Hideo Nomo, Japanese-American baseball player
Hideo Nomo (野茂 英雄, Nomo Hideo, born August 31, 1968) is a Japanese retired baseball pitcher who played 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 1990 to 1994. He then exploited a loophole to free himself from his contract, and became the first Japanese major leaguer to permanently relocate to MLB in the United States, debuting with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1995. Although he was not the first Japanese player in American professional baseball, Nomo is often credited with opening the door for Japanese players in MLB, due to his star status.Nomo pitched over a span of 13 seasons in the American major leagues with 8 different teams, before retiring in 2008. In 1995, he won the National League (NL) Rookie of the Year Award and was named an MLB All-Star. He twice led MLB in strikeouts and also threw two no-hitters. He was the only Japanese pitcher in MLB to throw a no-hitter until the Seattle Mariners' Hisashi Iwakuma did so on August 12, 2015, against the Baltimore Orioles.Nomo was well known for his distinctive "tornado" pitching windup and delivery. In 2014, Nomo was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame. He currently resides in Los Angeles, California.
1968Aug, 31
Hideo Nomo
Choose Another Date
Events on 1968
- 30Jan
Tet Offensive
Vietnam War: Tet Offensive launch by forces of the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army against South Vietnam, the United States, and their allies. - 31Jan
Tet Offensive
Vietnam War: Viet Cong guerrillas attack the United States embassy in Saigon, and other attacks, in the early morning hours, later grouped together as the Tet Offensive. - 29Apr
Counterculture of the 1960s
The controversial musical Hair, a product of the hippie counter-culture and sexual revolution of the 1960s, opens at the Biltmore Theatre on Broadway, with some of its songs becoming anthems of the anti-Vietnam War movement. - 14Oct
U.S. Marine Corps
Vietnam War: The United States Department of Defense announces that the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps will send about 24,000 soldiers and Marines back to Vietnam for involuntary second tours of duty in the combat zone there. - 20Oct
Jacqueline Kennedy
Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy marries Greek shipping tycoon Aristotle Onassis.