Japan's nuckleball princess Eri Yoshida, photo by Reuters via Sankei Shinbun
Japan’s 18-year-old knuckleball princess, Eri Yoshida, is participating in instructional Arizona Winter League. And now I read that she is named a starter for the Opening Day game.
Yoshida to Start Friday
The Arizona Winter League (AWL) announced Japanese RHP Eri Yoshida, the 18-year old female knuckleball phenom from Japan, will start on Opening Night for the Yuma Scorpions in their AWL contest against Team Canada. First pitch is set for 6:00 pm at Desert Sun Stadium.
Yoshida was the first Japanese female to play professionally in Japan and her debut for the Kobe 9 Cruise in the Kansai League was attended by over 12,000 fans.
Since arriving in Arizona for the start of the AWL’s 3-day spring training session, Yoshida, listed at 5’1″ and 114 lbs, has been roomed with Tiffany Brooks, a two-time silver medalist in international women’s baseball who is also here to play in the 2010 edition of the AWL. Yoshida threw yesterday in one of the afternoon intra-squad games held at the Ray Kroc Complex and looked impressive with good command and location.
Yoshida’s manager during the AWL will be Mike Marshall, the President and Field Manager of the GBL’s Yuma Scorpions. Marshall played in Japan in the ’90s for the Nippon Ham Fighters and is very excited to have Yoshida on his roster, “Having played in Japan, I am thrilled to be able to return the wonderful hospitality that I have received and help Eri further her dream.”
Brooks will also be making history, becoming the first female from the United States to pitch in the league. Brooks has also been working out in the field at first base and getting tutelage from AWL hitting coordinator Darryl Brinkley.
- By Dan Hawkins, 1/27/2010
Here is a link to press release when she joined the team in Dec 15. She pitched an inning in a intra-squad exhibition game, going 1 Inning, 1 hit, 1 walk, 1 K, and a run scored (un-earned). In her blog, she says “American baseball is more slippery, feels bigger, and distance between seams feels wider, and I need to get used to it.” (but actually, the baseball size should be exactly the same – at least should be in the pro leagues. However players do say those because it uses different material for threads and hide, and the seams in US are said to be higher than in Japan, causing Japanese pitchers to say it feels bigger.) Eri-chan’s story has come across the Pacific a little bit, here is an AP story of her start in Japan, or MLB,.com story about how the “history was made in professional baseball”. More recently, Yahoo’s Big League Stew has written about her coming to AWL. She has even “beaten” the Hroshima Carp in an exhibition inning. Also, there was an interview with her posted on Boston’s WEEI’s Sox Booth blog last year.
I do think it is a long-shot that she makes it in to the pro ball in U.S. I just heard former Brockton Rox coach Justine Siegal speak at a SABR event in Boston last fall. She is a very smart and strong woman, but even she had very tough experience with all-male professional baseball world (good story of her in NCAA Champion magazine, 2009 Fall profile.) It would be interesting what would develop from this Eri and Tiffany Brooks’ story (This Huffington Post story about Brooks is quite interesting), and hope it is not just a publicity stunt. After all, it could be the modern day story of legendary Jackie Mitchell, who struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in 1931
More Photo Links from sankei.jp.msn.com:
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