Talk:Korakuen Stadium

I was in the U.S. Army

assigned to GHQ, Tokyo from 1947 to 1949. I attened basebal at Koraku-en stadiom during the Summers of 1948 and 1949. After the 1948 regular season, a group I was associated with, along with Mr. Frank Shaughnessy, President of the International Baeball league and owner of the Montreal Royals, sponsored a five-city barnstorming tour of Japan bt the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast league. They played five games each in five Japanese cities, starting in Tokyo. Seals' manager, "Lefty" O'Doul was a baseball hero to the Japanese fans. A large photo of him was displayed, along with pictures of such American starrs as Babe Ruth, Lou Gerigh, etc. Mr. Shaughnessey's son, John was my supevisor and we worked at the stadium during the exhibition series. We introduced the Hot Dog to Japan. The stadium was packed full of fans, not even standing room and we were told that there were 300,000 people in the parking lots and streets outside, for all five games ! I'm told that we "sold" one million hot dogs during the series. Leading up to this phenomenon, Mr Shaughnessy and the International league was sending shipments of one hundred dozen baseball bats and balls, donated to the Japanese high schools (universities) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Johncharlesoneill (talk • contribs) 18:25, 22 January 2008 (UTC)