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
Australia women's national baseball team Australia women's national baseball team The Australian women's national baseball team, nicknamed the Emeralds, represents Australia in international women's baseball tournaments and competitions. The team is controlled by the Australian Baseball Federation, which is represented in the Baseball Confederation of Oceania (BCO). They are the only team in Oceania to be formally ranked by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), and are the 3rd ranked women's baseball team in the world. The Emeralds have been in existence since 2001, when the first ever squad was selected from the 2001 National Women’s Championships, held in Sydney. They compete in the biennial IBAF