CHICO, California (AP)—Japan’s Eri Yoshida has become the first woman to pitch professionally in the United States in a decade, showing Saturday that she and her sidearm knuckleballs can compete with the men.

 

The “Knuckle Princess� was unfazed when a former major leaguer opened the game by bunting for a hit. She had a few knucklers that danced almost as much as those of her idol, Tim Wakefield(notes) of the Boston Red Sox. She pitched a scoreless first inning in her debut for the Chico Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League, before struggling a bit by allowing four runs in her final two frames.

 

She gave herself a tough grade of 20 out of 100, but the adoring fans who cheered her name throughout her news conference felt differently.

 

“I realize how hard it is to throw a good knuckleball,� she said through an interpreter.

 

She added an RBI single in her first at-bat against David Rivas of the Tijuana Cimarrones, prompting a standing ovation from the near sellout crowd on “Girl Power Night.� Even her teammates got caught up in the excitement, taking pictures of Yoshida standing on first after her bases-loaded single through the hole between first and second.

 

Yoshida is the first woman since Ila Borders in 2000 to play professionally in the United States. The 1.52-meter (5-foot-1), 52-kilogram (115-pound) Yoshida is also the first woman to play professionally in two countries, having pitched last year in an independent league in Japan.

 

After former San Francisco Giants infielder Ivan Ochoa(notes) led off the game by bunting for a single, drawing jeers from the crowd, Yoshida settled down and kept Tijuana off-balance with a sidearm knuckleball.

 

A foul pop behind home plate, then a double play ended the inning. Yoshida hopped off the mound in excitement after the nine-pitch inning and exchanged high-fives with her teammates in the dugout with a huge smile.

 

She got former major leaguer Juan Melo to pop out to open the second inning, then another former major leaguer, Kit Pellow, on a fly out to left before hitting a batter and giving up a two-run homer to Juan Velasquez.

 

She didn’t fare as well her second time through the order as the Tijuana players showed more patience. With two outs and nobody on in the third, she allowed three hits and a walk to her final four hitters. She got out of the inning when Melo was thrown out trying to score from second.

 

“It wasn’t a very good knuckleball tonight,� said Pellow, who played 99 games in the majors with Colorado and Kansas City. “It was doing a lot of tumbling. It really didn’t have the knuckleball effect.�

 

Yoshida allowed five hits, four runs and one walk in three innings, throwing 47 pitches on the night.

 

Spurred by the interest in Yoshida, the Outlaws are streaming all of their home games live on the Internet this season. About 25 media outlets were credentialed for the game and the team drew a much larger crowd than usual for “Girl Power Night.�

 

Mika Kuriyama, from San Leandro in the Bay Area, made the three-hour-plus drive to take her 5-year-old daughter Hannah to the game. Hannah was decked out in a kimono and held a sign for the “Knuckle Princess.�

 

“I admire her,� Kuriyama said of Yoshida. “It takes a lot of guts to come out here and pitch. I really admire her. I wanted my daughter to be able to see that.�

 

Yoshida learned to throw the knuckleball as a young girl by watching Wakefield. She taught herself the pitch and never had any formal coaching for how to throw the knuckler until meeting her idol during spring training in Florida earlier this year. Wakefield gave her a tutorial and was impressed by what he saw.

 

Yoshida became Japan’s first female pro baseball player last year when she pitched for the Kobe Cruise 9 in the Kansai Independent League. She was 0-2 in 11 appearances with a 4.03 ERA in 10 2-3 innings.

 

She then went to the Arizona Winter League this past offseason, where her manager on the Yuma Scorpions was former Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall. She went 1-1 with a 4.79 ERA in Arizona and impressed Marshall enough to get a shot in Chico, where Marshall is the president and general manager of the Outlaws.

 

Marshall said he has no doubt Yoshida has the makeup to handle this historic challenge. He said the biggest factor in determining how far she will be able to take it will be how much stronger she gets in the next few years.

