Heading for Home A Baseball Odyssey

Guri Starffin’s odyssey takes him from the 1917 Russian Revolution and the Great War to the burgeoning nation of Japan to the west coast of the United States. As a boy in the tsar’s court, he and the last Russian prince are influenced by the likes of Rasputin, Buffalo Bill and boxing champion Jack Johnson. His life is no less dramatic in Japan, where he—and a nation—become “baseball-crazy.” As a member of Japan’s first professional baseball team, his next venture takes him to California at a time when a second world war seems imminent. With the help of two major leaguers, Moe Berg and Lefty O’Doul, he is heading for home. Inspired by true events, Guri Starffin’s story is an incredible adventure. However, the concluding biography of his namesake, Victor Starffin, shows that the truth sometimes can be harder to believe.