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
History of baseball outside the United States Hideo Nomo, Kazuhiro Sasaki, Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Kazuo Matsui, Tadahito Iguchi, Kenji Johjima, Daisuke Matsuzaka, Yu Darvish, and Masahiro Tanaka. Japan defeated Korea to become champions of the second World Baseball Classic on March 23, 2009 in Los Angeles. Baseball was introduced in the Philippines shortly after the start of American rule in 1898. In 1954, the Philippines won the first Asian Baseball Championship, its only ever victory. Since the 1960s, it struggled to keep up with Japanese, South Korean, and Taiwanese teams. While the Philippines remained high for an Asian country in the World Baseball Classic rankings, it