In addition to his stellar American baseball career, Lefty O'Doul was a player and/or organizer of several pre- and postwar U.S. Tours of Japan. The most notable was the 1949 San Francisco Seals Japan Tour, which was one of the first peacetime cultural exchanges between the U.S. and Japan following World War II. As a result of his efforts, O'Doul became the third American enshrined in the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame.
This 1949 card depicts O'Doul in his Seals Tour uniform. Each card in a karuta set is accompanied by its associated reading card. Both player (picture) card and reading card are included in this lot. The text on the reading card proclaims, "O'Doul manager likes Japan". Both cards are blank backed.
Size: Player card--2 7/8" x 4 1/8". Reading card--2" x 3"
Condition: Both player card and reading card are Nm/Mt.