Japanese Players Making Big Impact on Major League Baseball

When Hideo Nomo pitched a no-hitter for the Red Sox in Baltimore on April 11th, it brought home the message that Japanese players are now center stage in the MLB. Nomo, Ichiro Suzuki and Kazuhiro Sasaki of the Seattle Mariners are only a few of those achieving notable success. Their outstanding play has impressed both American and Japanse fans and created a new relationship among baseball watchers on both sides of the Pacific. Nomo signed with the Boston Red Sox this off-season and has already shown Boston fans the arm that made him an icon in Japan. He first unveiled his now famous "Tornado Pitch" (so called due to his unusual delivery at the plate) in his Los Angeles Dodgers debut in 1995. Since then, he's played for five teams and his Baltimore no-hitter made him the fourth pitcher in history to throw one in both the American and National leagues.

Another Japanese hurler, Tomo Ohka, is in the Red Sox minor league system and is showing promise of returning to the Fenway despite the fact that he never made it to the major leagues in Japan. The appearance of these two players in Boston has brought Japanese students and area residents to the Fenway.

"I would say a majority of Japanese people like to watch Nomo's game instead of someone else pitching. Maybe they want to watch Pedro because he's the best pitcher in the major leagues. But other than that, they probably want to go watch Nomo or Ohka," Jefferey Yamamoto, a Japanese student from Stonehill College.

Emerson College student Miki Miyashita says,"I went to watch the Mariners game at Fenway only because Ichiro and Sasaki were here and I didn't have a chance to go see them in Japan. And also because it's once a year that I'll get to see them."

When Ichiro and Sasaki were in town with the Mariners recently, local Japanese showed their support at Fenway in great numbers holding up "strike outs" signs in Japanese. "Ichiro was in town and he's the first Japanese batter in major league and he's doing very good so I went to watch the game. I didn't like the fact that Mariners won, but we got to see Ichiro and Sasaki so we're happy," Yamamoto said.

Ichiro has already recorded a 23-game hit streak and is currently second in the American League All-Star voting. Sasaki, Seattle's closer, set the major league record for saves in the month of April.

These successes have prompted many Japanese travel agencies, both in the United States and Japan, to offer travel packages for fans interested in watching Japanese players in the States. Seattle, for example, where Ichiro and Sasaki play, is the target destination for many such packages that include round trip airfare, game ticket, hotel, and transportation fee. Prices for such visits to Seattle from Japan range from $1,800 to $2,000.