After falling to the Yankees in the 1956 World Series the Brooklyn Dodgers didnt have much time to cry in their beer with virtually the entire crew packing up and heading off to the Far East for a month-long excursion of barnstorming in Japan. The Dodgers tour continued a long-standing tradition of American clubs bringing the game of baseball to exotic environs and this one didnt disappoint as enormous crowds turned out to see Brooklyns glorious Bums. This remarkable lot offers a spectacular view into almost every aspect of the famed tour starting with two pages of the original typewritten press release from the Dodgers that opens a 9-by-12-inch binder followed by seven other typewritten pages that include a wealth of behind-the-scenes information about the tour with stuff like how much everybody got paid passport documents etc. There are eight pages of photocopied press clippings from the games along with a wonderful Willard Mullin editorial cartoon complete with text in Japanese with English subtitles. Along with the original press release there are three letters (8 1/2-by-11 inches) concerning the selection of Hall of Fame umpire Jocko Conlan as the arbiter of choice for the excursion - two on National League letterhead with signatures from Warren Giles (2) and Conlan. Plus there is a truly wonderful grouping of black-and-white photos four of which include signatures from team captain Pee Wee Reese.

The photo roster includes an 8-by-10 of the Dodgers and their opponents in a pregame ceremony on the baselines of a packed stadium; the half-dozen 5-by-7-inch images are startling in their intimacy and uniqueness. This array includes Reese and Hodges napping on some impressive recliners (signed) Reese and Erskine at some of the pregame festivities (signed) Reese and Jackie posing with two officials (signed) and a simply classic group shot of three players (Reese Campanella and Hodges signed by Reese) plus Alston alongside and Walter OMalley wearing one of those cheesy faux navy officers cap like Thurston Howell III wore on Gilligans Island. Remaining two images show players viewing the remains of burned out artillery relics from the Second World War and a hilarious photo of four Brooklyn stalwarts at a Japanese restaurant with empty sake and beer bottles strewn about on the table. Wearing suitably noisy print shirts worthy of the most noxious tourist Clem Labine sports a silly grin with teammates Campanella Gilliam and Newcombe a bit more circumspect with their posing. Its almost impossible to overstate the import of such a museum-worth array of artifacts from this beloved ball club from the giddy decade of the 1950s playing and vacationing together barely more than a year before the Dodgers would make history once again at the close of the 1957 National League season.

Pre-certified by PSA/DNA.