Presented is a 1931 Tour of Japan signed, vintage photograph of the American team, including signatures of six Hall of Famers: Mickey Cochrane, catcher; Lou Gehrig, 1B; Frankie Frisch, 2B; Rabbit Maranville, shortstop; Al Simmons, LF, and Lefty Grove, P. Other American players signing the photograph: Muddy Ruel, catcher; Willie Kamm, 3B, Thomas Oliver, CF, Lefty O'Doul, RF; Bruce Cunningham, utility; George Kelly, utility; Ralph Shinner, utility. Larry French, P. On this tour, the Americans first played and won a game in Hawaii and then won all 17 of their games in Japan. To the players' right are pictured the team's trainer, Dr. Leonard Knowles and the touring umpire, Hall of Famer John "Beans" Reardon. Against Japan, the Americans batted a team .346, and they outscored the Japanese 149-30. The consensus evaluation of the playing abilities of the Japanese teams was that they fielded well, had a few good pitchers, but hit poorly. During the tour, the Americans engaged in some showboating during lopsided games. For example, in one game with the bases empty, Grove took a grounder back to the mound and instead of throwing to first base, Grove threw to Kamm at third, and Kamm relayed the ball to first. On another occasion as Grove pitched, left fielder Al Simmons lay down on the ground. The Japanese players felt it was extremely patronizing, but the hard feelings didn't stop the famous 1934 Japan Tour, with Babe Ruth, plus Moe Berg, supposedly acting as a pre-World War II spy. 

The signed photo measures 8.1x16.2". The players signed their names above their image in the group photo. The signatures are in blue fountain ink and average about 5 or 6/10. The offering has a number of vertical folds as well as vertical cracking. One area at the top left that measures approx. 1.25x5" has been obscured by a white paint or glue remnant as have over half-a-dozen smaller areas. These white areas have interfered with a number of the signatures on the left side of the photo. The photo also exhibits some spotting, cracking, small stains, and corner wear. Although the signed photo does have the aforementioned defects, it still contains the signatures of six Hall of Famers and the entire American Team, from a tour that connected the tours of Japan in the 1920s to the famous 1934 Tour, spurring on the already intense Japanese interest in baseball that generations later produced the off-the-charts talent of Shohei Ohtani.