While there are several fairly commonly seen printed programs pertaining to the 1949 San Francisco Seals Tour of Japan, this is the first time in our 32 years of buying, selling and auctioning Japanese baseball related material that we have ever encountered this document. Possibly, the relatively flimsy nature of this program prevented it from being saved very often.

At any rate, the cover contains photos of Seals owner Paul Fagan, business manager Charley Graham and Manager Lefty O'Doul. Fagan was the architect of the failed plan to make the Pacific Coast League a third major league. The interior pages contain photo bios of the various Seals players and coaches, individual photos of the All Japan team members, and rosters of the Japan East All Stars, West All Stars and Yomiuri Giants. Each of these four entities was among the teams that the Seals faced on the Tour.  Numerous members of the All Japan team also played for the East All Stars, West All Stars and/or Giants during the various contests.

The All Japan individual portraits include 17 members of the Japan Baseball Hall of Fame. There's a great image of Victor Starffin (second row, last small image on the right). Other Japanese stars depicted include Bozo Wakabayashi, Tetsuharu Kawakami and Hiroshi Oshita. The large image at right is of Hall of Fame manager Sadayoshi Fujimoto. The Seals defeated the Giants by a score of 13-4, the East All Stars 4-0, the West All Stars 3-1 and the All Japan team 2-1 and 13-4, If you are a PCL collector or Seals collector, this one-of-a-kind item may be perfect for your collection.

Size: 7 1/4" x 10 1/8". 8 pages.

Condition: Several ink marks at upper left of the cover page. Otherwise G-Vg.