Quote:
Originally Posted by packs
I thought of Nomo but I don't think he convinced anyone that Japanese players "belonged". He had an incredible rookie season but he lacked staying power and I remember a lot of people thinking his delivery was a gimmick that served him well only initially.
Not to say he wasn't good. I just think Ichiro was still the defining player from Japan who convinced MLB that Japanese players could not only do well upon arrival, but sustain a very high level of play.
Nomo was certainly the first, but I consider him in the same pool as Daisuke and Yu Darvish. Decent success but not in the same class as Ichiro and Matsui, though of course infinitely better than Irabu, Kei Igawa, Fukudome, etc.
|
I would argue that Nomo's 3 or 4 All-Star caliber years, ROY award, two top 5 Cy Young finishes, setting the record for K's in a player's first three seasons, Leasing each league in K's, and two no hitters definitely made MLB think, yeah we need to keep a closer eye on Japan. Without Nomo (and also the groundbreaking work done to get him to the US which is a fascinating story) the pipeline might not have opened up regardless of the talent. It might still have been thought of as inferior talent OR nobody might've spotted the loophole that led to the formation of the modern posting rules. If Nomo had tanked I won't say we wouldn't have Japanese players in the majors today, but it would've set the movement back a decade or more possibly costing the MLB the next generations of Japanese players like Matsui, Ichiro, and others.
While Nomo wasn't the impact player that Ichiro and Ohtani were/are, he was great enough to start the flow of talent.