Baseball Needs More Of Nomo Dodgers Rookie Draws Converts As He Mows Down Opponents

If Hideo Nomo felt like the center of attention when he began pitching in the majors, perhaps it was only a harbinger of things to come.

Does the term “Fernandomania” ring a bell?

With five straight victories, a 2.30 ERA and a National League-leading 96 strikeouts in 74 1/3 innings, the 26-year-old rookie is creating the kind of commotion not seen at Dodger Stadium since Fernando Valenzuela filled it frequently in his magical run of several seasons that began in 1981.

“It’s growing, and it should,” said manager Tom Lasorda, who through Nomo is reliving his memorable first season with Valenzuela. “He’s very good. I’ve been trying to tell people that. This guy’s for real.”

If there was any lingering doubt, Nomo erased it Saturday night with a two-hitter and 13 strikeouts against the San Francisco Giants. The 7-0 victory was the Japanese sensation’s first shutout and complete game.

Dodger Stadium’s third sellout crowd in 25 home dates this season, and the first with Nomo pitching, came without any free offerings. This was a Nomo night before 53,551.

And no promotional gimmick baseball can devise can match the kind of excitement Nomo has created. After five straight no-decisions and a loss, he has a 1.09 ERA in his last five starts.

His 37 strikeouts in the last three outings is the most on the club since Sandy Koufax fanned 38 late in the 1965 season.

The Giants were interested in Nomo during the winter, but were no match for the Dodgers’ bankroll, weather or ballpark ambiance.

“You win some and you lose some,” Giants manager Dusty Baker said. “Certainly, we didn’t have the money to invest on an unseen prospect like the Dodgers did.

“Plus, all we had to see of Nomo was a 12-pitch, 2-minute tape from a year ago, when he was coming off an injury. It’s hard to evaluate somebody like that.”

Nomo, after Masanori Murakami only the second Japanese ever to pitch in the majors, was largely a curiosity at the beginning. But that’s where the similarities end.

Unlike Murakami, a reliever for the Giants in 1964-65, Nomo was a superstar in his native land. He left Japan after five seasons with the Kintetsu Buffaloes with a 78-46 record, a 3.15 ERA and 1,204 strikeouts.

The right-hander with the exaggerated windup and corkscrew delivery has overcome early control problems to become the N.L. strikeout leader. Thirty came in two starts against Pittsburgh and another 20 against the Giants.

“We know the guy came over here as a strikeout pitcher,” Baker said. “When you come over here, I don’t care if you’re from Ethiopia, if you’re a strikeout pitcher, you’re still going to be a strikeout pitcher wherever you go.

“He’s thrown a lot of pitches, so I don’t know how it’s going to affect him in the long run. But the guy is for real.”

Nomo retired 22 straight batters in his rematch with the Giants, who were nearly as befuddled by him in his major league debut May 2. The only hits he allowed Saturday were singles by Darren Lewis, leading off the first and ninth innings.

Nomo hasn’t been able to get his thoughts across to the media through interpreter Michael Okumura, who struggles consistently with the translation. But it isn’t difficult to guess what the expressionless pitcher is feeling every time he ends an inning with a strikeout and sees the third base side of Dodger Stadium rise to greet him with raucous applause as he heads to the dugout.

“They better put him on the All-Star team,” Lasorda said. “If they’re thinking about something great for the game, something to bring the fans to the game… . They’ll come from all over the world to see him.”