Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes times. Bryant also struck out countless times, and holds the top four spots on the single-season strikeout records in Nippon Professional Baseball. Pitcher Hideo Nomo starred for the Buffaloes from 1990–1994 before he exercised a loophole in his contract and "retired," allowing him to sign with MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers. The subsequent wave of players moving to Major League Baseball has become a fixture of Japanese professional baseball. Tuffy Rhodes played for the Buffaoes for eight seasons from 1996–2003, hitting 288 home runs over that span. In the season, he hit his 55th homer to tie Sadaharu Oh's Japanese League
Hideo Hashimoto Hideo Hashimoto Hashimoto is an Osaka City University graduate and he played for Gamba's junior youth team and youth team before signing for them as a professional player. He started to break into the first team in 2002 and established himself as a mainstay in Gamba's midfield in 2005, contributing to the club winning the J. League Championship that year. His first cap as a full international came when he substituted Keita Suzuki on 1 June 2007 in a friendly against Montenegro. He was a member of the Japan team for 2007 AFC Asian Cup and played one game as