BASEBALL AT THE BREAK : Nomo Offers Services With Shot in Arm : All-Star game: Dodger is first NL rookie pitcher to start since Valenzuela. Seattle’s Randy Johnson gets call for AL.

Fernando Valenzuela, Hideo Nomo--these international rookie phenomena come along only about once every 15 years, so you have to take advantage of them.

That’s what Montreal Manager Felipe Alou and, to a degree, baseball hope to do tonight when Nomo, the prize Dodger rookie, starts for the National League in the 66th All-Star game here at The Ballpark.

With no commissioner or collective bargaining agreement in sight, attendance sagging about 20% behind 1994 and much of America still nursing its strike-induced wounds, what better way to give baseball a shot in the arm than to hand the ball in its showcase midseason event to Nomo, one of the few good things the national past-its-time does have going for it?

Nomo, who is 6-1 with a 1.99 earned-run average and a league-leading 119 strikeouts, will be the first rookie pitcher to start an All-Star game since Dodger left-hander Valenzuela in 1981.

What’s more, Nomo, the Japanese right-hander with the nasty forkball, will be matched against Seattle Mariner ace Randy Johnson, the left-hander with baseball’s nastiest fastball and slider, who will start for the American League in the first network-televised baseball game of the season.

“You’ve got a new ballpark, Randy starting for us, that other guy from across the ocean--what’s his name?--starting for them,” Angel pitcher Chuck Finley said. “Plus you’ve got all these home run hitters in a ballpark built for power hitters. . . .

“The timing is right. We have a bunch of division races tightening up, so this could be good for the game. We’ll just have to wait and see how the Nielsen ratings turn out.”

Right-hander Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves, who is 8-1 with a 1.64 ERA and started the 1994 All-Star game, was probably more deserving of the National League start tonight.

But when Maddux suffered a slight groin injury and said last week that he would gladly step aside for Nomo, Alou, the National League manager, said he knew he had his guy.

“I think this could be a very special All-Star game for everybody,” said Alou, a native of the Dominican Republic. “You have a pitcher from the Far East, the first All-Star manager from a Latin-American country--I think it’s great for the game to have so many representatives from so many countries.

“But everybody is waiting for Nomo. This is one of the best things baseball can have right now.”

The fascination with Nomo, which has gripped Los Angeles for weeks, took its usual form during Monday’s all-star festivities, with a pack of reporters, many of them from Japan, shadowing him.

Nomo appeared at a morning news conference with both all-star managers and several other players, and his solo afternoon conference drew such a media horde that it would have been difficult to squeeze another reporter in.

But Nomo handled all the attention with his usual aplomb. Asked if he felt any undue pressure being the focal point of this game, he simply replied, “No.”

Nomo seemed more impressed by his counterpart, the 6-foot-10 Johnson, who is pitching in his fourth All-Star game, his first as a starter.

“I saw him pitch in the American-Japan series [in 1990],” Nomo said. “I don’t even want to think about facing him at the plate.”

Johnson could easily be the centerpiece of this game. The former USC standout, whose 1993 strikeout of former Philadelphia Phillie John Kruk was one of the most one-sided moments in recent All-Star history, is 9-1 with a 2.88 ERA and leads the major leagues with 152 strikeouts.

He is one of the game’s most feared pitchers (“He throws 100 m.p.h.,” said Jim Edmonds, one of four Angels on the AL team. “I’d rather deal with Nomo than him.”) but Johnson will gladly share the spotlight.

“This is a great opportunity for the media to build the game back up for the fans,” Johnson said. “Randy Johnson against Nomo. I think that will bring fans some excitement, some anticipation. It should be a lot of fun.”

What about facing Nomo, will that be much fun? American League batters have seen his windup on television, how Nomo brings both arms over his head and keeps them there longer than a guy reaching back in a power yawn, coils his body so that his back is to the batter, then throws.

The problem for hitters is that the release on Nomo’s fastball and forkball are virtually the same, so they’re not sure if the ball is going to zip by their chests or dive into the dirt.

“I’m looking forward to facing him,” said Minnesota’s Kirby Puckett, who will start in right field. “I’m a hacker. I don’t have a strike zone. I swing at balls over my head and in the dirt and I still get hits. It’s been that way for 13 years.

“I’m gonna swing, and if he happens to throw the ball when I’m swinging, we’ll have some action. You have to keep it simple.”

Puckett cautioned a group of reporters about turning the All-Star game into a Nomofest, even though he requested six Nomo-autographed balls for charity events.

“There’s some good hitters in this park,” he said. “We’re not getting enough credit.”

Although three of the game’s top sluggers--Oakland’s Mark McGwire, San Francisco’s Matt Williams and Seattle’s Ken Griffey Jr.--are unable to play because of injuries, tonight’s game will still feature a power parade.

Cincinnati outfielder Ron Gant has 20 homers and 54 RBIs, San Francisco outfielder Barry Bonds has 16 homers and 53 RBIs and Chicago White Sox first baseman Frank Thomas has 21 homers and 53 RBIs. And those are only the starters.

Among the reserves are Boston first baseman Mo Vaughn, with 24 homers and 64 RBIs; Cleveland outfielder Manny Ramirez, with 18 homers and 52 RBIs; and Seattle first baseman Tino Martinez, who has 18 homers and 58 RBIs.

But, sorry Kirby, many think Nomo transcends any of the All-Star game’s traditional trimmings.

“It’s quite a story,” said Jim Palmer, the former Baltimore Oriole pitcher and Hall of Famer who is now an Oriole broadcaster. “I think baseball would eventually like to have the world-wide recognition of soccer. . . .

“And Nomo opens the highway for players who are successful in Japan to come here and be successful. Traffic has always gone the other way--plenty of players from the U.S. have gone to Japan--but now that’s a two-way street.”