Out of the Blue--This Time It’s Nomo

For seventeen days, fans of the Southland’s most popular and conservative sports franchise have stewed about the trade of all-star catcher Mike Piazza while wondering, “What’s next?”

On Monday, the Dodgers knocked us flat with next.

It was all-star pitcher Hideo Nomo.

It was this town’s most celebrated Asian American sports figure being fired like a misbehaving peanut vendor.

It was right out of the blue, is what it was.

Although, around here, blue is not what it used to be. The shade has gone from powdery to dark, the texture from placid to chaotic.

Since Fox purchased the franchise from the O’Malley family this spring, a team once the epitome of patience has already cut loose their two most popular players for the same essential reasons: Neither man was committed to playing here, and both were causing a visible distraction with their presence.

Shortly before a news conference Monday in which Nomo was going to demand a trade because of unhappiness with his poor season, Dodger General Manager Fred Claire scooped him by announcing he had been “designated for assignment.”

In laymen’s terms, fired.

During the next 10 days, he will be either traded, claimed by another team on waivers, or, if all else fails, be assigned to the minor leagues. He is not expected to accept that assignment, meaning he will become a free agent and have his $2.8-million contract terminated.

In any case, four years after arriving here from the Japanese Pacific League and causing “Nomomania” by delighting baseball fans everywhere, he has thrown his last forkball for the Dodgers.

“It’s not a move you can go back on,” Claire said.

And Dodger fans have been left, again, to wonder: What next?

For a team celebrating the 10th anniversary of its last playoff win, this is not necessarily a bad thing.

Although events of the past three weeks may have robbed our children of their favorite players, Fox and top baseball lieutenant Claire have made one thing clear. In this new world, nothing is more important than winning. And nobody is bigger than the team.

The theme is, so what if the Dodgers are fast becoming the rollicking, unpredictable New Yankees? Who has won more World Series?

Mike Piazza turns down an $80-million contract offer that would make him baseball’s highest paid player? Complains nightly that he is being treated unfairly? Hints that he will leave the team next fall?

The Dodger make him leave now, acquiring three stars from the Florida Marlins and winning eight of their next 12 games.

Nomo struggles for a second consecutive season, his pride hurt by boos, his security challenged by buddy Piazza’s departure? He wants to back the Dodgers into a corner and makes a grand scene of requesting a trade?

The Dodgers make him leave now, even if it means they will be lucky to obtain an average minor league player for him.

The way Claire figured it, if the Dodgers had done nothing and Nomo simply requested the trade, his value would have dropped anyway. And his clubhouse complaining would have caused a bigger and more prolonged distraction.

It was revealing that the man who brought Nomo to the organization, who once drove him around Vero Beach, Fla., during spring, who promised to take care of him like a father . . . that man was nowhere to be found during Monday’s press conference.

Peter O’Malley, where were you?

This is definitely not his team. But in some unfortunate ways, it still carries the esteemed former president’s mark.

In the final years of the O’Malley regime, as he prepared to sell, pennies were pinched and free-agent talent was ignored. The Dodgers continually faded in the final months of seasons, yet continually refused to improve in the off-seasons.

Amid baseball’s changing economic climate, the family atmosphere that had once served the Dodgers so well betrayed them. Players who were once treated well for doing well began expecting special treatment just for showing up. They became pampered and intractable.

A good example of this was Nomo, who, despite a salary as high as $2.8 million per year, was never in four years required to learn English to better communicate with players and the public.

He underwent elbow surgery here this winter, yet quickly returned to Japan, unwilling to remain in town to rehabilitate like many other players. During the season, he rarely visited the Southland community that embraced him.

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In the end, unlike the gregarious Fernando Valenzuela to whom he was often compared, Nomo was still a virtual stranger.

“It’s true I definitely need a change of scenery, a change of environment,” Nomo said Monday through an interpreter. “I want to go to a team that needs me, needs my pitching.”

The Dodgers, struggling to rise above mediocrity, certainly needed his pitching throughout the last two seasons. But Nomo has failed to deliver.

While it might be poetic to say Nomomania died Monday, it had been on life support for some time.

This season, he was 2-7 with a 5.05 ERA. In the last two seasons, he has gone 16-19 with a 4.55 ERA.

He won the Rookie of the Year award in 1995, become the first Japanese player to appear in an All-Star game, threw a no-hitter the next season. But Monday, at age 29, it appeared his best days were over.

As for the Dodgers, perhaps the craziest days in their Los Angeles history are here. And perhaps none will be more crazy than Monday.

In the morning, Tom Lasorda, former Dodger, hosted a radio show in which callers were second-guessing current manager Bill Russell.

In the early afternoon, Nomo was fired.

About the same time, somebody noticed workers lining the historic and plush Dodger Stadium outfield with a dark dye.

They were painting it green.

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NOMOMANIA OVER

The Dodgers dumped Hideo Nomo, the man who inspired “Nomomania.” C1