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
Keishi Suzuki strikeouts in eight separate seasons. With 71 career shutouts, he ranks fifth all-time in Japanese professional baseball. Suzuki was also a fairly good hitter for a pitcher, with a lifetime .209 batting average and 13 home runs in the nine seasons he batted before the Pacific League implemented the designated hitter in 1975. After his playing career, he was the manager of the Kintetsu Buffaloes from 1993 to 1995, where he managed Hideo Nomo (although the two men did not get along). He was elected to the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 2002. With 200+ victories, he is also