Eri Yoshida - A 16-year-old Japanese schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball, Eri Yoshida, has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball.
Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new independent league that will launch in April, drawing attention for a side-armed knuckler that her future manager Yoshihiro Nakata said was a marvel.
“I never dreamed of getting drafted,” Yoshida told reporters Monday, a day after she was selected to play for the Kobe 9 Cruise.
“I have only just been picked by the team and have not achieved anything,” she said. “I want to play as a pro eventually in a higher league.”
Yoshida, five feet tall and 114 pounds, says she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.
A female professional baseball federation existed for a few years in the 1950s, but Yoshida will become Japan’s first-ever woman to play alongside professional male players.
And that’s the latest news on Eri Yoshida.
Tags: baseball, eri yoshida, girl knuckleball pitcher, japanese baseball, japanese girl pitcher, knuckleball, knuckleball pitcher
November 30th, 2008 at 2:40 am
A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean pitch has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball. Eri Yohoda was drafted for a new independent league that will launch in April, drawing