Nomura saisei kōjō, the Nomura regeneration factory, was the name for the baseball manager Nomura Katsuya’s skill at reviving players who had struggled elsewhere. The sports magazine Number calls the pitcher Tabata Kazuya its finest product. Tabata came to the Yakult Swallows from Daiei. In his first season under Nomura, he started 25 games and went 12 and 12. In his second, he went 15 and 5.
Nomura later said, as Number reports: Tabata ni kagirazu, puro yakyū senshu wa honno hitokoto no adobaisu de kawaru kēsu ga ōō ni shite aru. This is true not only of Tabata. A professional ballplayer is often changed by a single word of advice. Mostly, Nomura added, it is because the player’s earlier thinking was wrong.