This rocks...
Eri Yoshida.
Remember that name.
She might not do anything, but the 16 year old knuckleballer was drafted to pitch for the Kobe 9 Cruise of a new Japanese independent baseball league.
It's historic in that she will be playing professional ball, lining up with the men.
The five-foot, 114 pound pitcher will be the first to take the mound on a (predominantly) men's team since Mamie "Peanut" Johnson pitched for the Indianapolis Clowns in 1955. Johnson played for the Clowns from 1953-55 amassing a 33-8 record, primarily in relief, while batting .273. She missed being a teammate of Hank Aaron's by a whole season. Aaron played for the Clowns in 1951, leaving the Negro League for a minor league contract in the Northern League in 1952.
I mention Yoshida here because of this - according to the AP report, she "says she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield."
Stumble It!
2 comments:
I've always wondered why there couldn't be a female junkballer. Good for her.
I'm with you.
I used to catch the Silver Bullets games back when that team was still together, and some of those women were pretty good. Not major leaguers, but I could definitely have seen a couple of them being successful career minor leaguers.
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