Ex-Yankee thrives in LA, and he's still got good stuff
He was an absolute headache to Larry Lucchino, and so frustrated George Steinbrenner that the Yankees owner derided him as a "fat, puss(filled) toad."
Who could have imagined that Hideki Irabu, an expensive bust in the big leagues as a pitcher, would voluntarily return to the United States to become a regular Yankee noodle dandy?
Stop for lunch on the right day at Super Udon, a fast-food noodle shop in suburban Los Angeles, and you just might run into the proprietor, who refused to pitch for Lucchino's Padres, disappointed the Yankees, broke down as a member of the Expos, returned to Japan to pitch for a couple of years, but came back here to live and launch a new venture. In this one, Irabu keeps a decidedly lesser profile, but evidently can stand more heat in the kitchen than he did on the mound.
"He shows up every now and then to make sure it's operating correctly," said Irabu's agent, Don Nomura, who bollixed the deal that Lucchino and the Padres had cut with the Chiba Lotte Marines for Irabu, who decided he would pitch only for the Yankees. "He's a pretty good businessman."
A businessman who started with a pretty good nut: the four-year, $12.8 million contract Steinbrenner gave him in 1997 after Lucchino despaired of making him happy and dealt him to the Bombers.
The Padres had worked out a deal for exclusive negotiating rights to Irabu, the star pitcher of the Chiba Lotte Marines whose fastball had been clocked as high as 99 miles per hour. But the pitcher and his agent had other ideas.
"We felt it was illegal to draw a tunnel from Chiba Lotte to the Padres without permission from the ballplayer," said Nomura, whose intractability wore down Major League Baseball's Executive Council, which wound up placing a freeze on similar transactions.
Irabu struck out nine Tigers in 6 2/3 innings in his Yankees debut. But he warred with the Japanese media, which had been very rough on him during the back-and-forth with the Padres, made little effort to connect with his teammates, was unexpectedly temperamental, and appeared indifferent to staying in shape. Worst of all, his ERA ballooned to 7.09, and he was sent to Triple A.
He won 13 games in '98 but collapsed in September, and it was the following spring, after he failed to cover first base for the second straight game, that Steinbrenner lit into him.
"It wasn't a good experience," manager Joe Torre said of having Irabu. "I think it was just his makeup. You saw flashes of brilliance, and he was a good guy, but he didn't have the same determination."
Irabu eventually was traded to the Expos, who released him in 2001, and pitched in relief for the Texas Rangers before returning to Japan in 2003, where he pitched for Hanshin and led the Central League in ERA. But before he left the Yankees, Nomura said, Steinbrenner apologized to him. "Hideki really liked George, and George really liked him," Nomura said. "George was very sincere about apologizing."
The apology apparently was accepted. For Steinbrenner's birthday, Nomura said, Irabu sent a toy: a stuffed green toad.
