by Lynette Alice

Created on: March 05, 2010

If you do not yet know the name Eri Yoshida listen up closely - Yoshida is the real deal. Eri Yoshida is an 18 year old native of Japan that spent a little time in the Arizona Winter league learning the art of the knuckleball. Did I fail to mention Eri Yoshida is a woman?  You can almost hear Tom Hanks crying “Girls can’t play baseball!”, but oh yes - they can.

Yoshida is breaking new ground in professional sports. Sure women have played various levels of professional baseball before - primarily the independent leagues, a few have had a look on a minor league tryout, but none has ever been legitimately considered as a true professional prospect. Seriously - this is not a joke and even a few MLB teams are reportedly at least mildly interested in the prospect of making history - and not just for the potential gate receipts.

Getting real for a second, Yoshida did not tear up the winter league. She posted a 6.19 ERA in 19 innings.  Then again she did shut down Team Canada for four innings and nobody has described her as the worst in the league or as a novelty - at least not the people that matter. The grade on Yoshida at this point is that she mostly holds her own against the boys. Her knuckler flutters in around 50mph while her fastball tops out just a hair above 60mph - as high as 63mph on some guns. That isn’t going to blow anyone away, but it doesn’t have to. Knuckleball pitchers are a different breed. They live and die by the most infuriating and possibly un-hittable legal pitch in the game.  As Yoda would say - speed matters not young padawan…deception and location…hmmm…that is the knuckleball. Yoda couldn’t even hit a good knuckleball probably.

The sole fact that Yoshida is a knuckleball pitcher sets her apart from every other woman that has had a look from a professional men’s league. Other women have come in with fastballs that topped out in the low 80’s. Some have had a filthy breaking pitch but no fastball. None have had a knuckleball that impresses a master of the pitch like Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox who worked with Yoshida in Arizona.

The straight dope on Yoshida is that contrary to countless rumors she is not 16 years old.  She was signed to play professionally by a men’s independent league team at 16 however - Kobe Cruise 9.  Initially this was believed to be a publicity stunt, but sending her to Arizona to work with Wakefield was no stunt.

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