postcards
These are on the Japanese thread on the other side of the board, but since they're pre-war I thought I'd share them here too.
In 1909 the University of Wisconsin sent a baseball team to Japan to play a series of games against the Keio and Waseda University teams. Some post cards were printed to commemorate the occasion. The postcard with the action shot below is a view of the 9/22/09 game between Wisconsin and Keio that Keio won in 11 innings. There's a scoreboard in the background, and squinting through a loupe at it leads me to believe that this picture was taken in the bottom of the 4th inning. That would put the Americans in the field and Keio at bat. No future major leaguers in this game, but if those are the Americans are in the field there's a good chance that the catcher would go on to be a justice of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court.
The other postcard is notable for how old it is. It's postmarked June 1, 1891, which is only about 20 years after baseball was introduced to Japan. It's the earliest baseball-related Japanese card that I've ever encountered.
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