Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes times. Bryant also struck out countless times, and holds the top four spots on the single-season strikeout records in Nippon Professional Baseball. Pitcher Hideo Nomo starred for the Buffaloes from 1990–1994 before he exercised a loophole in his contract and "retired," allowing him to sign with MLB's Los Angeles Dodgers. The subsequent wave of players moving to Major League Baseball has become a fixture of Japanese professional baseball. Tuffy Rhodes played for the Buffaoes for eight seasons from 1996–2003, hitting 288 home runs over that span. In the season, he hit his 55th homer to tie Sadaharu Oh's Japanese League
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