The Bronx Cheers Irabu

The baseball globe got a little smaller Thursday night as Irabumania hit the Big Apple like Nomomania once hit Los Angeles.

In the off-Broadway theater that is Yankee Stadium, a standing ovation from a crowd of 51,901 brought Hideki Irabu out of the New York Yankee dugout for a cap-waving curtain call after the 28-year-old right-hander demonstrated how he came to be known as the Nolan Ryan of Japan.

Returning dividends on the Yankees’ $12.8-million investment, Irabu struck out nine Detroit Tigers in 6 2/3 innings of New York’s 10-3 victory, the most strikeouts in a major league debut since Tim Wakefield struck out 10 for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1992.

Irabu got the first two outs in the seventh, at which point Manager Joe Torre purposely took him out so that he could leave to the thunder of a crowd that was on its feet each time he got two strikes on a hitter.

He scattered five hits, walked four on a night that his adrenaline kept pace with a 97-mph fastball, and may not have noticed that a group of countrymen in the third deck responded to each strikeout by hanging the Japanse equivalent of a K from the facade.

Yankee owner George Steinbrenner, he of the quick-trigger reaction, had preached patience before Irabu’s first pitch, saying no Yankee in 25 years has faced the pressure Irabu would in his debut, that “he’s not from another planet, he’s only human.”

Steinbrenner was back in form when it was over, however.

“He could make us as good as any staff in the league,” the Boss said of Irabu. “He could make us another Atlanta.”

Andy Pettitte, David Cone, David Wells and Doc Gooden have to hold up their end of it now.

“If he can crank up a big game in these circumstances, nothing should bother him,” Torre said of Irabu. “You couldn’t help but be impressed with his poise and stuff. He came up big time for me.”

The circumstances included an estimated 35 million watching in early morning in Japan, or as Yankee catcher Joe Girardi said, “pancakes and Irabu for breakfast.”

Girardi was with the Colorado Rockies in Hideo Nomo’s first year with the Dodgers. Asked to compare the two pitchers, he said Irabu “throws harder and mixes in four pitches. Nomo was mostly fastball and split [finger]. Both are very deceptive, but Irabu throws the hardest split I’ve ever seen and changes speed with his fastball . . . 94, 97, 91. That makes it very tough on a hitter.”

Said Detroit Manager Buddy Bell: “I don’t think we swung the bats real good, but I give him most of the credit. I was probably more impressed with his poise than anything, but I was also impressed with his split and his command on the fastball. It’s always difficult facing a guy you haven’t seen before, but I can’t say it will be any easier the next time.”

Irabu retired the first six hitters he faced, striking out four. He gave up solo runs in the third and fifth innings, but showed his tenacity each time, striking out Travis Fryman with two on and two out in the third and then getting Bob Hamelin on an infield tap with two out and the bases loaded in the fifth.

“I talked to him before the game and reminded him that it’s baseball, just go out and have fun,” Torre said.

Irabu, speaking through an interpreter, said he tried to remember that, but “when I first went to the mound I had a flashback on all the ordeal of the last six months [ultimately traded by the San Diego Padres to the team he wanted to be with] and I had to tell myself, ‘you’re here now, you’re part of the team, you have a job to do.’ ”

He said it was hard not to be nervous but that it was an even greater experience than he had anticipated--his first experience with a crowd of that size.

“I was very moved,” Irabu said, “and I had to ask myself how I could accommodate [the crowd] and live up to its expectations.”

He seemed to find a way on a night when the Yankees served sushi in the media dining room and the Bronx Zoo was just that.

Amid the pregame zaniness, Steinbrenner first allowed only a Yankee beat writer (and a columnist from each of those eight papers) into his team’s clubhouse and then kicked them out, barring access to all.

Baseball rules say that clubhouses are to be open to accredited media three hours before a game, but citing the limited dimensions and the 300 journalists lured to Irabu’s debut he told protesting reporters that he didn’t care what the rules said, called acting Commissioner Bud Selig for support and then took over the job of clubhouse bouncer and doorman, as American League President Gene Budig stood behind him, nodding in agreement like a bobble head doll.

Angry reporters were then directed to the pregame interview room, where, in one of those scenes that only happen here, Steinbrenner permitted two of his dissatisfied players to appear and repeat their desire to be traded as the Yankee owner stood near the rear.

Said Wade Boggs, who has conceded the third-base job to Charlie Hayes and has been given permission to have his agent pursue a trade, possibly to Texas for Dean Palmer:

“It’s like Johnny Cochran said, ‘If it don’t fit, you got to get rid.’ ”

Then second baseman Mariano Duncan, who was drummed out of the lineup by a Steinbrenner edict to Torre, said: “Please, please let me go. If you’re a piece of garbage, you’ve got to let the piece of garbage go. I want to be out of here so bad I’ll do anything.”

Duncan thought he was gone, traded with Kenny Rogers before the All-Star break to San Diego for Greg Vaughn, but Vaughn failed a physical, and there was Duncan back in Yankee Stadium pleading to be traded and there was Rogers back in the New York bullpen, probably having lost all chance to start if Irabu’s performance proves indicative.

Who would have thought that the Nolan Ryan of Japan would restore a measure of sanity in his major league and zoo debut?

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Sudden Impact

A look at Hideki Irabu’s debut:

Innings: 6 2/3

Hits: 5

Earned runs: 2

Walks: 4

Strikeouts: 9

Pitches: 98

Strikes: 61

Balls: 37

Record: 1-0