Almost as wondrous as the windup of Hideo Nomo has been his follow-through. Major league teams, eager for their own version of the Los Angeles Dodgers' "Tornado," are importing Japanese pitchers as never before imagined, and they are lighting up radar guns, enlivening batting-cage conversations and making names for themselves this spring. Shigetoshi Hasegawa, nicknamed "Shaggy" by his Anaheim Angel teammates, keeps 75 members of the Japanese media busy while charming American reporters with the revelation that he learned English by watching Field of Dreams--12 times. New York Yankee Katsuhiro Maeda has amused observers with both his sense of tradition--he bowed...
To continue reading:
or
Log-In
