Nomo: No Rest For The Wicked Pitcher
Sydney Morning Herald
Tuesday July 11, 1995
LOS ANGELES, Tuesday: The pre-game meal is sushi, sashimi and a smidgen of rice, so that can mean only one thing: Hideo Nomo, the guy with the corkscrew delivery and wicked fastball, must be pitching this evening.
"You know, I ate 80 pieces of sushi the other night when Nomo started," Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda is saying, as he checks out the huge spread of raw fish on display in the team's clubhouse. "I was going for 100. Maybe I'll hit that tonight."
Just then, Nomo strolls through the door, trailed closely by a small army of Japanese reporters and their hi-tech recording gadgets. The place smells rancid, like someone has been going barefoot on a fishing vessel. Most of the Dodgers have taken off their shoes and are bowing reverently at Nomo.
"Como estas?" asks LA teammate Ramon Martinez, who hails from the Dominican Republic. "Muy bien," Nomo answers.
When Nomo hit the American baseball scene earlier this year, he was little more than a curiosity piece. Back home in Japan, he was being hailed as a pioneer and a national hero, but in the US the only question was: does he have the stuff? Now the answer can be told. Hideo Nomo most definitely has the stuff.
In a season when the paying public is clearly suspicious of the national pastime, Nomo is one of the few reasons people are heading to the ballparks. No promotional gimmick baseball devises can match the kind of excitement the rookie from Osaka has created.
Today (Australian time) Nomo will pitch for the National League in the All Star Game in Arlington, Texas. If major league baseball has any sense - yeah, we know - Nomo will be the starting pitcher, a spot he has earned not because he's exotic, but because he's simply extraordinary.
"He's absolutely outstanding," marvels Lasorda. "I've been trying to tell people that this guy's not just a flash in the pan. He's definitely for real."
Technically, the 26-year-old is a rookie, although you'd never know it by watching him on the mound. Nomo goes through opposing line-ups like Jonah Lomu goes through opposing wingers, using an exaggerated wind-up that delivers a 151km/h fastball, a silky slider and forkballs that leave the batter spinning.
Nicknamed "Tornado", Nomo has the second-highest strikeout rating in baseball's modern era. He has a 6-1 record, a 2.05 earned run average and leads the National League in strikeouts with 119. He has been in the big leagues for all of five months and already people are comparing him to Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, which is about the highest honour in baseball.
"This is a dream ... one I thought was unreachable, but it has not been as easy as it looks," Nomo says.
"There has been a lot of pressure on me from people back home to do well in America. If I could think only of pitching, I would perhaps be even better."
Alas, Nomo's life is decidedly more complicated than choosing what pitch to fire. After he starred in the Japanese league for five years, the Dodgers gave him a $US2 million ($2.8 million) signing bonus to prove he could make it in The Show.
History said his chances weren't good: only one other Japanese player had played major league ball - Masanori Murakami, who pitched for San Francisco in 1964-65.
These days Nomo is The Show. When he starts, Dodgers games are televised live in Japan, even though the time difference means some broadcasts air after 2 am. He has been featured in Sports Illustrated, Newsweek and The Financial Times - all in the same week.
"Nomo is the Michael Jordan of our country," says Yoko Umeda, who works for Japanese Sports Illustrated. "He's the biggest sports star in Japan right now. There is an insatiable appetite for him. When he pitches, everyone stops what they're doing. The whole country depends on him to prove our ballplayers can play over here."
About the only time Nomo can relax is when he walks into the LA clubhouse. The Dodgers have gone to great lengths to make him comfortable - hence the pre-game sushi instead of the usual hot dogs and tacos.
His teammates are teaching him English and Spanish, and Nomo is teaching them to eat sunflower seeds with chopsticks.
At a time when baseball is pulling out every trick in the book to woo back disgruntled fans, along comes a player who makes the game fun again. Hideo Nomo is not a novelty or gimmick. He's definitely got the stuff.
© 1995 Sydney Morning Herald
