Autographed Baseball From 1934 Barnstorming Trip to Japan in HOF

Seventy-five years ago, a neighbor gave a baseball to 12-year-old Rowland Montgomery. He must have had no idea what he was giving up.

“Mr. Weston was not into baseball. He was an Englishman and didn’t understand baseball,” Montgomery said.

Albert Weston was the chief steward on the Canadian Pacific steamship Empress of Russia. In 1934, this vessel carried a group of American players from Vancouver, British Columbia, to Japan for a set of exhibition games.

The players on the trip signed a ball for Weston, who then gave it to Montgomery. This past November, Montgomery donated the ball to the National Baseball Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It features autographs of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez, Connie Mack, Jimmie Foxx and Earl Averill — all Hall of Famers — along with Clint Brown, Doc Ebling, Lefty O’Doul, Bing Miller, Bud Warren, Rabbit Warstler, Joe Cascarella, Frankie Hayes, Eric McNair and Jack Quinn.

Weston moved back to England shortly thereafter, and Montgomery didn’t know the importance of what he had when he accepted the ball.

“Not as a kid that age. It was baseball, and I was interested in sports,” he said.

Ruth was his favorite player, and to have his autograph was something special, but the ball has much greater meaning today. Ruth, Gehrig and Mack all held records that were believed to be unbreakable, although two of those have since been eclipsed.

Ruth was the career home-run king until Hank Aaron passed him in 1974, Gehrig held the record of 2,130 games played until Cal Ripken Jr. surpassed it in 1995 and Mack’s record 3,776 wins as manager of the Philadlephia Athletics still stands. Mack has nearly 1,000 more wins than his closest colleague, fellow Hall of Famer John McGraw (2,763).

The 1934 tour brought American players to the Far East for 18 games. Considered a great success, the tour helped spark Japan to organize its first professional baseball league just two years later. It was Ruth’s only baseball trip overseas.

Montgomery kept the ball locked up in a safe-deposit box for years but decided it was time to find the ball a permanent home. Many fans donate items to the Museum, which has more than 35,000 three-dimensional artifacts in the collection.

“I am getting up there in years and wanted to do something with the ball before I die. I figured I could sell it by an Internet auction, but what would I do with the money? I decided a better place for it would be at the Hall of Fame.”

Montgomery has always been a baseball fan, going to games in his hometown of Vancouver. He has never been to Cooperstown but would really like to.

“I have always been a bit interested in baseball and I doubt I will make it there. No, I shouldn’t say that. I never say never.”