private bridge for the "makato" or whatever was the boss in that country at that time. And you weren't supposed to use it. And we got separated…Art and I. And when…we come out, we seen the guys going on the other side, they had already gone out. So, this bridge that is carpeted with red linoleum and brass railings on it, we just started across it, shoes and all. And, boy, about the time that we hit that, there was a ki-yaying behind us. We couldn't understand what they were saying. We decided we were in trouble, and we just kept going and got out of there. But Mosco (Masuko) told us afterwards, when we come off that -- on that bridge, anybody walking that bridge is only supposed to be the royalty, and they're suppose to take their shoes off…And they was supposed to take them off when they come across it. And here we just come across in our shoes. I guess we were the heathens that day.14 After the series of games in the north, the Suquamish traveled south to Nagoya, and their troubles began when their promoter and manager Koji Masuko deserted the team. Masuko’s reputation preceded him. He
100th Anniversary: Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Tour of Japan
had previously managed two American wrestlers in a previous tour, both of whom left with “a poor opinion of Japanese sportsmanship and the dependability of Japanese promoters.”15 The team was put on a train to Osaka where they were fortunate to have a prepaid weeklong hotel stay allowing them to play some games against local clubs. A chance meeting with a local Japanese tailor who spoke some English was fortuitous for he was able to arrange additional games. Lawrence Webster said he “helped us arrange games with different teams around Osaka and Kobe and Kyoto…we must’ve got seven-eight games arranged through him.”16 A Stormy Return Home After this series of games, it was mid-October. They had been gone over two months, and had not been paid in weeks. The team decided it was high time that they find a way to get back home. That led to a trip to the American Consul in Kobe, who heard the team out and told them to wait for them to arrange passage back to Seattle. A week later they were on a ship back home and sailed into a typhoon. Woody Loughrey recalled “we started back from Kobe…it was 23 days we were on the ocean…we hit a storm out there…I thought we were going down a couple of times. It was really bad…and everybody was afraid on there.” The team made it into Seattle on November 11th ending their four-month journey. After getting home, the players reflected on their trip. There was some bitterness about not being paid. Spalding had recruited and promised to pay them, but the hosts in Japan were unaware of this arrangement. Perhaps Spalding expected the Japanese syndicate to pay the players since they were collecting ticket revenue from the fairly large crowds. There was confusion aplenty. For example, the teams believed that they were playing at the invitation of Meiji University, who unaware of this arrangement and had to scramble to make game arrangements. The Japanese were also concerned about the exploitation of foreign and local teams including a local police department disturbed “by the fact that inviting baseball teams to Japan has become a business for some promoters who ignore the spirit of amateur sports.”17 It is highly probable that Mr. Mazuko did exploit the team, but his departure may have had been borne of the same frustration the players experienced, little or no money coming from the gate collected by the local promoters. Woody Loughrey offered this summary:
I’m not quite sure where the money was supposed to come, whether it was Spalding or the other. But I should think it should be the syndicate, because they are the guys that made the money. We filled the park every time we went out there. The park was plumb full of people…around 50,000 people in the stands and all… And they made money off us all right. There was no question about that…I guess they had it in their head what they were going to do is they weren’t going to pay.18 The players contacted a lawyer once they were stateside, but there was no relief. The American Consulate insisted the players leave their contracts in Japan, preventing a successful lawsuit. Over time the players joyfully reflected on their adventure. Lawrence Webster saying, “I used to cuss every once in a while, when I'd think about it. In later years, I'm glad I took the trip, whether I made any money or not.”19 While Woody Loughrey concluded that he “wouldn’t have traded that trip for ten times the amount they were going to give me…I wouldn’t give anything to miss that trip. It was really something.”20 The players went on with their lives, some of them playing ball for a few more years. Two died in acci-
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dents shortly after returning, Roy Woolsey in a mine blast and Harold Belmont in a logging accident. But the adventure was a proud moment in the history of the Suquamish Tribe and an inspiration to future generations, including the 1984 National Champion Suquamish Softball team made up of descendants of the 1921 squad. The Kitsap Sports Hall of Fame inducted both the 1921 and 1984 teams, as well as Louie George, the master of the “clam ball.”
