| Title | : | The Book of Nomo |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 198 |
| Publication | : | Published January 25, 2017 |
When Hideo Nomo took the mound for the Los Angeles Dodgers against the San Francisco Giants on May 2, 1995, few fans in North America expected much success from the Japanese pitcher. He quickly proved the doubters wrong, winning six consecutive games to go along with more than 100 strikeouts — and that was in just the first two months of his rookie season.
By the end of his inaugural campaign, Nomo compiled a 16-6 record with an ERA of 2.54, and led the National League with 236 strikeouts. And while he wasn’t the first Japanese-born player to don a big-league uniform (pitcher Masanori Murakami had a brief, experimental stint with the San Francisco Giants in the 1960s), Nomo was his country’s first permanent major-leaguer.
Nomomania was in full swing.
Over the next 12 years, while pitching for eight different teams, Nomo compiled 123 wins and nearly 2,000 strikeouts. In his second season with the Dodgers, he pitched an improbable no-hitter against a lineup of sluggers at Colorado’s Coors Field. Then, five years later, in one of the greatest second acts in baseball history, he twirled another no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox.
Yet, despite his high-profile accomplishments on the mound, Nomo remained a mystery to his teammates, the media, and the fans. Only a handful of confidants ever really knew what made the taciturn hurler tick. Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa, shares his insider’s understanding of the tremendous risks Nomo took for a shot at the big leagues; how he blazed a trail for players like Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Masahiro Tanaka and Yu Darvish who followed him; and why he never, ever looked back.
By the end of his inaugural campaign, Nomo compiled a 16-6 record with an ERA of 2.54, and led the National League with 236 strikeouts. And while he wasn’t the first Japanese-born player to don a big-league uniform (pitcher Masanori Murakami had a brief, experimental stint with the San Francisco Giants in the 1960s), Nomo was his country’s first permanent major-leaguer.
Nomomania was in full swing.
Over the next 12 years, while pitching for eight different teams, Nomo compiled 123 wins and nearly 2,000 strikeouts. In his second season with the Dodgers, he pitched an improbable no-hitter against a lineup of sluggers at Colorado’s Coors Field. Then, five years later, in one of the greatest second acts in baseball history, he twirled another no-hitter for the Boston Red Sox.
Yet, despite his high-profile accomplishments on the mound, Nomo remained a mystery to his teammates, the media, and the fans. Only a handful of confidants ever really knew what made the taciturn hurler tick. Robert Whiting, author of You Gotta Have Wa, shares his insider’s understanding of the tremendous risks Nomo took for a shot at the big leagues; how he blazed a trail for players like Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Masahiro Tanaka and Yu Darvish who followed him; and why he never, ever looked back.
