Robert K. Fitts
A former archaeologist with a Ph.D. from Brown University, Rob Fitts left academics behind to follow his passion—Japanese baseball. An award-winning author and speaker, his articles have appeared in numerous magazines and websites, including Nine, Baseball Research Journal, National Pastime, Sports Collectors Digest, and on MLB.com.
He is the author of five books on Japanese baseball. His latest book, Issei Baseball: The Story of the First Japanese American Ballplayers, was recently published by the University of Nebraska in April 2020.
While living in Tokyo in 1993–94, Fitts began collecting Japanese baseball cards. He is now recognized as one of the leading experts in the field and has created the ebusiness Robs Japanese Cards LLC. He regularly writes and speaks about the history of Japanese baseball cards and was a 2020 finalist for the Jefferson Burdick Award for Contributions to the Hobby.
Updated April 2020
Stories from This Author
The First Japanese American Battery Included a Future Hollywood Actor and a Philanthropist
April 23, 2021 • Robert K. Fitts
Bigotry towards Japanese immigrants in San Francisco climaxed on October 11, 1906 when the city’s Board of Education announced that “all Chinese, Japanese, and Korean children” would have to attend the newly formed Oriental School, located on Clay Street between Powell and Mission. This order to segregate the city’s schools drew sharp criticism through the U.S. and Japan, eventually prompting President Theodore Roosevelt to pressure the Board of Education to rescind the order. In exchange, in 1907 Roosevelt negotiated the …
The First Japanese Professional Game Took Place in ... Kansas?
April 29, 2020 • Robert K. Fitts
Who’s on first in Japanese baseball American baseball historians have a fetish for documenting first occurrences: the first game, the first curveball, the first no-hitter, the first player of each ethnicity. It’s no different in Japan. Baseball in Japan has a long, well documented history. The first game on Japanese soil was played in late-October 1871 in Yokohama between American residents and members of the visiting crew from the USS Colorado. A year later, American teacher Horace Wilson introduced the …
