Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award
Some baseball writers have criticized the voting in recent years because several players who played in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) have won the award.  These winners include Hideo Nomo in 1995, Kazuhiro Sasaki in 2000, and Ichiro Suzuki in 2001. The current definition of rookie for the award is based only on Major League playing. Some writers feel that past NPB players are not true rookies because of their past professional playing. This issue came up in 2003 when Hideki Matsui lost the AL award to Ángel Berroa in a close vote. Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star Tribune said he did not think Matsui was a rookie in 2003 because "it would be an insult to the Japanese league to pretend that experience didn't count." The Japan Times had a story in 2007 on calling Daisuke Matsuzaka, Kei Igawa, and Hideki Okajima as rookies, saying "[t]hese guys aren't rookies." Past winners such as Jackie Robinson, Don Newcombe, and Sam Jethroe had professional experience in the Negro Leagues.