Japanese player on the Giants in 1905
 

I started researching this story a few years ago for my website, then started again this spring when I was writing my book. Unfortunately I only got as far as a couple newspaper articles that all seem to be from the same source.

The Cuban Giants were a top-notch traveling blackball team at the time and fairly well covered in newspapers. When the Cuban Giants came to town it was a big deal back then and the added attraction of a Japanese ballplayer would have certainly turned heads and left a trail of newsprint. Since there weren't many Japanese ballplayers in the U.S. in 1905 it would seem that his story would have been fairly easy to research, but I came up with zip.

It seems others have also found this story intriguing and have not found anything else substantial on it. Here is a link to a blog about two researchers trying to find out about Sugimoto.

I hope someone can find something on this guy, it's a neat story, but part of me thinks it was McGraw pulling a sports writer's leg, or a bored scribe having fun. It kind of reminded me of an 1887 newspaper article about the White Sox signing a Chinese pitcher named Teang Wong Fu.

Wow this is neat...as someone of Japanese heritage and a baseball fan...thanks for the links....

Ricky Y

When I was looking into this I also was thinking that since Sugimoto doesn't appear anywhere else, MAYBE McGraw was trying to pull a "Chief Tokohama" again.

Back in 1901 McGraw tried to pass off blackball star Charley Grant as an American Indian named Chief Tokohama. McGraw discovered Grant in Hot Springs where many black ballplayers wintered, playing baseball for the various upscale hotels to amuse the guests. McGraw concocted the fake ID and signed Grant to a Baltimore Orioles contract. The reasoning was that an American Indians playing in the big leagues would not be that big of a deal as opposed to trying to re-integrate the game.

The ruse fell apart before the season started and Grant went on to have a nice long career with the Cuban X Giants and Philadelphia Giants.

Could Sugimoto have been another black ballplayer McGraw found playing in the Hot Springs Hotel League?

found this online:

1 - John McGraw – Fifty-three years before the Giants moved to San Francisco, manager John McGraw tried to sign an outfielder from Japan named Shumza Sugimoto. The potential signing was met with resistance fueled by a wave of anti-Asian sentiment in organized ball. The color line was officially drawn against Asian players in 1905 (McGraw instead signed outfielder Archibald “Moonlight” Graham). The color line against Asian players would not be broken until 1964 – 17 years after Jackie Robinson broke into the majors – when Japanese pitcher Masanori Murakami pitched for the San Francisco Giants.


2 - New York Giants manager John McGraw invites Japanese outfielder Shumza Sugimoto to try out for the team in Hot Springs, AR. The press acknowledges “the color line” potentially drawn against Sugimoto, so he chooses to play for the semi-pro New Orleans Creoles in LA.

3- https://homeplatedontmove.wordpress....umza-sugimoto/

4- - http://www.honus.fr/exclusif-le-prem...r-pro-japonais

Thanks for sharing the information. I found another article from 1911 about a player trying out with the Cubs. This player's last name is also Sugimoto. I found no follow up on him either.

Here's another article on Sugimoto from the February 24, 1905, Oakland Tribune, with some bizarre reasoning of the "color line":

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/...ps05304c20.png

The 1905 Oakland Tribune had at least four articles in February alone on "the color line", probably an effort to exclude Bill Pettus from integrating Bay area teams as he had in 1904.

I'd love to hear what Turkey Mike did to almost get his neck broken.