Hideo Nomo Marquee

He retired from the Kintetsu Buffaloes at twenty-six, which under the rules of the time made him a free agent in the United States, and signed with Los Angeles. He went 13-6 with a 2.54 earned run average and 236 strikeouts, led the National League in strikeouts, started the All-Star Game and was Rookie of the Year. Nobody from Japan had pitched in the major leagues since Masanori Murakami in 1965.

He threw with a full turn away from the hitter — the tornado — and struck out 1,918 men in twelve seasons, with 123 wins, 109 losses and a 4.24 earned run average. He no-hit Colorado at Coors Field in 1996, which is the least likely place anyone has thrown one, and no-hit Baltimore in 2001 for Boston.

What followed him was the point: Japanese clubs and the American leagues negotiated the posting system in 1998 because of him, and Ichiro Suzuki, Hideki Matsui, Yu Darvish and Shohei Ohtani came through it. The 2014 ballot gave him six votes of 571.