NOMO HIDEO STAR PITCHER

Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄 Nomo Hideo^?, born August 31, 1968 in Minato-ku, Osaka) is a former right-handed pitcher in Nippon Professional Baseball and Major League Baseball from Japan. He achieved early success in Japan, where he played with theKintetsu Buffaloes from 1990 to 1994. He then exploited a loophole to free himself from his Japanese contract and became the first Japanese-born Japanese major leaguer to permanently relocate to Major League Baseball in the United States. His successful debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995 is often credited with paving the road for the subsequent "wave" of Japanese playersentering Major League Baseball.^[1]

Nomo pitched over the span of 13 seasons in the American major leagues with 8 different teams, before retiring in 2008. He won the Rookie of the Year Award in 1995. He twice led the league in strikeouts and also threw two no-hitters (to date the only Japanese pitcher to throw even one).