BASEBALL PLUS : LONG SHADOW : Playing for Milwaukee, Nomo Still National Hero in Japan

SAN DIEGO —  Milwaukee’s Hideo Nomo, stoic as ever, stretched his arms high, twisted his torso, then spun toward home plate in his familiar delivery. The pitch blew past San Diego’s Ben Davis for strike three Saturday.

Nomo had squirmed out of a bases-loaded jam.

Three innings later, he was sweating out another bases-loaded situation. This time, the contortion act ended with a third strike whizzing past Quilvio Veras.

This is how Nomo works these days. Sometimes he is the “Tornado,” the nickname he picked up in Japan. Sometimes he is an ill wind.

Every move, though, is still watched with great interest by a nation that keeps him on a pedestal. Even from Milwaukee, Nomo’s influence is such that the shadow can reach east to Williamsport, Pa. On the day he labored in San Diego, a team from Osaka--Nomo’s birthplace--won the Little League World Series.

“I think major league baseball in Japan has become more and more popular,” Nomo said through an interpreter. “I was watching the Osaka team [Saturday] and when they talked to the kids, they all said their favorite player is Cal Ripken or Mark McGwire or Sammy Sosa. When these kids become players, I think they really want to come here and play.”

But it is Nomo, as much as he tries to deny it, who has raised that bar.

This season, his first with Milwaukee, in no way approaches those heady days with the Dodgers, during which he was named NL rookie of the year in 1995. Still, there are many in the diluted major league pitching pool who could envy Nomo’s 11-6 record.

Meanwhile, a nation still watches intently. A dozen members of the Japanese media were in San Diego Saturday, when Nomo started against the Padres. There have been only two other players from Japan who have mattered so much--Masanori Murakami, who was the first Japanese player to make it to the major leagues, and career home run champion Sadaharu Oh.

“People’s attention was reduced after Nomo left the Dodgers,” said Hideo Kizaki, a freelance sports journalist from Japan. “There are only two important major league teams in Japan, the Dodgers and Yankees. But Nomo is still a superstar. He was the pioneer. There are some who say Murakami was the pioneer, but Murakami was a reliever. Nomo is a starter. He has become an icon.”

A legacy he can’t seem to tarnish even if his pitching abilities have declined.

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By the time Nomo faced three batters Saturday, the Padres had a run, a hit, two walks and three stolen bases. When the inning ended, they still had only one run.

In the fourth, the Padres cuffed Nomo around again. They had runners on second and third with no outs. Nomo struck out Davis. After a walk to load the bases, Nomo struck out pitcher Woody Williams and Veras.

At the end of his day, Nomo had pitched five innings, given up seven hits--including Phil Nevin’s two-run homer--and walked five. Not a line pitchers dream about, but he also wound up with his 11th victory.

“I have not changed much as a pitcher,” Nomo said.

The numbers say otherwise. His 4.37 earned-run average is respectable, but jumped nearly a run in the last month.

Still, his 11 victories are only three fewer than Dodger multimillionaire Kevin Brown and are six more than the Angels’ Tim Belcher, who signed a two-year, $10.2-million contract.

Nomo is making $200,000 this season, following a volatile year in which he was traded by the Dodgers, then released by the Mets and Cubs.

By the time the Cubs released him in April--after Nomo had made three minor league starts--many scouts were convinced he no longer had the velocity to pitch in the major leagues.

“I’m not sensitive to what people say about my pitching,” said Nomo, whose fastball hit 89 mph against San Diego. “The Cubs wanted me to pitch three more times in the minor leagues. Even if I did that, I wasn’t sure I was going to be promoted to the major leagues. Milwaukee said I could work with them. I wanted to be in the major leagues.”

It took awhile for even the pitching-desperate Brewers to warm up to Nomo.

“The first time he threw in the bullpen, he wasn’t real good,” Brewer pitching coach Bill Campbell said. “He wasn’t a lot better the second time either. Then he pitched his first game and it was lights out.”

Nomo gave up one run and struck out six in 6 1/3 innings against the San Francisco Giants and won nine of his first 11 decisions. It fueled more interest from home. A Japanese reporter even asked Cub Manager Jim Riggleman if he would like to have Nomo back.

Riggleman forced a laugh and asked if the reporter would like to eat his microphone.

“It has to be difficult when you carry an entire country with you,” Campbell said.

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After Saturday’s game, Nomo held a press conference reminiscent of his Dodger days. A crowd of Japanese reporters huddled around, while TV cameras peeked in.

Nomo never asked to be an icon, but there was no way to avoid it. People in Japan were angry at first when he came to the U.S. before the 1995 season. By the time Nomo was chosen as the starter in the All-Star game that July, he was a national hero.

He went 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA and struck out 236 batters his rookie season. He followed that with 16-11 and 14-12 seasons, striking out more than 200 both years.

“He showed the Japanese people and the professional teams that a player can make the transition, come to the major leagues and be successful,” former Dodger General Manager Fred Claire said. “That did a lot for everybody. Some 11-year-old Little Leaguer in Japan can look at that and say, ‘I can pitch in the major leagues.’ ”

That has already happened. Members of the Osaka Little League team did name major leaguers as their idols. Some named Nomo.

But ask Nomo if he feels responsible, even in part, for those same kids’ emerging interest in major league baseball and he almost cowers.

“A lot of people say a lot things about me,” Nomo said. “I can’t be sensitive to everything they say. I enjoy my fans, but I just try not to listen to everything around me. I just don’t pay attention to those things.”

That was difficult when he was with the Dodgers. Nomo had been a star when pitching for the Kintetsu Buffalos--he led the Japanese leagues in strikeouts four seasons. In two months with the Dodgers, he became a national symbol.

“When I signed with the Dodgers I did feel the pressure, because I didn’t want to represent the country and have people say, ‘Oh, he’s just another player,’ ” Nomo said. “I wanted to maintain the reputation for Japanese players.”

Before Nomo, Murakami was the only Japanese-born player to make it to the major leagues. He won five games and saved nine in two seasons with the Giants. Oh made international news with his “world record” 868 home runs--a record scoffed at by major league baseball.

After Nomo, the door to the Far East was left open. Shigetoshi Hasegawa of the Angels, Hideki Irabu of the Yankees, Masato Yoshii of the Mets and Masao Kida of the Tigers have come from Japan. Chan Ho Park of the Dodgers, Byung-Hyun Kim of the Diamondbacks and Jin Ho Cho of the Red Sox have come from South Korea.

But just try to pin it on Nomo.

“I think baseball is more global now,” Nomo said. “The players are from Korea, the Dominican Republic, from Japan, from all over the world. I’m just one of them. I’m just being treated as one of them.”