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
Hideo Kanaya Hideo Kanaya Kanaya began his Grand Prix career in 1967 and won his first Grand Prix at the 1972 250cc German Grand Prix. In 1972, Kanaya and Jarno Saarinen raced the first four-cylinder, two-stroke Yamaha TZ 500 in the 500cc world championship. After Saarinen's death in the 250cc race at the Italian Grand Prix at Monza, the TZ 500 project was put aside and Kanaya raced only in the 250cc class. Kanaya's best season was in 1975, when he finished third in the 500cc world championship behind his Yamaha team-mate, Giacomo Agostini and MV Agusta's Phil Read. He also won