On this date in 1995, the Dodgers officially signed Japanese right-hander Hideo Nomo to a minor league contract with a $2 million signing bonus and introduced him at a press conference. Nomo wasn't the first Japanese-born player in history -- that was Masanori Murakami in 1964 -- but he was the first to permanently relocate to MLB.
Nomo, then 26, exploited a loophole in his contract with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes to come over to MLB. Long story short, he retired from Japanese baseball and was then free to sign with any team. Nomo went 8-7 with a 3.63 ERA for Osaka in 1994. He had a career 78-46 record with a 3.15 ERA in parts of five seasons in Japan.
"He has the type of ability that we believe is at a major league level," said then-Dodgers vice president Fred Claire to the Los Angeles Times after signing Nomo. "I think he has the ability to be a starting pitcher this year."
Nomo stepped into the Los Angeles rotation and was brilliant in 1995, going 13-6 with a 2.54 ERA (149 ERA+) in 191 1/3 innings. He led the NL in strikeouts (236) and strikeout rate (11.1 K/9), went to the All-Star Game, beat out Chipper Jones for the NL Rookie of the Year award, and finished fourth in the Cy Young voting.
The 1996 season was more of the same (16-11, 3.19 ERA, 234 K) before Nomo's performance started to slip in 1997 (14-12, 4.25 ERA, 233 K). Nomo pitched in MLB from 1995-2005 before resurfacing in 2008. All told, he went 123-109 with a 4.24 ERA (97 ERA+) and 1,918 strikeouts in 1,976 1/3 innings. In addition to two stints with the Dodgers, Nomo also pitched for the Mets, Brewers, Tigers, Red Sox, (Devil) Rays and Royals.
Here is some very necessary video of Nomo at his peak:
Nomo threw two no-hitters -- including the only no-hitter in Coors Field history -- in his career. At the time of his debut, he was unlike anything baseball fans had ever seen before. He had incredible deception due to his funky tornado-like delivery and missed bats in bulk with his devastating splitter. Nomo was a rock star in the mid 1990s.
Thanks to Nomo, others like Ichiro Suzuki, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Hideki Matsui and Yu Darvish were coveted by major league franchises and given a chance to show what they could do as big league ballplayers. Nomo was a pioneer. He paved the way for his fellow countrymen.
