Before Nomo: Long before Hideo Nomo, baseball...

Before Nomo: Long before Hideo Nomo, baseball had taken hold in the Southland’s Japanese American community. Players such as Mission Hills resident George Tamura, 71, competed in Japanese leagues. Tamura played for the San Fernando Aces while interned at Manzanar from 1942 to 1946. “I was the baby of the team,” said Tamura, whose older brothers also played. . . . Tamura and other pioneers of Japanese baseball will be honored tonight at Dodger Stadium.

* GO KIDS: Cheered on by Barbara Jones, Woodland Hills kept alive its Little League hopes against Thousand Oaks, 4-3, but struck out in a court battle over player eligibility. B1

* COLLEGE GRANT: Mission College, beset by financial problems, got some good news this week: A $160,000 grant. B3

* VALLEY 200: In the 1800s, Geronimo and Catalina Lopez, above, built Lopez Station, an adobe home that housed the Valley’s first English-speaking school. B3

* LEAVES OF GAS: Local lawmakers try to appease leaf blower haters and their own unpaid staff members, while keeping an eye out for their next political campaigns. Details in the Political Briefing. B5