While traveling to Japan with a group of All-Stars in 1931, he became engrossed with spreading the game, soon writing a manual for teaching the fundamentals of baseball to Japanese players, and serving as a goodwill ambassador both before and after World War II in addition to his duties managing in the PCL. Though he owns the highest batting average of any eligible player outside the Hall of Fame, his case for Cooperstown rests on his pioneering work in furthering baseball’s reach.

Following the 1932 season, O’Doul went back to Japan for nearly three months, training collegiate ballplayers along with pitcher Ted Lyons and catcher Moe Berg (whose second career as a spy was still a couple of years away). Read More