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Female Side-arm Knuckleballer Drafted in Japan

what will the japanese come up with next?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20081117/sp_wl_afp/lifestylejapansportsbaseball_081117063048

TOKYO (AFP) – A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball 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, 155 centimetres (five feet) tall and weighing 52 kilograms (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.

0 recs  |  Comment 15 comments

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Side armed knuckle ball?

That’s got to have some mean break.

54!

by joof on Nov 17, 2008 7:35 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Now all we need...

is to teach it to Bradford. That would bee ODD looking.

by chancedj on Nov 17, 2008 8:55 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Wow, good for her

I wanna see that pitch.

by joeybw on Nov 17, 2008 9:56 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Oh the lost pride of the men she strikes out.

My high school team faced a girl pitcher for Gibbs once…I’ve never seen a group of guys so damn worried.

by steve-o1285 on Nov 17, 2008 11:26 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

Especially in Japan

There’s still a sizeable misogynist component to Japanese culture.

Lay off the stadium, Iwamura

by Orlando Rays on Nov 20, 2008 10:34 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

I would hit it

like a weak dribbler to 2nd.

I mean the pitch. I would hit the PITCH. When it was THROWN.

by kericr on Nov 17, 2008 11:38 AM EST reply actions   0 recs

I would hit it

like a weak dribbler line drive to 2nd.

I mean the pitch. I would hit the PITCH. When it was THROWN.

I know that's a pisser, baby.

by Blicks on Nov 18, 2008 8:43 AM EST up reply actions   0 recs

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