As every baseball fan knows, the Dodgers have a long history of having had some of the best pitchers to ever play the game – especially after moving to Los Angeles from Brooklyn in 1958. Now this certainly isn’t a knock on the many great Brooklyn Dodgers pitchers such as Don Newcombe, Carl Erskine, Ralph Branca. Preacher Roe, Karl Spooner, Dazzy Vance and Burleigh Grimes (among many others), but the best pitchers in Dodgers history, at least those who made it into the sacred Halls of Cooperstown, wore Los Angeles Dodgers uniforms – guys names Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Don Sutton and non-Hall of Famers like Fernando Valenzuela, Orel Hershiser, Jerry Reuss, Eric Gagné and future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw.

There is another L.A. Dodger pitcher who left his mark on both Dodgers and MLB history – Japanese right-hander Hideo Nomo – who celebrated the 20th anniversary of his signing with the Dodgers on Friday. And while “The Tornado” (as Nomo was nicknamed because of his unconventional windup) may not have received as many accolades as some of these other great Dodgers pitchers, he had an outstanding 12-year MLB career that included the 1995 NL Rookie of the Year title and two career no-hitters. And although Nomo didn’t put up MLB Hall of Fame-caliber numbers, he was inducted into the Japanese Hall of Fame just last year.

But Hideo Nomo has something that none of these other great Dodgers pitchers have – he was blessed to have received a ‘Vin Scully-ism’ from the Hall of Fame broadcaster which, as you might of guessed, had to do with the aforementioned unconventional windup. It also involved the equally unconventional batting stance of 16-year major league infielder Craig Counsell.

“Watching Hideo Nomo pitch to Craig Counsell is like watching two guys hanging from a window sill,” said Scully during a televised Dodgers – Diamondbacks broadcast several years ago.

Leave it to the great Vin Scully to come up with the best description of one of the most unique pitching deliveries and one of the most unique batting stances in MLB history.
(Photo credit – Jed Jacobshon and MLB.com)

If you were blessed to have seen Hideo Nomo pitch and Craig Counsell bat – especially against each other – it was impossible not to have smiled or even laughed out loud when Scully said this because there was simply no better way to describe it; and who better to do it than the best there’s ever been.