Maximally Cool Postcard

[nat]

Okay, maybe ‘maximally cool’ was an overbid. But this is still an extremely cool postcard.

First, some background.

In 1909 the University of Wisconsin sent their baseball team to Japan to play against the top university teams of the day. (There wouldn’t be a professional league until 1936.) The Americans were given a hero’s welcome. They were driven to the field in rickshaws, and reportedly 20,000 spectators showed up for each game. There were some cultural differences to deal with: the spectators were absolutely silent (making noise during the game was deemed disrespectful, although by the end of the tour the Japanese fans had gotten accustomed to the Americans cheering on their own players), and the Japanese teams played a game based around bunting, base stealing, and good defense. Anyways, the Americans lost the first game to Keio University on 9/22 in 11 innings. They lost a rematch four days later in 19 innings. Their starting pitcher got injured after 16 innings, and Charles Nash, their reserve pitcher, had to pitch the rest of the tour. He’s the hero of my little story. Nash shut out a team of ex-pat Americans on the 28th, beat the Tokyo City team on the 29th, and went on to face Keio and Waseda Universities later on the trip.

Postcards were made to commemorate the tour. This one features the start of the first game against Keio. That’s not what makes it special. What makes it special is what’s written on the back:

“Sept. 29, 09. Wis. just taking the field in the first game. We won 1 + lost 2 so far. Two we lost were 3-2 11 innings + 2-1 19 innings. I had the honor of winning the only one so far. Wish you would take good notes on these few first weeks of work because I will be about 5 weeks late. This is a great country alright. Peck”

The author of this postcard claims to have been the winning pitcher of Wisconsin’s third game. This was a very exciting discovery, except that I knew that a man named Nash won the third game. So I went digging, and in the (digital) bowels of the University of Wisconsin’s archives they keep copies of their yearbooks. Apparently there was some delay in printing, but the 1911 edition of The Badger includes a feature on the 1909 trip to Japan. It includes a roster of the team – with nicknames given. I have taken the liberty of copying the roster below. Notice: Charles Nash’s nickname was ‘Peck’. (I have also included a photo of Nash taken from the yearbook.)

So what I have here is a postcard showing the start of the first game (9/22/09) that the University of Wisconsin played against Keio, that was mailed by Charles Nash, the reserve pitcher who (due to an injury to the main pitcher) ended up pitching most of the tour. (Unfortunately he’s not pictured on the card, since he didn’t play in the first game.) Nash helpfully dated the card himself (9/29/09), meaning that he wrote the card a week after the game that it pictures. Now, I also happen to know that Wisconsin played a game on the 29th, which Nash doesn’t mention on this card. So I even know the time of day that he wrote it: in the morning, before Wisconsin’s game against Tokyo City. It’s addressed to someone who I presume is Nash’s friend in Madison, asking him to take notes in class while he’s away. I, for one, find this to be 1000% cool.

There is also a postmark on the card. It gives both Western and Japanese dates, but, anyways, they agree that it was mailed on October 5, 1909. Nash wrote the card the morning of the 29th, went off to play the day’s game, and forgot or was too busy to mail the card until about a week later.

Although none of the members of the team went pro, the Wisconsin team was an interesting one. Their second baseman, Messmer, was one of the University’s most accomplished athletes (he became an architect and is a member of the University’s athletics hall of fame), and the catcher (who is maybe the guy in white standing by home plate) had a distinguished legal career and ended up on the Wisconsin state Supreme Court. Information about Nash himself is hard to come by, but I did find what is probably his draft registration card. At any rate, it’s a card for one “Charles Mott Nash”, of the right age and living in Wisconsin. As of 1918 he described himself as a self-employed merchant, and claimed exemption from the draft on the grounds that he is the “sole proprietor of a store”.