The legend of Eiji Sawamura
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Apr 09, 2009 
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One of the best parts of covering baseball is getting a chance to meet players, writers and fans from different countries and learn how baseball is treasured there.
Asian baseball has been a particular interest of mine. In writing about Baltimore starter Koji Uehara on Tuesday, I learned that he was a two-time winner of the Sawamura Award, the equivalent of our Cy Young Award.
I asked a Japanese writer, Gaku Tashiro, who Sawamura was. He gave me the basics and then I did some more research on line.
What a story. Eiji Sawamura was 17 when he faced a team of visiting American stars in 1934. Pitching in relief, he allowed one run over five innings and at one point struck out Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx in succession. Japan lost 1-0 as Sawamura hung a curveball and allowed a home run to Gehrig, although some believe it was Ruth who hit the shot.
The American manager, Connie Mack, tried to sign Sawamura on the spot. But the kid didn’t want to leave home. He instead joined the Yomiuri Giants in 1936 and quickly became an ace, throwing the first no-hitter in the history of the Japanese League.
In 1937 alone, he was 33-10 with a 1.38 ERA. He finished his career 63-22, 1.74.
Sawamura’s career, as you might expect, was interrupted by World War II. Sawamura served in the Imperial Navy and was killed when his ship was torpedoed in 1944 near Taiwan. The Sawamura Award was given for the first time in 1947. His No. 14 was retired the Giants, the first player so honored.
So there you have it. That’s who Eiji Sawamura was.
Pretty cool, thanks for the insight Pete.
What a shame that his career was prematurely ended.
Pete this was very interesting to read. Thanks for sharing what you learned about Sawamura. By the way, have you given any thought to getting the book published that you wrote about Wang that never made it to the states?
wow, Pete, what a story! Great work and thanks for the insight.
Very interesting. Also very ironic, since he was killed by Americans (or American allies).
Very nicely done Pete. Real journalism. My compliments.
Cool story. Thanks Pete
Excellent story. Too bad he didn’t want to leave home for America.
Pete, I apologize if this is too terribly off topic, but I’ve seen Japanese baseball before and I’ve always wondered – how come when a team’s name is spelled out on the front of their jerseys it’s always in English?
Cool story, thanks…
What was the story about the American team visiting Japan in the 30′s? I never heard about that.
Great POST! thanks for the insight Pete!
Thanks for the great info, Pete. Many believe that baseball got its start in Japan during the Occupation after Japan’s defeat in WWII, but obviously baseball was thriving there already at least by the 30′s.
Really fascinating, thanks Pete.
Great read, Pete. Thanks!
Great story!
Sawamura’s career, as you might expect, was interrupted by World War II. Sawamura served in the Imperial Navy and was killed when his ship was torpedoed in 1944 near Taiwan.
Atta boy Yogi!!
Wonder how much Mack was going to pay? By then he’d reached his serious cheapskate years. Any guesses who won Sawamura in 2003?
Moe Berg would go on those tours and spy for the US. None of the stars on the team could figure out why a benchwarmer was part of the tour
Wow, very interesting. Thanks Pete.
Jr- Kei?
Pete,
Are the Japanese players as aware of the history of japanese BB as say our fans are about our pitchers of the past. Working for a Japanese company I have some Memorabilia I can give you. Email me the lo hud address and I send u some.
great story..
damn wars.
Great stuff – thanks!
Interesting story.
War sucks.
JR beat me to the punch by mentioning Moe Berg and his contributions to the American cause during one of these barnstorming trips.
I’ve got to say that its eye opening to see the play of these Asian stars. They are really adding to the quality and depth of MLB.
Actually the tour of MLB stars jumpstarted Japanese pro baseball with the Giants being basically the Allstar team of Japan which they remained for a long time. Only in recent decades the Giants’ dominance has been broken.
The Sawamura award also is a bit different than the Cy Young which was actually introduced later (1956): only one pitcher (out of both the Central and Pacific League) gets it (as it used to be with the Cy Young pre 1967) and in some years nobody gets it as the award is linked with reaching at least 4 out of 7 milestones (25 starts, 15 wins, .600 win percentage, 200 IP, 150K, 10 complete games, ERA below 2.50)
Great post, just the kind of thing I like to learn.
Yes, JimT and JR, love the Moe Berg story. The other players probably just thought he was there because he could speak Japanese, considering the rep he had for linguistics.
“So there you have it. That’s who Eiji Sawamura was.”
Very artful conclusion there, Pete.
nice. thanks Pete!
“Very nicely done Pete. Real journalism. My compliments.”
ha. Interesting post, but it is basically a paraphrase of the wikipedia article on this guy, only with less detail.
“Real Journalism”
enjoyed this, and hope to see more like this.
Random:
As I explained in the post, I researched it on line. I never pretended otherwise.
Nice post Pete. No need to hate on a quick wikipedia reference. I’d rather have Pete spending his time covering the Yanks then doing book reports.
Great post, Pete. That was interesting and a great example of how many wonderful stories there are in baseball.
The fact that people took time to make obnoxious negative posts is sad. That’s the Internet, I suppose.
Thanks for passing the info along.
Wow. Cool.