The famous Shohei Ohtani is not the first Japanese to arrive with great fanfare at the Los Angeles Dodgers. On February 13, 1995, there was a certain excitement in Florida at the press conference surrounding the signing of pitcher Hideo Nomo.
Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman himself gave a nod to the transition to Nomo during Thursday's press conference in California.
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More than 28 years ago, the Japanese media was particularly intense when Nomo arrived at training camp in Vero Beach. Because times have changed, Nomo received a $2 million signing bonus in addition to his minor league contract. It was a lot of money back then…
The Dodgers and Japan
Speaking of Nomo, nostalgic fans will fondly remember that he was 26 years old when he started with the Dodgers. We also tend to forget about him, but the right-hander quickly became a star in Los Angeles. While the Dodgers' popularity had skyrocketed in Japan, there were also many young baseball players in North America trying to emulate the Japanese's unorthodox movement on the mound.
In his first season in Major League Baseball, Nomo dominated with 236 strikeouts and, most notably, earned National League Rookie of the Year honors, ahead of Atlanta Braves young third baseman Chipper Jones. The craze surrounding Nomo continued the following year when he went a game without a run or a hit at Coors Field, home of the Colorado Rockies. It's a feat not even Ohtani has achieved. Not yet.