Eri Yoshida – Japan’s First Female Professional Baseball Player
Eri Yoshida is a 16-year-old schoolgirl with an underhand/side-armed knuckleball.
She has been selected as the first woman to play alongside men
in Japanese professional baseball.
Eri Yoshida was drafted to a new independent league that is set to start in April.
She is attractive to ball teams for her side-armed knuckler.
Her manager, Yoshihiro Nakata, said it is a marvel.
“I never dreamed of getting drafted,” Yoshida told reporters Monday.
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, 155 centimetres (five feet) tall and weighs 52 kilograms (114 pounds).
She says she “wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.”
Japan once had a female professional baseball federation in the 1950s.
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November 17, 2008
Good for her. People might say this is all a publicity stunt – it might be, but her being a knuckleball pitcher, her chance of success is quite high in my opinion. my thoughts http://jib-sports-culture.blogspot.com/2008/11/16-year-old-girl-drafted-by-pro.html
November 19, 2008
She is HOTTTT!
December 2, 2008
Congratulations to the young lady knuckle baller. I fully expect to see her playing for a United States team in a few years.
December 3, 2008
she’s yummy…