Making an impression in Japan

Eiji Sawamura in 1934 with Babe Ruth

A 17-year-old high school pitcher named Eiji Sawamura makes only one tangible mistake 90 years ago today and Lou Gehrig turns that mistake into a souvenir as Gehrig’s solo homer in the seventh inning accounts for the only run as a group of touring major league all-stars defeat their Japanese counterparts 1-0.

The victory is part of a 12-city, 18-game tour in which the major league all-stars win every game.

Sawamura gives Japan its best chance to win, only to lose on Gehrig’s homer.

During the game, the 5-foot-8, 156-pound Sawamura strikes out four future Hall of Famers in a row – Charlie Gehringer, Babe Ruth, Jimmie Foxx and the aforementioned Gehrig.

Just 10 days earlier, the same major league all-stars pummel Sawamura for 10 runs with Ruth hitting one of his 13 homers on the tour.

“I was scared,” Sawamura says after that inauspicious start against the Americans, “but I realize that the big leaguers were not gods.”

Eiji Sawamura

Sawamura – born more than two years after Ruth’s major league debut in 1914 – eventually turns pro in 1936, going 15-3 as a rookie for the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants.

He leads all of Japan that season with 15 victories, 11 complete games and three shutouts.

That same season, he also pitches the first no-hitter in Japanese history.

Sawamura is even better in his second season as he goes 24-4 with a 0.81 earned-run average in Japan’s spring season before posting a 9-6 record with a 2.38 ERA during the fall season.

Sawamura’s dominance ends in the winter of 1938 as he is drafted into the Japanese military.

He ends up serving three tours of duty, returning to Japan in the early 1940s and spending two-plus seasons pitching with Tokyo.

Sawamura’s record is 16-9 with a 2.62 ERA over 36 appearances, but his pitching shoulder already is failing.

The pro-military Sawamura is done pitching after the 1943 season and in 1944 rejoins Japan’s Imperial Army.

Hideo Nomo with the Dodgers

Sawamura, though, never returns as an American submarine sinks his transport ship off the coast of Taiwan on Dec. 2, 1944 – two months shy of his 28th birthday.

Sawamura’s memory remains alive today in Japan, where since 1947 the Sawamura Award is presented to the country’s top pro pitcher.

Award winners later include future major leaguers Hideo Nomo, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, Kenta Maeda, Masahiro Tanaka and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who now pitches for the Los Angeles Dodgers.