A SIDEWAYS GLANCE : RISING SUN, RISING BUCKS.

There's a reason why the Dodgers' Mike Piazza and Hideo Nomo were in Japan last week aside from the obvious - playing baseball with a U.S. All-Star team against a team of Japanese Leaguers.

Both have endorsement contracts in the Far East that give them a little extra pocket change, according to Sports Business Daily.

Nomo, of course, is the hot ticket in Japan. He has endorsement deals worth an estimated $10 million annually from four major companies: Toyota autos, Kirin beer, Sumitomo Insurance and long-distance carrier IDC.

Piazza has about $2 million in deals with equipment manufacturer Komatsu and underwear maker Gunze.

Is it any wonder that many of the U.S. players on this exhibition tour took their agents with them?

Pathon's path was a zig-zag

Jerome Pathon had to run a complicated pattern to wind up as a wide receiver at the University of Washington.

From Capetown, South Africa, where he was born, to Vancouver, British Columbia, where he grew up, to Nova Scotia, where he played Canadian college football for one season, to Seattle.

Now that's truly a fly pattern.

``I wanted to come here out of high school, but I didn't have the opportunity,'' he said.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1) No Caption (Hideo Nomo)

(2) No Caption (Mike Piazza)