MLB: Nakamura has no regrets over MLB quest

Chunichi Dragons veteran infielder Norihiro Nakamura has experienced the highs and lows of life in professional baseball.

A former Pacific League home-run king with the Kintetsu Buffaloes, like many top Japanese players Nakamura felt the pull of Major League Baseball. Big Nori turned down a lucrative two-year, 1 billion yen contract offer to test the waters across the pond in 2005, signing a minor-league deal worth a fraction of that with the Los Angeles Dodgers.

It didn't go well.

"I gave it a shot and I'm glad I did," Nakamura said Thursday at Tokyo's Jingu Stadium, prior his team's game against the Yakult Swallows.

After hitting just .128 with no home runs and three RBIs in a month with the big club, Nakamura, a third baseman by trade, would play out the rest of the season in Triple-A with the Las Vegas 51s.

"I really wanted to measure my performance and skills against the best players in the world," Nakamura said. "Unfortunately, I didn't do well when I had my chance and ended up spending most of the season in the minors. There are all sorts of contracts over there and it's extremely competitive securing a spot on an MLB roster. Still, I feel if you have a chance like that you should always go for it."

At the end of the 2005 season, Nakamura was released by the Dodgers and returned home to Japan, joining the Orix Buffaloes, a team created by the merger of the Orix BlueWave and his former club, for the 2006 season.

That also didn't go well.

In '06, Nakamura hit just .232 with a dozen HRs and 45 RBIs in 85 games, a dismal showing for a guy who would routinely smack 30-plus homers and drive in over a hundred runs in his prime. (In 2001, for example, Nakamura cranked out 46 homers and drove in 132 runs while batting .320.)

Heading into the 2007 season, the once-mighty Nakamura was plumbing new depths. At the age of 33, he inked a 4 million yen tryout deal with Chunichi, with no guarantee of making the club. He got a 2 million salary increase when he actually did make the club.

It would turn out to be one of the best signings in Dragons' history.

That season, a rejuvenated Nakamura would hit .293 with 20 home runs in the regular season for Hiromitsu Ochiai's club before cranking it up a notch and hitting .444 in the Japan Series, earning the friendly giant Series MVP honors as the Dragons won it all for the first time since 1954.

"This team gave me a chance and really accepted me last year," said Nakamura. "I had a tryout and I was lucky just to make the club. Because they took a chance on me, I really felt I owed it to them to help win a championship. Being named (Japan Series) MVP was just an added bonus."

This year, Nakamura has continued his solid play. Heading into Thursday's game, he was hitting .313 with eight home runs as the Dragons once again show themselves to be among the class of the Central League.

And not only has his batting average risen this season--the eight-time All-Star and four-time Gold Glove winner also got a hefty pay raise.(IHT/Asahi: May 16,2008)