On October 21, 1934 — An All-Star team led by Babe Ruth and Connie Mack sails on tour to Hawaii and Japan. Players with wives include Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Charlie Gehringer, Lefty Gómez, Earl Averill and Lefty O’Doul.
“I’ve been knocking baseballs around for 21 years and I guess I’ll knock a few more in Japan,” grinned Babe Ruth as he waved farewell yesterday from the Orient-bound Canadian Pacific liner Empress of Japan. Asked If he thought he could hit Japanese pitching, the Bambino declared he would take his chances with Gehringer, Foxx, Gehrig, Miller and the rest of the American League sluggers who are accompanying his all-star aggregation to play exhibition games in Honolulu and Japan.
It will be early spring before the Babe. Gehrig, Vernon Gomez, Ed. Ebling. Athletics trainer and Harold (“Rabbit”) Warstler are back as they are stretching their Orient visit into a world tour. Others of the team, Including Connie Mack, who declared he had handed over all managerial duties of the tour to Babe Ruth, are “Bing” Miller. Frank Hayes, Jimmy Foxx, Joe Cascarella, Eric MeNnlr of the Athletics; Charlie Gehrlngrr, of Detroit; Moe Berg. Earl Averill. Clint Brown, of Cleveland, and Earl Whitehall, of the Senators will come hack on the Empress of Canada, on January 2.
Frank “Lefty” O’Doul, the Giants slugger, was the only National Leaguer In the party. It is his fourth consecutive trip to Japan, where he spends his winter coaching Japanese youngsters. It was also a honeymoon tour for Clint Brown, of ‘Cleveland, and his bride of a few weeks, snd It would be h.-.! to convince Frank Hayes, the Athletics’ rookie catcher, that an 111 wind blows nobody good. Babe Ruth wired for him when Charlie Kerry was taken off the train In North Dakota for an emergency appendix operation and the 19-year-old New Jersey boy Jumped on the next plane.
