During a world tour in which several European Countries were visited, the French Baseball Federation honors New Giants manager John McGraw and Chicago White Sox owner Charles Comiskey with a medal for their efforts to promote the game of baseball in France.
This world tour started in 1924 in Canada and would sail the Atlantic to promote the game in France, England, Ireland, Germany and Italy. Most of the exhibition games were hardly visited. The absolute low was a game in Ireland where only twenty persons attended the game. Eventually, the tour would be cut short due to the lack of appreciation and understanding for the sport in England and France. Just like with the 1913/1914 World Tour, King George V of England attended the games. These games were the only ones that were well attended as 24,000 people were in the stands.
Nevertheless, the French Baseball Federation honored John McGraw and Charles Comiskey with a silver medal for their efforts to promote the game in France. Baseball was still in its infancy in France as the oldest baseball club in that country, Paris University Club, PUC for short) was established in 1923.
Not every player on the Giants’ and White Sox’ roster participated in the tour. Those vacant spots were filled with players from other MLB clubs.
By the time, the tour arrived in France, the Netherlands had played three official seasons of baseball with Quick Amsterdam (1922), Blauw Wit (1923) and Ajax (1924) as champions.
Due to the low attendance, the tour would end with a deficit of $20,000. It would be the last promotional tour organized by Charles Comiskey. Seven years later a promotional tour with several big MLB players would head to Japan, where baseball was much popular.
Dutch Baseball Hangout 