Hefty thread here about an important and at times overlooked figure in baseball history: the father of Japanese-American baseball, Kenichi Zenimura.

Today would have been Zenimura's 121st birthday.

He was born in Japan, but his family moved to Fresno, CA when he was young.

He established himself in the Nisei Leagues (Japanese-American leagues) as a player/manager in the 1920s before crossing over to become the 1st Japanese-American to play/manage previously all-white teams

He developed a relationship with Babe Ruth, when Ruth and Gehrig played against Zenimura's team on a Barnstorming tour in '27.

That led to Zenimura organizing Ruth's 1934 tour of Japan.

Here's a photo of him next to Ruth and Gehrig

He also helped lead a Negro League barnstorming tour of Japan in 1927 that included hall of famer Biz Mackey.

Here's a flyer with a pic of him with Mackey

In 1942, Zenimura was one of the 120,000 Japanese-Americans imprisoned by the US government and forced to relocate to internment camps after FDR issued Executive Order 9066.

He was sent to the Gila River War Relocation Center in the AZ desert.

He was there for 3 years.

Within two weeks of his arrival at Gila River, Zenimura led the construction of a baseball at the camp and organized a 32-team league.

The field no longer exists, but one of the bases was maintained and recovered and is in the HOF museum in Cooperstown. https://baseballhall.org/discover/a-field-of-dreams-in-the-arizona-desert

Zenimura also organized for the All-Star team at Gila River to travel around the country and play games against other teams from other Japanese Interment camps in California, Wyoming and Arkansas.

This is a photo of Zenimura's Gila team before a game in Wyoming.

Upon his release from the detention camp in 1945, Zenimura returned to Fresno and kept playing and coaching.

He also became a key figure in helping Japanese-American players sign contracts with professional teams in Japan, including his 2 sons who both played for Hiroshima Carp.

Kenichi had a huge impact on both sides of the Pacific and is probably the most important figure in the history of Japanese-American baseball.

There's a doc about him (I just watched it, it was great) available online for five bucks thats only 30 mins. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07ZX1RLG6/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r

There are a lot of great articles about Zenimura online, but here are a few if you wanna learn more.

From our dear friend @GemmaKaneko: https://www.mlb.com/cut4/4-little-known-historical-nisei-league-figures-c215019678

From the folks @EbbetsVintage: https://www.ebbets.com/blogs/news-and-history/kenichi-zenimura

From a Nisei baseball web archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20120209160030/http://www.niseibaseball.com/html%20articles/Nisei%20Legends/zenimura.htm

There's also a full biography on Zenimura by @BillStaplesJr that I have not yet read, but plan on ordering today.

You can buy that here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/kenichi-zenimura-japanese-american-baseball-pioneer/