Nippon Professional Baseball players like the Lee brothers, Leron Lee and Leon Lee, Greg "Boomer" Wells, Randy Bass, and Ralph Bryant playing key roles on their NPB teams. In 1995, star pitcher Hideo Nomo "retired" from the Kintetsu Buffaloes and signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers. Nomo pitched over the span of 14 seasons in the Major Leagues 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 (the only Japanese pitcher to throw a no-hitter in Major League Baseball until Hisashi Iwakuma achieved the feat in
Shutouts in baseball American and National League starting in 1967. Since the award was established, there have been 25 times (out of a total of 106 awards given since 1956) where the award was given to a pitcher who also led the league in shutouts. Since the establishment of the Rookie of the Year Award in 1947, three pitchers have led the league in shutouts in their rookie year and also captured the Rookie of the Year Award: Don Newcombe (1949), Fernando Valenzuela (1981), and Hideo Nomo (1995). Only 16 pitchers in the history of the American and National League have led the