CHICAGO -- Rikuu Nishida claimed to have plenty of nerves ahead of his Major League debut with the White Sox on Monday at Rate Field.
Maybe it’s because of the whirlwind 24 hours he’s had since being called up from Triple-A Charlotte.
“I just feel like I just woke up,” Nishida said through interpreter Kenzo Yagi, before recording some career-firsts in the 3-1 White Sox win over the Twins. “Maybe it’s still early in the morning, but I still can’t believe it’s true right now. [There are] a lot of butterflies inside of me. I’m trying to feel it right now as much as possible.”
But if you saw Nishida interacting, conversing and moving around the ballpark, you’d have no idea the built-up tension inside him. Nearly every answer during his 10-minute media scrum was met with laughter from him or Yagi. Former White Sox manager and current broadcaster Ozzie Guillen chatted with Nishida pregame, and the pair shared plenty of hearty laughs.
“I learned through my playing days in high school a lot,” Nishida said. “I know baseball really revolves around how you live your life and how you act accordingly. I try to do that, and that’s how I am today.”
It didn’t take long for his nerves to wash away.
Nishida, a natural second baseman who was starting in right field on Monday, picked up an outfield assist in the second inning when he corralled a single from Alex Jackson and threw a strike to catcher Drew Romo for the inning-ending putout and preserving an early 1-1 tie.
“In season I was playing second most of the time, but as you can see, right field is just behind second base,” Nishida quipped before the game. “So, it’s the same, yeah.”
That personality and love for the game has led him to the Majors, becoming just the fifth Japanese-born player to don the White Sox pinstripes, joining infielder Tadahito Iguchi (2005), right-hander Shingo Takatsu (2004-05), outfielder Kosuke Fukudome (2012) and his teammate, first baseman Munetaka Murakami -- who hit his AL-leading 18th homer in the first inning.
“Right now, I don’t feel like I’m still a Major Leaguer, as in feeling-wise,” Nishida said. “I still am very like in a humble state at the moment. There’s still a long way for me down the road that I still have to keep improving, and I just want to keep improving my baseball skills so that I can keep continuing at this high level as much as possible in this Major League stage.”
The White Sox become the third lineup to feature two Japanese-born position players in the same lineup with Murakami starting at first and Nishida in right field, joining the Mariners (2012) and Phillies (2008). Nishida figures to receive plenty of looks while he’s up here, too.
“He’ll play a lot,” manager Will Venable said. “He’s going to be out there against righties. We’ll take it day by day to see what the matchups look like, and [what] our best group is for that day. But he’ll certainly be in the mix, especially against righties.”
Chicago hopes his skillset -- he hit .347 with a .454 on-base percentage with Charlotte before the callup -- will provide a spark at the bottom of the order. He was hitting ninth in Monday’s matinee and donning No. 51.
That number means a lot to him and many other Japanese baseball players since it was donned by Hall of Famer Ichiro Suzuki. Nishida received a signed bat from Suzuki in Spring Training through former White Sox slugger Jim Thome.
“It’s a very heavy number,” Nishida said. “The number itself speaks a lot. It’s a really big number for me to be honest. I’m still a bit unsure about if I can wear it or not. I’m speechless.”