THE ORIENT EXPRESS

By Steve Wulf

As the world champion New York Yankees left the diamond at Yankee Stadium following their 10-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers last Thursday night, manager Joe Torre caught the attention of the rookie righthander walking beside him. Torre, with a slight tip of his cap, indicated to the pitcher the proper way of acknowledging the cheers. So it was that Hideki Irabu, who didn't miss a sign all night, took off his cap one more time, held it aloft and waved to the crowd.

Baseball, in turn, has to take its hat off to him. Irabu had been the subject of speculation, resentment, ridicule and gigahype since declaring his intention of pitching for the Yankees, and the Yankees only, last February. After antagonizing baseball officials and teams on both sides of the Pacific--"Headache-y," he was called--Irabu signed a four-year, $12.8 million contract with the world champs this spring. Last week he paid immediate dividends by attracting a near sellout crowd of 51,901 and turning them all into Irabu-sters as he struck out nine Tigers and allowed five hits and two runs in 6 2/3 innings in a remarkably poised major league debut. When Torre took him out of the game in the seventh, Irabu was given a standing ovation and then was called out of the dugout for an encore. Through interpreter Kota Ishijima, the beefy 26-year-old said later, "I would not sell what I felt tonight for anything."

What the 300 members of the media attending the game felt was conflict. The Japanese press corps, some 100 strong, was torn between their dislike for Irabu, who has called them "a swarm of locusts," and their desire that he prove the worth of Japanese baseball. The American media wanted a good show, but they also didn't want to see the insufferable George Steinbrenner have the last laugh. The hours before the game were filled with several angry confrontations between sportswriters and Yankee officials, who kept the clubhouse closed at Steinbrenner's command. The owner, not choosing his words carefully enough, said, "I'm just trying to give the players a little asylum down there."

In the asylum, Irabu was welcomed by his new teammates. "Hey, what's up, man?" third baseman Charlie Hayes said upon meeting Irabu. "He's a big old boy," said Cecil Fielder, the Yankees' gargantuan slugger. Indeed, Irabu is 6 ft. 3 in. and 240 lbs., wears a size 52 jacket and pants with a 40-in. waist. In his monthlong tour of the minors, where he made six starts, Irabu impressed his Yankee escorts with his fastball (high 90s), fork ball (high 80s) and fork. "He ate everything," said Arthur Richman, the 72-year-old club executive who accompanied Irabu at his stops in Florida, Connecticut, upstate New York and Ohio. "Steaks. Italian. Chinese. Yesterday I took him to the Second Avenue Deli, and he gulped down matzoh-ball soup and a turkey sandwich."

Irabu's appetite is in the best Ruthian tradition. He differs from Yankees past and present, however, in his physiological beliefs. Irabu, who has his own trainer, tapes tiny magnets to various pressure points on his throwing arm and body; they supposedly improve his circulation in the same way that acupuncture does.

Irabu's first pitch--a fastball to Brian Hunter on the outside corner for a strike--was cheered loudly by the fans and inwardly by the catcher, Joe Girardi. "I was as nervous as he was," says Girardi. "But after that first pitch, which was right where I wanted it, I knew we'd be O.K." Irabu was perfect the first two innings, striking out four. He ran into trouble in the third, giving up a run, and again in the fifth, when he gave up another run and walked two batters to load the bases. That necessitated a conference on the mound that had shortstop Derek Jeter laughing. "Everybody was trying to tell him something," Jeter said. Irabu somehow got the message--and the next batter to ground out. He breezed through the sixth and had two outs with nobody on in the seventh when Torre brought in a reliever so that Irabu could walk off to a standing O.

In the meantime, fans in Tokyo interrupted their morning commute to catch the games on two huge, open-air screens. While the Japanese don't feel as warmly toward Irabu as they do toward Hideo Nomo, whose quest to pitch in the majors was both earlier and purer, they are nonetheless proud. The headline in Asahi Shimbun--NEW YORK DRUNK ON IRABU'S FIRST VICTORY--was confirmed by the New York Post--BANZAI! Still, nobody expressed Irabu's debut better than his catcher. An hour after the game, Girardi sat at his locker and said, "To come to a new country, to make adjustments to your pitching motion, to communicate without knowing the language, to stay focused in a circus atmosphere...to do all that takes not only tremendous intelligence but also tremendous heart. He's a good man."

--With reporting by Satsuki Oba/Tokyo

With reporting by Satsuki Oba/Tokyo