Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 9, 1995 TAG: 9507100050
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Forget Toyota. Have Japan send the U.S. a few more Hideo Nomos. We'll keep sending them Kevin Mitchells. Hey, we'll even throw in a Hensley Meulens or Glenn Davis.
In Japan, the Americans that cross the Pacific to become Ham Fighters or Toyo Carps are called ``gaijins.'' Here, we call Nomo ``savior.'' His kind of Far East dominance on the mound has been seen before at only one place in this country - at Williamsport, Pa., in the Little League World Series.
Nomo arrived just as the O.J. trial was replacing baseball as the national pastime, but what's lost in some of the translation is the emotional notion that Nomo can repair the game.
Maybe he can. As the second straight shortened season reaches the All-Star break, Bud Selig and Donald Fehr still aren't speaking the same language anyway.
Some of Nomo's glamour also can be traced to his location, and this has nothing to do with his release point. He's in Hollywood. He's also from a foreign land, a curiosity, not to mention a good pitcher with a unique delivery, not unlike another Dodger - Fernando Valenzuela - whose only English was on his pitches.
One guy who has seen Nomo's delivery before is Cleveland hitting coach Charlie Manuel. The Roanoke resident played in the Japan leagues from 1976-81. He was the first American to win a Japanese MVP Award. He remembers Japanese pitching being like nothing he'd seen growing up in Buena Vista.
``It's all about motion,'' Manuel said by phone from Cleveland. ``Japanese pitchers, most of them try to distract hitters by hiding the ball and getting the hitter to swing at a motion. I saw a lot of motions like Nomo's when I was over there. One guy, named Murata from the Lotte Orions, his windup looked exactly like Nomo's, but Murata threw harder.
``The reason pitchers here don't use windups like that is that Americans are more mechanics-minded. We're into things that would be less strenuous on the body, what a pitching coach would say is the correct way to make a pitch. A lot of what Nomo does is wrong, if you're talking mechanics.''
Manuel always has said pitching was the strongest part of Japanese baseball. During his years with the Kintetsu Buffaloes - Nomo's former team, too - Manuel said his opinion was that just about every club had two starting pitchers who would fit into a major-league rotation, and that quality in a bullpen stopper or two, too.
``It was nothing to see guys throw 95-98 mph,'' he said. ``If pitching in Japan isn't equal to that in the majors, it's very close.''
There's hope that Nomo's star will shine longer than Valenzuela's, but is it likely? Fernando came to the Dodgers as a teen-ager. Nomo is 26, and he's a strikeout pitcher. One must wonder whether Nomo's pitch counts will shorten his career. He came to the U.S. with 1,204 strikeouts in five seasons in the Japanese Pacific League.
He was no Masanori Murakami, the other Japan native who pitched in the majors as a reliever for San Francisco in 1964-65. Nomo was a superstar. He won the Sawamura Award, equivalent to our Cy Young.
That he's leading the National League in strikeouts isn't baffling, because he's from the Land of the Rising Fastball and Sinking Forkball.
``Endurance is no problem for Nomo, I guarantee you,'' Manuel said. ``He won 27 games last year, and that's in a 130-game season. People talk about whether a guy in the majors should throw 120 pitches [in a game]. Hell, Nomo could throw 240 in nine innings if he had to.
``I do think the hitters can catch up to him, if they make him throw the forkball over the plate, or lay off it. That's easier said than done. If they can make him throw more fastballs, they'll make it tougher for him, because hitters here are better than hitters in Japan.''
Don't think either that there are no mo' Nomos. Manuel said there are plenty of Japanese pitchers who could at least approximate the Dodger rookie's quick success in the bigs.
``Without a doubt, you'll see more teams scouting Japan for pitching now,'' Manuel said. ``It's already started. You have to wonder how many players will come because of the differences in culture. Who knows if the Japan leagues will allow players to leave, and how much major-league teams will have to pay for them?''
The Dodgers paid $2 million for Nomo, and his salary is the minimum of $109,000. With the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, Mitchell is making $4.5 million.
When you're talking trade imbalance, Ernie Broglio for Lou Brock is a minor deal.
by CNB