Hideo Nomo to active status. This led to him heading to the U.S., where in February 1995, the Los Angeles Dodgers signed him. Nomo made his U.S. pro baseball debut with the Bakersfield Blaze on April 27, 1995, against the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes. Placed on a 90-pitch limit, and throwing mainly fastballs, Nomo pitched 5⅓ innings, taking the 2–1 loss against the Quakes. On May 2, after a month in the minors necessitated by a player's strike, he became the first Japanese-born Major Leaguer to appear in a major league game since Masanori Murakami in . He was also the first Japanese-born
Hideo Ohba aikido, his 6th dan in judo was awarded in 1950. During the 60's Hideo Ohba lead the effort for the creation of many of the koryu (old school) no kata forms from dai-ichi (first) to dai-roku (sixth) in order to work on techniques for demonstrations and other purposes (i.e. preservation, self-defense) other than randori. After his initial organization he presented his work to Kenji Tomiki who gave advice and corrections which was added to the kata. In 1978 he was awarded 9th dan by the Japan Aikido Association. He was also considered adept at kendo, naginata and iai. In February