‘Tornado’ Moves On
By MIKEY HIRANO CULROSS
RAFU SPORTS EDITOR
Saturday, July 19, 2008

Hideo Nomo decides he’s reached the end of his playing days, closing a career with a profound impact on players from across the Pacific.

Photos by MARIO G. REYES/Rafu Shimpo
With his twisting delivery and devastating forkball, Hideo Nomo was one of the most feared pitchers ever to take the mound in the major leagues.

“Nomomania” caught on quickly, on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.

Nomo compiled a 123-109 record with a 4.24 career earned run average and a staggering
1,918 strikeouts.

He was a wonder to behold. Standing at attention, then raising his arms into a statued pose. The torso twisted, contorted, the upper half completely turned to the plate, hiding the ball as well as his face.

Then came the pitch, out of nowhere, and at times, it was impossible to touch it.

What a magnificent sight.

Hideo Nomo has thrown his last major league pitch, announcing his retirement from professional baseball Thursday.

Like all athletes who have reached the end of their careers–and they all eventually reach the end–Nomo said he wanted to keep playing, but came to the realization that his ability to play at the major league level has declined to a point where he had to make a decision.

“I want to continue, but I don’t think I can deliver a professional-level performance anymore. I believe many clubs think the same way,” the 39-year-old Nomo told Kyodo News. “I knew I had to make some kind of decision. I knew I had to let my fans know,” he said.

After a nearly two-year absence from the game, Nomo made an inspired comeback this season, earning a spot on the Kansas City Royals’ bullpen staff. A groin injury late in spring training, however, hampered his ability and the team released him in late April.

“I want to hang in there no matter what, hoping that I won’t get injured,” Nomo had written on his home page, before reporting to the Royals’ spring camp.

By joining the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 1995 season, Nomo became only the second Japanese pitcher to make a big league club. In the 1960s, Masanori Murakami pitched 54 games for the San Francisco Giants.

“To hear that Nomo has retired, it brings back many memories to me,” said Dodgers Vice-President and former manager Tommy Lasorda on Thursday. “When he came over here for the first time, he was the one who was going to set the example for the rest of the Japanese players who came to the United States. Well, he represented his country to the highest degree of class, dignity and character,” Lasorda said.

Initially notable for his whirling windup, he was quickly embraced by fans–and feared by hitters. To complement a potent fastball in the mid-90s, he was a master of the forkball, a pitch that is sort of a more exaggerated splitfinger fastball that when thrown properly is as unpredictable as a box of old hand grenades. So warbling and diving was the pitch that catchers often had as tough a time with it as batters–Nomo led the National League in wild pitches his first year.

The unorthodox delivery, along with the effectiveness of his pitching captured the attention of baseball and the imagination of Japanese fans on both sides of the Pacific. The shy, soft-spoken former Kintetsu Buffaloes right-hander was mobbed by fans and media wherever he went, at stadiums across North America, at restaurants and even driving on the freeways to and from Dodger Stadium.

In addition to winning the 1995 NL Rookie of the Year Award, Nomo has the distinction of being the winningest Japanese pitcher ever, with 123 victories, against 109 losses. He is one of only four pitchers to throw a no-hitter in both leagues, joining Cy Young, Jim Bunning and Nolan Ryan. In 1996, he did what was then thought impossible–and still might be–by not allowing a hit at the launching pad known as Coors Field in Denver. To mark his debut with the Boston Red Sox in 2001, he tossed the first no-no ever at Baltimore’s Camden Yards.

“He ranks right up there with the top pitchers in Dodgers history. We’re talking about Sutton, Hershiser, Welsh, Charlie Hough. All those guys were great pitchers, he belongs right there with them. He was a tremendous competitor and he wanted to beat you,” said
Lasorda, who suggested that Nomo is a worthy candidate for both the American and Japanese Baseball Halls of Fame.

His impact in Los Angeles was nothing short of phenomenal. “Nomomania” led to packed stadiums whenever he pitched and sushi at the concession stands. Japanese tour companies offered “Los Angeles Nomo” tour packages, doing their best to plan trips around the games he started.

“I think about the first time he started a ballgame. I mean, cameras flashing all throughout the stands. It was unbelievable,” Lasorda recalled.

As injuries began to pester his pitching, Nomo found himself moving from team to team. After leaving the Dodgers, he played for the New York Mets, Milwaukee Brewers, Detroit Tigers, Boston, the Dodgers again, Tampa Bay Devil Rays and finally Kansas City. His
123-109 record came over the course of 318 starts, with a staggering 1,918 strikeouts and a 4.24 lifetime earned run average. A 1995 All-Star, he led the NL in strikeouts in 1995, was second in 1996 and led the Al in Ks in 2001. He finished fourth in the Cy Young Award race twice, in 1995 and 1996.

Current Dodgers closer Takashi Saito, who is currently sidelined with an elbow injury, said Thursday that Nomo was someone who inspired many players, including himself.

“As a baseball person, or as a Dodger, Nomo was our sempai (mentor),” Saito said. “For Japanese players, he’s a pioneer. Nomo retiring is a sad feeling for me.”

Nomo’s success is widely regarded as the opening of the floodgates for many players from Asia to ply their trade in the U.S. From Japan, the likes of pitchers Hideki Irabu, Shigetoshi Hasegawa and Tomo Ohka soon followed. With position players such as Ichiro Suzuki and Hideki Matsui arriving later, as well as players from South Korea and Taiwan, the path to America was seen as wide open for players who might not have otherwise thought so.

“This was always my dream, since I was a child, but before Hideo Nomo, nobody had the idea that anyone from Asia could play in the major leagues” said Taiwan native Chin-hui Tsao, who pitched for the Dodgers in 2007. “Since I saw Nomo do well here, I began to think I could have a chance to play here.”

Lasorda’s comments Thursday were colored by an evident affection for Nomo, who came to this country and became the eye of the tornado.

“He was able to pitch a lot longer than he should have. He did it because he had a big heart. He had a lot of determination. He had a lot of will to play the game of baseball,” Lasorda said.

“If Nomo was standing here right now,” Lasorda continued, “I would say ‘Thank you Hideo, for all that you’ve done for me and the Dodgers.’ I would say ‘thank you for the way you pitched your heart out every time you walked out on that mound.’ I want to commend him for having a tremendous career here in the United States. I would say to him, ‘I hope one day, you make the Hall of Fame.’”