Chunichi Dragons pitcher Mel Bunch will be out to prove his rookie year in Japan pro baseball last season was no fluke. The right-hander led the Central League with 14 victories, threw a no-hitter early in the year and turned in a superb 2.98 earned run average in helping the Dragons to a strong second-place finish. Now, the Texas native will try to duplicate or better that performance, avoid the sophomore jinx and contribute toward a second Chunichi pennant victory in three years. At 29 years of age, he also hopes to play several more seasons in Japan, where he's found a home after escaping the confinements of a perennial minor-leaguer in North America.

Bunch came to Nagoya, home of the Dragons, after eight years floundering in the farm systems of the Kansas City Royals, Montreal Expos and Seattle Mariners. His big-league time consisted of a grand total of 18 games -- 13 with the Royals in 1995 and five with the M's in '99. "I had been trying to get to Japan for two or three years before I came," he said prior to last Sunday's exhibition game at the Tokyo Dome against the Nippon Ham Fighters. "I was fed up with life as a Triple-A ballplayer and, when Seattle sold my rights to Chunichi, I was real excited about going to Japan."

His smile and friendly, laid-back, happy-go-lucky personality proved an instant attraction in the Dragons' Okinawa camp in February last year. The media affectionately nicknamed him "Bun-chan," and he quickly became a popular icon with sports writers, fans and his teammates.