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
Hideo Fujimoto a run, and 100 innings without allowing an earned run. That year he changed his name to Hideo Nakagami. In 1944, in addition to pitching and managing, Nakagami occasionally played outfield. (He also spent significant time in the outfield in 1948.) Nakagami was a good hitter for someone who primarily played pitcher, hitting .245 with 15 career home runs (including 7 round-trippers in 1950). In 1946, Nakagami led the Japanese Baseball League in earned run average, with a mark of 2.11. Nakagami played for the Chunichi Dragons for one season in 1947, winning 17 games with a 1.83 ERA and