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100th Anniversary: Suquamish Tribal Baseball Team’s Tour of Japan
1984 Suquamish Softball Team World Champs The Suquamish Tribe has a reputation for baseball talent. In 1921, the Suquamish Indians were one of the better semi-pro teams on Puget Sound and traveled to Japan to showcase the game to the rising imperial power. By 1984, some of the descendants of that team had picked up the growing sport of slowpitch softball. The 1984 team won the national tournament in Yakima, beating a field of 34 teams. Suquamish played the Scalpers of Yakama for the title. The first game was close with Suquamish winning 8–7 with the help of some great defense by Mike Cheyney. The second game was a blowout and the Suquamish Tribe, one of the smallest Tribes in the tournament, was crowned National Champions. Contributing to the success of this team and honoring the proud baseball and now softball tradition of the Suquamish Tribe were the following players (with position & high school team affiliation if applicable):
The Suquamish Slowpitch Softball Team lining for high fives after winning the National Championship in 1984.
Chuck Deam (pitcher, North Kitsap ’64), George “Joe” George (catcher), John Forsman (1st Base), Lenny Forsman (2nd Base, North Kitsap ’79), Wayne George (shortstop, North Kitsap ’73), Randy George (3rd Base, North Kitsap ’73), Mike Cheyney (Left Field, South Kitsap ’77), Tony Forsman (Left Center, North Kitsap ’75), Luther “Jay” Mills (Right Center, West Bremerton ’77), and Kyle “Lefty” George (Right
Field). The team was coached by Ted George.
Thesis, University of Washington, Seattle. 7 American Teams Ready for Games: Indian School and “Canuck” players have workout at Yokohama. Japan Times and Mail, August 24, 1921. 8 Indian Ball Team Arrives for Series: Suquamish Nine Comes on Same Steamer with Canadian StarsBoth will Tour Japan. The Japan Times, August 23, 1921. 9 American Tossers Blanked by Meiji: Suquamish “Wild Indians” Lose First Game in Japan by Lopsided Score. The Japan Times and Mail, August 29, 1921. 10 Webster. W.1.02, 1982. 11 Suquamish Baseball: A Team of Their Own. Kitsap Sun April 6, 2008.
Nagata, Yoichi. Two North American Indian Teams Visit Japan. In Why was Babe Ruth not able to Hit Home Runs at Koshien Stadium? Toho Publishing, Philadelphia. 2019. 13 Nagata. 14 Interview with Lawrence Webster. Suquamish Tribal Oral History Project Interview W.1.06. February 3, 1982. 15 American Teams Ready for Games. 16 Webster, Lawrence. Suquamish Tribal Oral History Project Interview W.1.06. March 18, 1982. 17 Shibazaki. 18 Loughrey. Nov 14, 1982. 19 Webster. W.1.02. 20 Loughrey. Nov 14, 1982.
Selected as Tournament All Stars were Chuck Deam, John Forsman, Leonard Forsman, Wayne George, Randy George, and Tony Forsman. The Tournament MVP honor was presented to Mike Cheyney.
Resources: Loughery, Woody. Suquamish Tribal Oral History Project Interview conducted by Candi Ives Bohlman, Nov 14, 1982. 2 Suquamish Indian Ball Team Picked to Play in Japan: Kitsap County will be represented in Japan, Roy Barrett, Harold Cook and Entire Indian Reservation Team. Bremerton Searchlight, August 10, 1921. 3 Sad Suquamish Story: Stranded in the Orient. Seattle Times, 1976. Vince O’Keefe, Executive Sports Editor. 4 Loughrey. Nov 14, 1982. 5 Webster, Lawrence. Suquamish Tribal Oral History Project Interview W.1.02. 1982. 6 Shibazaki, Ryoichi. Seattle and the Japanese-United States Baseball Connection, 1905-1926. Master’s 1
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