Hideo Nomo Hideo Nomo Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄/Nomo Hideo, born August 31, 1968 in Minato-ku, Osaka, Japan) is a retired Japanese baseball pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) and Major League Baseball (MLB). He achieved early success in his native country, where he played with the Kintetsu Buffaloes from to . He then exploited a loophole to free himself from his contract, and became the first Japanese major leaguer to permanently relocate to Major League Baseball in the United States, debuting with the Los Angeles Dodgers in . Although he was not the first Japanese person to play baseball professionally in the
Italy national baseball team Italy national baseball team The Italy national baseball team represents Italy in international baseball competition. The Italian national team is as of 2013 ranked 11th in the world. Team Italia competed in the inaugural World Baseball Classic in , though with a much more Americanized roster than the team ordinarily uses in international play. Of the thirty players on Italy's roster, at least 23 were born in the US. A player is eligible to participate on a World Baseball Classic team if: Italy competed in Pool D, which included Venezuela, the Dominican Republic & Australia. All games during round one