Career
He was picked in the second round of the 1988 draft and debuted the next year. In June 1997, Taiho was involved in an altercation with Mike DiMuro. The American umpire had arrived in March to show Japanese leagues the Major League Baseball officiating standard.
Taiho disagreed with DiMuro"s strike zone and was ejected.
Taiho pushed DiMuro in protest, and his teammates streamed onto the field Number player was penalized for their actions.
DiMuro, surprised by this show of disrespect, resigned from NPB and returned to the United States. After his retirement from baseball, Taiho worked as a scout and Little League coach.
He also ran Chinese restaurants in Kaizu and Nagoya, where he died of acute myeloid leukemia on 18 January 2015.
