Hideki Irabu, once considered to be one of the best pitchers in the world, is dead, in what has been adjudged to be a suicide in late July.
He led a troubled life, struggling with a mixed-race heritage, growing up not knowing his father, causing controversy by refusing to bow to the conventions of Japanese and American professional baseball and battling with alcohol addiction and other problems in his later years.
But he also had an historic impact on U.S.-Japan baseball relations, particularly in the area of player rights (which, before him, had barely existed in the Japanese game). For this alone, he is worth remembering.