Nice article, mkn. I slightly disagree with the premise that Nagashima's popularity eclipsed that of Saduharu Oh. Although I began following Japanese baseball shortly before Nagashima retired, I found Oh's popularity to be completely off the charts. He seemed to be the product spokesman for just about everything. Nagashima became the manager of the Yomiuri Giants, and he did not do well. When he stepped down, I felt that the club was just going through the motions to honor him for his service. There seemed to be no warmth there. This guy Darvish sounds like quite a character. If it were not for the Iranian blood, he would probably have been warned to keep it down a long time ago. As attractive as the possibilities are, I think that MLB will take a wait and see attitude here. As with any young pitcher, you want to make sure that his arm will stay in one piece.
