Nomomania Grips L.A. and Japan

It was a prestigious black-tie event honoring Japanese businessman Tachi Kiuchi, chief executive officer of Mitsubishi Electronics.

Everyone who was anyone was invited. There were politicians, dignitaries, movie stars and corporate executives.

But when it was time to sit down for dinner, no one moved.

“There must have been 1,000 people there,” Dodger President Peter O’Malley said. “And we were all huddled in small groups listening to transistor radios. Everyone wanted to hear how Nomo was doing.”

Dodger pitcher Hideo Nomo has dramatically changed the way folks go about their business these days.

In just a few weeks, he has emerged as a hero in Japan, a celebrity in Los Angeles, and baseball’s greatest public relations coup since Bo Jackson.

“It’s so fantastic, so stunning, so beautiful,” said Yoshimori Hesono of Sports Nippon. “He’s more famous than [former Japanese home run king] Sadaharu Oh.”

Nomo, 26, has sent national pride soaring. When he returns to Japan in the off-season, they’re likely to give him a hero’s welcome he won’t believe.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in my life,” said Don Nomura, Nomo’s agent, who lives in Tokyo. “Whenever he pitches, it’s like everybody stops what they’re doing. He’s become the Michael Jordan of our country.”

Said Hidemi Kittaka of the Kyodo News Service: “You can become the most popular person on your street if you own a satellite TV. If you don’t have one, guys like me just go to the office to see it.

“It’s gotten crazy around here. It’s like the whole country knows everything about the Dodgers now. Everybody talks about Mike Piazza and his power. They don’t like [Jose] Offerman because he keeps making errors in Nomo’s games. And [Ismael] Valdes is quite famous because he’s always in the same pictures with Nomo.

“Men like me are so proud of Nomo, and what he’s doing for our country. And you talk to women now, and they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know Nomo was so cute.’ ”

Nomo, whose wife and 3-year-old son are staying in Osaka, Japan, until next week’s All-Star game in Arlington, Tex., has been briefed about the craziness back home. Kikuko, his wife, can’t venture out of the house without being hounded by photographers. Several Japanese magazines have offered to buy her story.

Nomo, who scolded Japanese reporters in the spring about invading his privacy, frets about the attention. He wants to bring his wife, son and parents to the All-Star game but asked an American reporter if photographers would want to shoot pictures of his family.

“Sometimes, I wish I was just another player,” Nomo said. “My privacy is very limited. At least here, I can go out. They know my name, but they don’t know my face yet. In Japan, they know everything about me. I feel so restricted.”

He has a slew of Japanese reporters awaiting his arrival each day in the clubhouse, and last week, after he pitched his second consecutive shutout, everyone wanted a piece of him--”The CBS Evening News,” “The NBC Nightly News” and ABC’s “Good Morning America.” He has talked to publications ranging from the Wall Street Journal to People magazine.

“I feel bad for him sometimes,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “It’s like he’s in a giant fishbowl and the whole world is watching.”

And to think that only a few months ago, Nomo arrived here with a sore shoulder, out of shape, and was told that he probably would open the season pitching in triple-A at Albuquerque.

Now he will represent the Dodgers in the All-Star game. Nomo, 6-1, who has won six consecutive starts with a 0.89 earned-run average, becomes the first Dodger rookie pitcher to make the All-Star game since Fernando Valenzuela in 1981.

“I don’t think any of us ever expected anything like this,” said Nomura, his agent. “Now, I’ve got my phone ringing off the hook with endorsements, advertisers, people wanting to do movies, write books, everything.”

*

It’s an elegant, aristocratic office high above left field at Dodger Stadium. There are a few autographed balls, a couple of plaques, but it could easily belong to a corporate chief executive officer rather than Peter O’Malley.

Why, there’s only one picture of any Dodger player.

Hideo Nomo.

“Nobody’s more excited about what Nomo has accomplished than me,” O’Malley said. “It’s just incredible. I think our fans want to see someone new, someone fresh. They want to be in on the beginning of someone’s career. They want to enjoy and savor this moment, just like they did with Fernando.

“In my 25 years as club president, Fernandomania was my most exciting period. Well, we’re at the threshold of something here.”

O’Malley is responsible for Nomo being a Dodger. He eagerly waited for major league baseball to give permission for U.S. teams to negotiate with Nomo after the pitcher had declared free agency in Japan.

The Dodgers telephoned Nomura the day permission was given. They wanted Nomo to visit the Dodgers first, but instead he visited the Seattle Mariners and San Francisco Giants, making Los Angeles the third stop. He also had appointments scheduled with the New York Yankees, Atlanta Braves and Florida Marlins.

