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earl tanbara

A reader informs me that Jack Kakuuchi’s game against the Chicago Cubs in 1942 was preceded by another game 18 years earlier in which a Japanese-American ballplayer competed against and defeated a major league team.  It happened during spring training, 1924, when Earl Tanbara of the San Jose Asahi appeared on a city all-star team against the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The San Jose All-Stars won 9 to 5, with Tanbara hitting 1 for 3 and scoring a run (similar to Kakuuchi’s performance in 1942). 

(Oakland Tribune, March 17, 1924, p. 10)

However: this was spring training, and fully seven of the 15 players who played for the PIrates that day did not make the team in 1924.  And the eight who did make the team were almost all second stringers.

(Oakland Tribune, March 14, 1924, p. 38)

1. Moore, shortstop; (made the team, back up to Glenn Wright)
2. Barnes, first base: (on team, back up to Charlie Grimm)
3. Mueller, center field; (on team, back up to Kiki Cuyler)
4. Luce, right field; (did not make team)
5. Peterson, left field; (did not make team)
6. Rawlings, second base; (back up to Rabbit Maranville)
7. Alley, third base; (did not make team)
8. Pitchers:
Stone, (made the team, dnp)
Lundgren, (made the team, started game vs. San Jose)
Burnes, (did not make team)
Huffman (Hammond?) (did not make team)
Demarest (did not make team)
9. Catchers:
Knox (made the team)
Kopshaw (did not make team)
X. Ens, utility (made the team)

jack kakuuchi

On June 1, 1942, 10,000 soldiers watched the Chicago Cubs lose an exciting game to an Army team at Camp Grant, Illinois.  The “doughboys” pulled it out in the ninth inning on a single by their manager, Joe Skurski.  At third base for the soldiers was a Japanese-American named Jack Kakuuchi (the Tribune refers to him as “Jake Kakuchi”), who walked in the fourth inning and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly.

(Chicago Tribune, June 2, 1942)

I learned about this from Bill Staples, who believes that this game represents “the first time a Japanese-American competed against and defeated a major league team.”  To top it off, Kakuuchi’s family, including his wife and son, were (as you might have guessed) interned at Manzanar while he served in the military.

Bill first emailed me about the Cubs’ Camp Grant game a week ago Friday (February 6).  A few days later, Bill learned that Jack Kakuuchi had passed away that very day. “Perhaps he was waiting for someone to rediscover his 1942 box score,” said Bill.

Jack Kakuuchi, born Alexander Hideya Kakuuchi on May 5, 1920, in San Francisco, California, was, according to Bill, “an all-around athlete who excelled at baseball, football, basketball, sumo wrestling, and golf,” and later became a “legendary” golf and football coach at Citrus College.  Bill will have much more detail on Kakuuchi in a book he’s working on about Kenichi Zenimura and Japanese-American baseball.