Commemorating 150 Years of Baseball: “150 Sacred Sites and Famous Places” Stamp Rally Keio University’s Tsunamachi Sports Grounds Selected

On July 19th, the Nippon Professional Baseball Association (NPB) and the Baseball Federation of Japan (BFJ) announced their list of 150 “Sacred Site and Famous Places” of Japanese baseball history on the jointly-managed website, 150 Years of Baseball. Included in this selection is Keio University’s own Tsunamachi Sports Grounds.

The Tsunamachi Sports Grounds were opened in 1903. In the Autumn of that year, the grounds hosted the first match between Waseda and Keio Baseball Teams – the first Keio-Waseda Baseball Game. Later, in 1907, with a game held to welcome Hawaii’s St. Louis Baseball Team, Tsunamachi Sports Grounds became site of the first paid-ticket baseball game in Japan. In 1913, it hosted games played against a joint-team of visiting players from American Major League teams the New York Giants and the Chicago White Sox. These were the first games held in Japan featuring players from the Major Leagues. In command was the man they called “Little Napoleon”, manager of the New York Giants and known for establishing many tactics of baseball, John McGraw.

The Tsunamachi Sports Grounds are currently used by the Keio Chutobu Junior High School, and are not accessible to members of the public. However, if you instead turn to the Keio History Museum, we have several exhibits related to the Tsunamachi Sports Ground and the history of baseball. Our Special Exhibition, “Keio Baseball and Modern Japan”, is open until August 13th. Even after this period, we will continue to exhibit items related to baseball in our permanent exhibition hall!

Please check the following page for more details on the 150 Sacred Sites and Famous Places of Baseball History:
https://japanesebaseball150th.jp/sights/