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
Canada national baseball team Canada national baseball team The Canadian national baseball team is the baseball team which represents Canada in international tournaments. They are currently ranked seventh in the world. Their manager is Ernie Whitt, a former Major League Baseball catcher for the Toronto Blue Jays. In June 2005, Major League Baseball announced the formation of the World Baseball Classic (WBC), an international competition to be held in March 2006 for the first time. Canada was one of the sixteen teams invited to play in the inaugural classic. Because the event will be held in March, before the North American baseball season traditionally