Upon completion of the highly successful San Francisco Seals Tour of Japan which followed the 1949 season, four members of the All Japan team who had opposed the Seals were invited by Lefty O'Doul to participate in San Francisco Seals spring training in 1951. This photo shows the four future Japan Hall of Famers arriving at San Francisco airport and being greeted by O'Doul. The players surrounding O'Doul in the photo are (left to right) Makoto Kozuru, Fumio Fujimura, Tetsuharu Kawakami and Shigeru Sugishita. All players seem to be carrying Pan Am Airlines flight bags, so apparently they arrived in San Francisco on a Pan Am flight. Also visible in the background is the airline's motto from 1946-1953, "The system of the Flying Clippers". Little is known about this visit, and this original large photo is one of only a few mementos from this trip that we have ever handled.

Size: 10" x 8 1/4"

Condition: Ex because of corner dings, but the image portion itself is perfect. The blank reverse contains paper and glue residue, along with the number "3" written on the back. We assume that this item was originally a newspaper wire photo.