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
Hiromitsu Kadota Hiromitsu Kadota Kadota won the Nippon Professional Baseball Comeback Player of the Year Award in 1980 with 41 home runs and 84 RBI. He hit 44 home runs at the age of 40 in 1988, also knocking in 125 runs and winning the Pacific League Most Valuable Player Award. That year he was also given the Matsutaro Shoriki Award, for contribution to the development of professional baseball. After playing for the Orix Braves for two seasons, he returned to the Hawks in 1991; he retired after his last game against pitcher Hideo Nomo in 1992. Kadota was inducted into the