Interviews

1. Nomo Press Conference

2. Nomo's American Debut

3. Japanese Fans

4. Nomo's Risk

5. Baseball Hall of Fame

6. The Nomo Tornado in 1995 (Japanese)

7. How the Dodgers internationalized MLB (Japanese)

Producer at NHK Cosmomedia America, Inc.

Nomo's American Debut

Of course, being on this side of the ocean I only heard from my colleagues back in Japan that some people did think he was a traitor to Japanese baseball, but on the other hand, there were a few people that said “Hey, go for it.” If he can make it, it’d be great for both American and Japanese baseball.

But…I remember that he debuted in San Francisco’s Candlestick Park – no longer Candlestick Park but – the first game he pitched, it was May two-thousand…1995 and there were two-hundred Japanese accredited media. Now, I heard this from Maria, who’s still with the San Francisco Giants, and she said that she declined a couple dozen others. So that was how interested all of Japan was. That game…there was no win, no loss for him. He pitched a few innings, but he was able to strike out a few Giants.

baseball Hideo Nomo Japan United States

Date: December 20, 2013

Location: California, US

Interviewer: Mark Langill

Contributed by: Watase Media Arts Center, Japanese American National Museum

Interviewee Bio

Margaret Narumi, Producer at NHK Cosmomedia America, Inc., in Santa Monica, California, for two decades has produced broadcasts to Japan of Major League Baseball in the United States, featuring Japanese players such as Hideo Nomo, Hideki Matsui and Yu Darvish. Her interview for Discover Nikkei was conducted in both English and Japanese as part of a documentary on Hideo Nomo for the Japanese American National Museum exhibit, Dodgers—Brotherhood of the Game. (September 2014)