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
Croatia national baseball team Croatia national baseball team The Croatia national baseball team is the national baseball team of Croatia. As of the beginning of 2013 in the IBAF World Rankings, they were the 7th best team in Europe and the 31st men's baseball team overall. The team is controlled by the Croatian Baseball Association, which is represented in the Confederation of European Baseball. Croatia hosted one of the four pools during the first stage of play in the 2009 Baseball World Cup. The Official IBAF 2014 End-of-the-Year World Rankings put Croatia 43rd in the world. Croatia joined the Confederation of European Baseball in