Hideo Nomo Paved The Way For A Generation Of Damn Good Japanese Ballplayers

According to JAWS, Nomo barely ranks among the top 500 starting pitchers in MLB history, and Hall of Fame voters signaled their agreement when they let him drop off the ballot after just one appearance, with only 1.1 percent of ballots carrying his name. But that sells short the enormous impact Nomo has had on baseball, which continues to this day. Not only was he one of the game’s most electrifying and imitated pitchers during his heyday, but he opened the door for other Japanese players to arrive in the U.S. and play for MLB teams. The modern posting system — which has been the pathway to America for Japanese stars such as Ichiro Suzuki, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, Masahiro Tanaka and, yes, the great Shohei Ohtani — was instituted in large part as a reaction to Nomo finding that loophole back in 1995.

As Dave Wallace, Nomo’s pitching coach with the Dodgers, put it: “He was the first one. He had everything to lose and nothing to gain. He set the table for a lot of other guys, who are now reaping the benefits.”

And while Murakami was Japan’s first MLB player,2 Nomo was its first MLB superstar. Nomomania was real, and it captured baseball fans’ attention in the summer of 1995 every bit as much as Ohtani’s exploits have enthralled us this year. So now, 26 years later, with all eyes in the sports world on Nomo’s home country, it’s time to remember just how damn good Nomo was as both a player and a baseball icon.