Don Nomura NPB was no longer bound to their NPB team outside Japan and was free to sign overseas without violating the working agreement. After the 1994 season Nomura assisted star NPB pitcher Hideo Nomo in testing the loophole. After failing to reach a contract agreement with the Kintetsu Buffaloes, Nomo retired from NPB and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. In 1998 he represented Hideki Irabu, whose contract was sold by the Chiba Lotte Marines to the San Diego Padres. Irabu stated that he would only play for the New York Yankees, and refused to sign with the Padres.
Hideo Shiraki Hideo Shiraki Hideo Shiraki (; born 1 January 1933 in Tokyo; died 31 August 1972) was a Japanese jazz drummer and bandleader, best known for his work in the 1950s and 1960s. Famed earlier on for hard bop, he later explored world music and became a pioneer of fusing traditional music forms with jazz structuring. Shiraki emerged in the new Japanese jazz scene of the 1950s that grew out of the influence of the US occupying forces. He studied percussion at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts and, during this period, played with Masashi Nagao's Blue Coats. In the late