Japan considers demolishing one of just THREE remaining ballparks where Babe Ruth played

One of the three remaining stadiums where Babe Ruth played could be demolished as part of a redevelopment plan in Japan that has been criticized by environmental groups.

Ruth played at Meiji Jingu Stadium in 1934 on a barnstorming tour with other American stars, including Lou Gehrig, Lefty Gomez and Jimmie Foxx. Ruth homered several times in front of 60,000 fans in games at the stadium, which is still the home of Japan’s national champion Yakult Swallows.

There are only three other major stadiums where Ruth played: Fenway Park in Boston, Wrigley Field in Chicago, and Koshien Stadium in Kobe, Japan. Wrigley and Fenway have been renovated, but plans to save Meiji Jingu have been rejected by developers and politicians.

The stadium opened in 1926 in an area known as Meiji Gaien, a green spot in central Tokyo famous for an avenue of some 150 ginko trees.

Plans call for razing the ballpark and an adjacent rugby stadium and rebuilding them in several spots in the redesigned space, to make way for a pair of towering skyscrapers and a shopping precinct.

“I really think we shouldn’t sacrifice nature for short-term economic growth,” said Natsuka Kusumoto, a university student campaigning against the redevelopment. “To halt global warming, we must face how we can balance economic growth and nature conservation.”

She said real estate developers, construction companies and Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike “don’t hear the voice of the people who live in this city.”

“There are a lot of trees around this area in Jingu Gaien that are 100 years old,” she said. “They’ll cut down the old trees to build skyscrapers or rebuild this baseball stadium.”

Major leaguers regularly toured Japan, where baseball became extremely popular in the early 20th century. The tours stopped before World War II, but not before the 1934 tour, which included a number of notable historical events.

In one game, a 17-year-old Japanese pitcher named Eiji Sawamura struckout nine American batters, including Ruth and Gehrig. Sawamura would throw Japan’s first no-hitter for the Yomiuri Giants in 1936, but was later killed in a naval engagement with the US in 1943.

The trip also included some corporate espionage on the part of journeyman catcher Moe Berg, who took it upon himself to provide some reconnaissance to the US military.

The Washington Senators backstop was hardly a star, so it went unnoticed when he opted out of a game at Omiya and instead brought a bunch of flowers to St. Luke’s Hospital, where Ambassador Joseph Clark Grew’s daughter, Cecil Burton , loved it.

But Berg had no intention of visiting Burton, whom he had never met.

Wearing a kimono and speaking Japanese, Berg made his way to the hospital, up the stairs and onto the roof of the tallest building in Tokyo at the time. He then grabbed a movie camera and began filming the city’s skyline, military installations, factories, and Tokyo’s harbor — sensitive locations Japan’s empire was already protecting in the run-up to inevitable conflict with the West.

It is not known conclusively whether Berg was given this assignment by someone in military intelligence, and there are conflicting reports about whether or not the US Air Force used the footage to plan the famous Doolittle attack on Tokyo in 1942.

What is now known is that Berg embarked on a spy career that eventually led him to Europe, where he successfully gathered information about physicist Werner Heisenberg and the Nazis’ plans to build an atomic weapon.

Now Japanese authorities are planning to build a new baseball stadium against Shibuya’s ginko trees, which environmentalists say will damage its complex root system.

Opponents of the project have collected about 180,000 petition signatures, and hundreds protested in front of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government building on Sunday.

An opinion poll in Tokyo Shimbun last year showed that 69.5 percent opposed the project.

The massive project could take 13 years to complete and the baseball stadium will remain standing for several more years. But the clock is ticking.

Koike, the governor of Tokyo, is at the center of the storm. Activists believe she has the power to cancel the project, but has given developers the green light to begin preliminary construction. The city’s environmental assessment committee is still studying the project and has raised questions.

Famed Japanese composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto sent an emotional letter to Koike days before his death on March 28 opposing the project as his final goal.

“We should not sacrifice the precious trees of Jingu, which our ancestors have protected and cherished for 100 years, for quick economic gain,” Sakamoto wrote, according to Japan’s Kyodo news agency.

Koike spoke about the redevelopment – led by real estate company Mitsui Fudosan – at a press conference two months ago. She was a driving force behind the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but has not been involved in the widespread corruption surrounding the Games.

The presence of the Olympics helped the city pass an ordinance lifting height restrictions in the area, allowing plans for the new skyscrapers.

Koike said the number of trees in the area would increase from 1,904 to 1,998 through the redevelopment, and that “green area coverage” could increase from 25 percent to 30 percent.

However, not all trees are created equal. Huge 100-year-old trees provide significantly more carbon sequestration and cooling effect than small new saplings,” said Rochelle Kopp, who runs a management consultancy in Tokyo and is a leader of the protest movement.

She also said Koike was misleading in saying that “green area coverage” would increase.

‘Although the area of ​​green will increase, the volume of green will decrease considerably due to the felling of large trees.’

Kopp said an injunction could be filed in the coming weeks to halt the preparatory work. She also said that 27 members of Japan’s national parliament have begun investigating the project. She said parts of the planning had been completed, but much was still pending.

Koike has tried to distance the Tokyo city government from the project, suggesting it was an outside initiative. However, Kopp said records from a 2012 meeting show that the city council had proposed turning over the location of the two stadiums to the national government.

Japan’s mainstream newspapers have paid little attention to the issue, although leftist Asahi Shimbun has called for a thorough review of the project “because it could lead to significant environmental damage.”

Activists say lifestyles have changed since the pandemic, calling into question the need for more office space.

“As a child I played in Jingu Gaien,” said local resident Mao Kawaguchi during the weekend protest. “I think the forest in Jingu Gaien belongs to everyone. Honestly, I feel like my ability to live is being threatened, only for the sake of a very small number of companies. They want to change places so they can squeeze as much money out of it as possible.’