Photo: Collection of Robert Fitts

“Japanese baseball is kind of like watching a Sweet 16 basketball game,” says Fitts. “The fans are loud, they bring trumpets and drums, and there are organized cheers for every player.... It was amazing.”

That was 1993. Fitts was ABD for his archaeology PhD and had followed his wife to Tokyo to write. A few years later, back in the U.S., he started selling Japanese baseball cards and writing about the sport.

His first book, Remembering Japanese Baseball, involved interviews with more than 30 players who had once played in Japan. “By the time I had finished that book, I had found my calling,” says Fitts.

Since then he’s written another half-dozen books and scores of articles about Japanese baseball, and has spoken at America’s baseball hall of fame.