Although Nagashima was interested in the Dodger offer, duty to team and country would have to come first. Eight of Japan's best players are now wearing U.S. major league uniforms, including new Seattle Mariners' signee Ichiro Suzuki, perhaps the greatest pure hitter the Japanese game has ever produced. And Japan's national sport seems in danger of becoming a farm system for the American majors. Until this year, only pitchers had ventured abroad, notably Hideo Nomo who took his corkscrew delivery to L.A. in 1995 and won Rookie of the Year honors. Japan is losing all its heroes.
Critics say Japan's hidebound feudal practices have finally caught up with it.
The 12 teams of the Central and Pacific leagues draw more than 22 million fans a year. It' s no wonder some players want to leave. But it's the freedom of the major leagues that is the most attractive thing for Japanese players. A poster boy for a new generation of restless youth fed up with the traditional constraints of group loyalty, Nomo was at first heavily criticized by older fans. But when he started humbling Americans with his wicked forkball, suddenly the country that had spent half a century trying to catch up with the West saw fit to turn him into a national hero.