Girls Rock!

Eri Yoshida Photo from "Japan, Hockey, Baseball, ETC"

Eri Yoshida photo by STR/AFP/Getty Images

Filed under “It’s about damn time“:

A 16 year-old knuckleballer, who happens to be female, has been drafted by the Kansai Independent Baseball League thus making her the first woman to play professional baseball in Japan on the the same team as the men.

Eri Yoshida will be playing for the Kobe 9 Cruise.  She’s a right-hander and is one out of 33 players drafted for the new league.

Given her age, there’s bound to be negotiations regarding her being able to play and travel with the team (“Mom! EVERYONE’S going on the road trip!! Why can’t I???”  I hate you!!”) but just her being drafted has some major, historical impact on the game.   Her being 16 will prove to encourage my niece to continue practicing fielding grounders.

According to various sources, Eri said she wants to follow in Tim Wakefield’s footsteps but becoming a professional knuckleballer.

Then again, knowing the press, they told her about Wakefield and she said something like “Yeah, that sounds good!” and now they’re touting her as a fan of his.  🙂

Regardless, this news is pretty damn cool! I look forward to seeing what the kid can do!

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