Friday
Keynote Speaker
Rob Fitts
A former archaeologist with a PhD from Brown University, Rob Fitts left academics behind to follow his passion - Japanese Baseball. An award-winning author and speaker, his articles have appeared in numerous magazines and websites, including Nine, Baseball Research Journal, National Pastime, Sports Collectors Digest, and on MLB.com.
He is the author of nine books on Japanese baseball. His most recent book, In the Japanese Ballpark: Behind the Scenes of Nippon Professional Baseball, was recently published by the University of Nebraska Press (2025).
Earlier books include Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan Volume II, 1960-2018 (Society of American Baseball Research [SABR] 2023); Nichibei Yakyu: US Tours of Japan Volume I, 1907-1958 (SABR 2022); The Pioneers of Japanese American Baseball; An Illustrated Introduction to Japanese Baseball Cards; Issei Baseball (University of Nebraska Press, 2020); Mashi: The Unfulfilled Baseball Dreams of Masanori Murakami, the First Japanese Major Leaguer (University of Nebraska Press, 2015); Banzai Babe Ruth (University of Nebraska Press, 2012); Wally Yonamine: The Man Who Changed Japanese Baseball (University of Nebraska Press, 2008); and Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral History of the Game (Southern Illinois University Press, 2005).
Fitts is the founder of SABR’s Asian Baseball Committee and recipient of the society’s 2013 Seymour Medal for Best Baseball Book of 2012; the 2019 McFarland-SABR Baseball Research Award; the 2012 Doug Pappas Award for best oral research presentation at the Annual Convention; and the 2006 and 2021 SABR Research Award. He has also been a two-time finalist for the Casey Award and a two-time silver medalist at the Independent Publisher Book Awards.
A popular speaker on the history of Japanese baseball, Fitts has spoken at many venues including the Library of Congress, the Japan Embassy in Washington DC, the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, the Japan Society of New York, the Asia Society of New York, the Nine Baseball Conference, the Society of American Baseball Research Annual Convention, and the American Club, Tokyo.
While living in Tokyo in 1993-94, Fitts began collecting Japanese Baseball cards. He is now recognized as one of the leading experts in the field and has created the ebusiness Robs Japanese Cards LLC. Fitts regularly writes and speaks about the history of Japanese baseball cards.
Friday Luncheon
Guest Speaker
Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes
Karl Derrick “Tuffy” Rhodes (born August 21, 1968) is a retired American professional baseball player. He played six years in Major League Baseball in the US, and thirteen years in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) in Japan.
Tuffy Rhodes became the second player to homer three times on Opening Day, when he did so on April 4, 1994, in Wrigley Field for the Chicago Cubs. He hit all three off Dwight Gooden. Rhodes hit 13 home runs total in his MLB career. He later found tremendous success in Japan’s Pacific League, where he became one of the greatest foreign-born sluggers in Japanese baseball history, hitting 464 home runs over 13 seasons.