Reports of Nomo's demise greatly exaggerated

By pitching a no-hitter for his new team, the Boston Red Sox, Hideo Nomo became only the fourth man in American baseball history to achieve that milestone in both the American and National leagues. What makes Nomo's career noteworthy is that after playing for Los Angeles, the New York Mets, Milwaukee and Detroit since 1995, he'd been all but given up for dead, until the Red Sox picked him up on waivers. Now it looks as if the 32-year-old is still alive and kicking.
Record books: A no-hitter is always one for the record books, but Nomo's name will be recorded as the first -- and as yet, only -- pitcher to keep the Colorado Rockies scoreless in their own hit-friendly Coors Field and the Baltimore Orioles scoreless in Camden Yards.
And pitching those nine point-free innings in each league puts his name alongside the legendary Cy Young, Jim Bunning and Nolan Ryan.
If Nomo can keep up the good work -- his was the first Red Sox no-hitter since 1965 -- he might help fans still mourning the loss of Roger Clemens five years ago get back into the game.
Japanese ballplayer: Nomo came to American baseball from Japan, having played on his nation's silver medal-winning Olympic team and on a Tokyo professional team.
Now if only Nomo could learn enough English to talk to his teammates without a translator. To be sure, after the no-hit game in Baltimore, Boston catcher Jason Varitek said "Our fingers did the talking. His pitches did the talking." And his pitches weren't just yelling, they were screaming.
But after six years in the United States, it would be a nice gesture to the fans if he would speak the English language as well as the language of baseball.