The Dodgers had not seen him pitch in person and knew his 1994 season had been shortened by shoulder tendinitis, but they still proposed a signing bonus of about $1 million.

Nomura told the Dodgers it wasn’t enough, that he and Nomo had plane tickets to New York. O’Malley made sure they never boarded. He offered a $2-million signing bonus.

Nomo becoming a Dodger was huge news in Japan, but produced yawns here. Dodger fans would have preferred that Orel Hershiser stay. Nomo might have led the Japanese League in strikeouts for four consecutive years, while winning at least 17 games in a 130-game season, but who knew how he’d fare in the major leagues?

“It’s a high-risk business,” O’Malley said. “None of our scouts saw him for ourselves, but all of the reports on him were good. . . . We were also told he had a nasty forkball. And that word, nasty, was always prefaced before forkball.”

Nomo arrived at spring training as a curiosity. The story line was his bid to become the second Japanese player in the major leagues, 30 years after Giants’ relief pitcher Masanori Murakami.

But Nomo’s right shoulder was so weak that he couldn’t pitch off a mound, and he was out of shape. Dodger trainers put him on a stair-climber but that lasted only a minute before Nomo decided he didn’t like it.

“When he first began, he was a little bit leery of what we wanted to do,” said Pat Screnar, the Dodgers’ physical therapist. “But after a short while, he saw the benefits of it. . . . He ended up losing 10 pounds.”

Philadelphia relief pitcher Kyle Abbott was Nomo’s teammate last season with the Kintetsu Buffaloes.

“I remember telling my teammates about him this spring,” he said. “No one really listened. I don’t think anyone cared. But the way he’s pitching now, I’ve got guys coming up and saying, ‘Hey, you really know Nomo? Wow! What’s he really like?’ ”

*

Nomo strolled into the Dodger clubhouse last Saturday afternoon and was greeted by pitching coach Dave Wallace, who asked, “Como esta? “

“Muy bien.” Nomo answered.

Nomo, who didn’t speak English when he arrived, now understands what his teammates are saying and answers them in English or Spanish.

“I’m sure we were driving him crazy for a while,” said Dominican pitcher Ramon Martinez. “He comes in here and knows nobody. Somebody talks in English. Somebody talks in Spanish. I’m sure he was wondering what was going on.”

So was it a confusing time?

“A little bit,” said Nomo, answering in English, nodding proudly toward his surprised interpreter.

Actually, there have been few communications problems. Michael Okumura, Nomo’s interpreter, has been with him in the clubhouse, but Nomo has enough confidence to venture alone into restaurants.

“I just point to the menu what I want,” he said.

He has no driver’s license or car, so he hasn’t tackled the freeways, but Los Angeles is beginning to feel a little like home. After the All-Star game, his wife and son will join him in his rented Los Angeles house for the rest of the summer. He’s confident their privacy will stay intact during his stay, although he knows it will end the moment they get back to Japan.

Said Valdes, his closest friend on the team: “He’s famous, and to be famous, you have to pay a price. He knows that.

“I know he’d like to become just another pitcher, but that’s not going to happen here. It’s too late for that.”

Nomo, whose Kintetsu team in Osaka was the Japanese version of the Milwaukee Brewers--a team with a no-name cast--never got much attention. He was a star, particularly in 1990 when he won Japan’s Prime Minister Award, but he never allowed himself to be famous.

He became something of a recluse after the 1990 season, when he became engaged to Kikuko. Wherever they went, photographers waited, and the couple saw their pictures in every tabloid and magazine at the checkout counters.

Nomo also was becoming disenchanted playing for Kintetsu. He had to wait five more years to become a free agent but then asked for a multiyear contract.

When that was rejected, Nomo hired Nomura and declared himself a free agent. Maybe he could only pitch for Kintetsu in Japan, but there was the United States.

His friends and father, Shizuo, thought he was crazy. The general manager of the Kintetsu Buffaloes, Yasuo Maeda, resigned in shame. Even Nomo’s wife wondered if he really knew what he was doing.

“I just wanted to go up against the best,” Nomo said. “That’s all. I always wanted to know how I’d do over here.”

Nomo, who will start Wednesday against the Atlanta Braves, now has no other higher level of competition to test himself against. He leads the National League with 109 strikeouts, including a Dodger franchise-record 50 strikeouts in his last four starts. Against him, National League batters are hitting only .165, and his 2.05 earned-run average is second only to that of three-time Cy Young winner Greg Maddux of Atlanta.

“This is a dream for me, one I thought was unreachable,” Nomo said. “Now, to go to the All-Star game, I can’t even imagine the feeling. I can’t even express it in words.

“It’ll be the biggest game of my life. I will cherish it forever.”