16-Year Old Female Japanese Knuckleballer Signs With Team

[BoSox21]

TOKYO - A 16-year-old Japanese girl signed with a regional baseball team Tuesday, becoming the country's first female professional baseball player.

Eri Yoshida, a knuckleball pitcher, will play for the Kobe 9 Cruise in a new independent league starting in April 2009. The team selected her last month along with 31 male players in the league draft.

"I still don't feel like I've really become a pro baseball player, but I want to do my best," Yoshida said at a news conference after signing her contract. "My specialty is the knuckleball, so I really want to be able to get batters out using it effectively."

The Cruise are more like a farm team and a far cry from Japan's mainstream pro teams such as the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. But the five-foot 114-pound Yoshida has broken a barrier in baseball-crazy Japan, where women are normally relegated to amateur, company-sponsored teams or to softball.

Yoshida, who started playing baseball when she was in second grade, said she wants to emulate Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has built a successful major league career as a knuckleballer.

The fledgling Japanese League, which is based in western Japan, is hoping to find enough success to eventually challenge the likes of the long-established Central and Pacific leagues. Those leagues, home to the best Japanese players, have become an increasingly fertile ground for talent headed to the U.S. major leagues.

- Canadian Press

The Sox should get her over here to throw out the first pitch to Dice-K

[BSN07]

I was reading about this a couple weeks ago. I find it hilarious she trys to emulate Wakefield

[Youk Of The Nation]

Originally Posted by bosoxnation07

I was reading about this a couple weeks ago. I find it hilarious she trys to emulate Wakefield

Yeah, a knuckleballer attempting to emulate one of the few knuckleballers who posted a solid career with decent numbers, mostly on a contending team? How silly of her. She should be modeling herself after Charlie Zink.


Incidentally, there was a time a while ago where I would have said something about how I felt about a 16-year old Japanese schoolgirl who plays baseball, but it doesn't feel right now. I just wanted to mention it because it makes me nostalgic...

[DrSoxFan]

Originally Posted by BoSox21

The Sox should get her over here to throw out the first pitch to Dice-K

I'll second that, since it would be awesome.....

[Anuj09]

hmmm i thought Ila Borders was the first woman to play professional ball...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ila_Borders

[Coco's Disciples]

Originally Posted by Anuj09

hmmm i thought Ila Borders was the first woman to play professional ball...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ila_Borders

Yes, but this person is playing in Japan.

[TheKilo]

Publicity stunt

[Anuj09]

my bad i missed the word "country" in the sentence

[DrSoxFan]

Originally Posted by TheKilo

Publicity stunt

If it is, then it's a pretty fucking good one......

[TheKilo]

TOKYO - A 16-year-old Japanese girl signed with a regional baseball team Tuesday, becoming the country's first female professional baseball player.

Eri Yoshida, a knuckleball pitcher, will play for the Kobe 9 Cruise in a new independent league starting in April 2009. The team selected her last month along with 31 male players in the league draft.

[26 to 6]

What's the need to bold that, and why do you insist it's a publicity stunt? I measn, sure to an extent it is but hey it's an upstart Independant Baseball League, it's not like it's NPB and their Minor League system doing this. Any indy baseball league in the world needs to pull a few publicity stunts to gain some notoriety, look at the GBL and how they had Jose Canseco sign on as a knuckleballer/DH with the San Diego Surf-Dawgs, a team that Rickey Henderson also played for. So yeah sure to some extent it very well may be a publicity stunt, but maybe the girl's got some skills. Let her throw a pitch before we shit on her. I think she could be very entertaining.

[YAZMAN]

*Insert "load up the ball" joke here*

[TheKilo]

I'm not saying it's negative or positive.

It is a publicity stunt. That's all.

[BoSox21]

its definitely a publicity stunt

but I think the term "publicity stunt" carries an unfair negative connotation to it

[TheKilo]

lol

point