TOKYO (AP) — Seattle Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma's feat of becoming the second Japanese-born pitcher after Hideo Nomo to throw a no-hitter in the U.S. major leagues was splashed on the home pages of sports newspapers and other media websites in his home country, greeting people as they were waking up.
"Iwakuma achieves no-hit, no-run! Second Japanese pitcher after Nomo in '01," the headline of the lead story on the Sports Nippon newspaper website read.
Japanese baseball fans keenly follow their players in the U.S. Major Leagues, and game highlights of their exploits are a staple of sports news broadcasts, and reported in the sports pages of newspapers.