Friday, Aug. 1, 2003 | 9:28 a.m.
By Rob Miech
MASAO KIDA FILE
LAS VEGAS SUN
At first, Masao Kida wanted to save the world, with crayons and colored ink, a warship revitalized for space travel and a blank canvas.
In his youth in Tokyo, Kida became entranced -- like millions of Japanese kids -- by Yoshinobu Nishizaki's animated series Space Cruiser Yamato, which became a big hit after its 1974 debut.
When he was 6 and 7, Kida wanted to draw like Nishizaki.
At the time of her construction, the Yamato of the Japanese navy was the heaviest battleship ever made. American forces sank it in April 1945, and the cartoon space cruiser is a converted replica of the battleship.
"They fight to save the earth, from space," said Kida, 34. "The whole deal is that there are a lot of bad guys trying to destroy the earth. The Starship Yamato tries to protect the earth."
Although he occasionally sketches caricatures of 51s teammates, Kida has been much more concerned with painting the corners of home plates, in Japan and the United States, since his professional baseball career began in 1987.
In particular, he's counting on the development of a curveball and changeup to help him return to the majors.
However, after enduring a long rehabilitation from back surgery last season and sustaining additional injuries in a March traffic accident in Florida, Kida said that he is happy enough to have resumed his playing career.
"The really important thing, for me, is being able to pitch again," Kida said via interpreter Ippei Tatsuta, a 24-year-old front-office intern for the 51s.
"Last year was upsetting, not being able to throw. So I'm fortunate to be on the mound again, pitching for a pro team. I can't think of going up to the majors. That's for others to decide. I'm just fortunate and focused to be back on the mound."
Steve and Kiyoko Kondo are proud that Kida is one of their regulars. Hakase, on Paradise Road, is Kida's favorite restaurant in Las Vegas, and he eagerly endorses its sushi and traditional Japanese fare.
When he visits, he shuns attention. Kida is private and quiet.
"Always a gentleman," raved Steve Kondo. "We want him to go and play with the Dodgers. You know, the Yomiuri Giants drafted him No. 1!"
Two years after the Giants drafted him first, in 1987, Kida played his first games in the Japanese League. He was 2-1, with a 4.62 earned-run average, in eight appearances for Yomiuri.
Kida had his best season in 1990, finishing 12-8, with seven saves, a 2.71 ERA and a career-best 182 strikeouts.
After the '97 season, the Giants traded him to Orix. He left the Kobe-based Blue Wave as a free agent, picking the Detroit Tigers (and a two-year, $3-million deal) among five MLB suitors, after the '98 campaign.
Kida, who received some counsel from comedian friend Sanman Akashiya, toured Tiger Stadium and conducted his first formal press conference wearing a kimono of the samurai, a haori (black top) and hakama (formal skirt).
When he signed with the Dodgers in February, he declined to repeat the show.
"Noooo," said Kida, laughing. "Sanman told me not to do it again, that it's not that funny the second time."
Even Wednesday night's horrible outing, in which he allowed 11 Fresno hits in the first two innings at Cashman Field, didn't detract from the joy Kida has felt toeing the rubber the past couple of months.
At spring training in Florida on March 2, he and Teppei Shiokawa, the interpreter for Los Angeles pitchers Kazuhisa Ishii and Hideo Nomo, were hospitalized after their car, being driven by Kida, was struck head-on by a vehicle that had swerved into their lane.
Kida and his passenger had left Orlando and were an hour outside of Vero Beach, on State Road 520, when the accident took place.
Shiokawa was airlifted back to an Orlando hospital, where he had surgery for internal damage. Kida spent two days in a Vero Beach hospital recovering from a broken toe and a bruised spleen and lower back.
He had surgery to correct a herniated disc in his back more than a year earlier, which kept him from pitching in 2002. In '01, he threw only 19 1/3 innings for Orix.
Kida remembers nothing about the accident in Florida.
"It was pretty foggy that day, and we were afraid something might happen, " he said. "But by the time I realized something had happened, I was in the hospital."
He went through extended spring training, and he was finally well enough to show in Las Vegas in early May, a month after the season had started.
Kida pitched well his first three outings, then he got rocked in Salt Lake City and Tucson. He tried throwing through an injured abdominal muscle, but 51s pitching coach Shawn Barton said it wasn't wise to continue.
"It wasn't allowing him to drive off the mound," Barton said.
Kida spent three more weeks in rehab, and he was hit hard only once in his first four appearances back.
Then he settled into a groove with five consecutive quality starts, yielding no more than three earned runs over at least six innings in each, until Wednesday.
"I met him in spring training, and two days later he was in the wreck," Barton said. "I was pretty excited to see what he could do, because I had heard a lot of good things about what he's capable of doing.
"For him to battle through that ... he's been through quite a bit, and he should be proud of where he's at at this time."
Wednesday night, notwithstanding. Half a dozen scouts bird-dogged the game, and the radar guns on Kida topped 90 mph several times.
That his fastball rarely flew faster was a major knock on Kida in Detroit, by Phil Garner, who took over as the Tigers' manager in '00. Plus, his heater was arrow-straight. Furthermore, a split-finger fastball was his only other pitch.
He was 1-0, with a save and a 6.26 ERA, in 49 appearances for the Tigers in '99, and his best stretch was a five-game May span in which he totaled six innings without yielding an earned run.
A year later, when Nomo joined the Tigers, Kida had a 10.13 ERA in two games, earning a demotion to Triple-A Toledo. From there, he was shipped back to Kobe and the Blue Wave.
"Nomo told me, 'If you have a chance to come back, let's do it together, again,' " Kida said. "Since he's come back to the Dodgers (last season), I have a chance to do it with him again. I'm looking forward to that.
"Yes, I want to prove I can still pitch in the major leagues. It's a special thing. There aren't many who are able to do that. It's a big challenge, but I'm really into it."
Outfielders Ichiro Suzuki of Seattle and So Taguchi of St. Louis, both of whom Kida played with at Orix in '98, are friends, but Kida is closest to Nomo.
Once, in a Laurel-and-Hardy-like spoof, Nomo, not exactly fluent in English, served as Kida's interpreter in Detroit, which made both howl
For Kida, rejoining Nomo will mean mastering the curve and changeup. He said he has thrown his curve successfully this season against hitters he has previously faced in the United States.
"They're really surprised," Kida said. "Detroit was a setback, so I wanted to change my style. Also, I'm getting old, so I can't rely on 'splits' and fastballs only.
"I've changed my style a lot from Detroit."
Barton only needs to use 46-year-old Jesse Orosco, whom San Diego recently traded to the New York Yankees, as an example of how long a pitcher's career might last.
"If you can get people out, you're going to have a job," Barton said.
A top official in the Dodgers' farm system said Thursday that Kida will probably be given another serious look by the organization next season. Meanwhile, a group of about eight Japanese media members have recently wanted to know about today and tomorrow.
Not next season.
They've dogged Kida, demanding answers. When will you be pitching in L.A.? When will you be joining Nomo?
"Reporters were following him around, asking questions that didn't have answers," Barton said. "I don't know if he has anything to prove, but he was catching a lot of pressure. I asked him one day if that bothered him.
"He said it didn't."
Saving the world, before your 10th birthday, comes with a lot more pressure.
archive