 

“There’s going to be a draft here in a couple weeks and there’s probably only a handful of 18-year-old high school kids who are going to get drafted who could come here and play. Men,� Marshall said. “Look at the rosters. You have Double-A, Triple-A, big-league guys. This isn’t affiliated rookie ball; this isn’t affiliated A-ball. This is way up there. These are 25- to 35-year-old men she’s playing against.�

 

Despite the disparity in age, experience, gender and cultural upbringing, Yoshida is fitting in well with her new team. Manager Garry Templeton, a skeptic when he first saw her pitch this winter, said the players missed her when she didn’t make a season-opening road trip to Mexico.

 

He said Yoshida has been taken to kangaroo court, where she was fined a dollar, like all newcomers to the court. The only special treatment she gets is separate locker room facilities to change in and her own hotel room on the road.

 

“They’re protective of her,� Templeton said. “She blends in well. She’s just a ballplayer. They see her as a ballplayer, not as a girl.�

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slug=ap-femaleknuckleballer

 

Pretty cool stuff as we're that much closer to breaking the gender barrier. I'd love to see that in my lifetime. We're talking ground breaking stuff, possibly even bigger than the color barrier.

I still don't think it is the right way to go. Imagine if you are a pitcher facing a female batter. Chances are you might not give 100% as you would not want to hit the female. Might sound daft but it is sort of built into the male mentality. Slightly similar to on the battlefield where if a woman goes down, a man is more likely to stop and try and help and perhaps cause further casualties to their squad as opposed to carrying on like normal if a fellow male gets hit and goes down.

I doubt that. I would think a man wouldn't want to strike out or make an out against a woman, not the other way around. I've played against females in friendly competitions and I NEVER EVER want to lose to them. It's embarrassing, though it really shouldn't be.

 

Good for her. I agree with Benched. I hope we see more of this.

I meant a male pitcher facing a female batter. As a male, you wouldnt want to hit the woman with the pitch, and as a result might not pitch 100% against them

There's no doubt going to be a different subconscious thought process while facing a women. Whether its a disadvantage or not is yet to be seen.

Wow, I'm not surprised to find some ignorant posts on here...

I hope it's a joke post! There was no funny smiley and sarcasm isn't as easy to pick up on the internet! =]

I'm sorry but when you said Japanese and woman in the same statement all I could think of was

Well this post has gone to the toolshed.

Pitches inside would hit their bewbs.

Male and female locker rooms?

They don't adjust themselves.

Slapping ass would be sexual harassment.

Menstrual cycle based baseball statistics. "Mary is 0-12 and in the midst of her monthly slump."

Mets star shortstop Josephina Reyes is going to the ML (maternity list) for the rest of the season.

"Mary rounds 3rd SHES COMING HOME!" "Collision at the plate OH BOY the ball is dropped shes SAFE SAFE SAFE!" "Mary is dusting herself off from what could only be described as the collision of the decade." "looks like she missed some back their, bob costas." "No, John, she got her period."

Shaving cream in the face after a game would also be sexual harassment.

Calling 2 balls one strike on a female batter would be banned.

Hidden ball trick would have to be renamed.

The amount of Freudian slips announcers make would increase dramatically.

How would bench clearing brawls work?

First couple to play on the same team. Do they need to report to HR?

Breast feeding in the dugout?

 

 

lol bravo

I hope to never see females in professional baseball.

I hope to never see females in professional baseball.

 

Thanks for telling us why.

I bet if we had message boards back in Jackie Robinson's days you would see the same nonsense.

I bet if we had message boards back in Jackie Robinson's days you would see the same nonsense.

 

 

lol yeah... okay... you know there is one big thing wrong with that. Being black doesnt stop your abilities at anything. There is nothing that a black person cant do that a white man can.

 

Hate me for it but it's not the same case with male-female. There are many things that a man can do that a woman cant do and in reverse, there are many things a woman can do that a man cannot. It's not to say that there is not special talent in baseball where some women are better than some of the men in the majors... but biologically speaking a male is built for something like baseball. A woman is not. There is no difference between a black man and a white man. However there are fine line differences between any man and any woman.

I bet if we had message boards back in Jackie Robinson's days you would see the same nonsense.

 

 

lol yeah... okay... you know there is one big thing wrong with that. Being black doesnt stop your abilities at anything. There is nothing that a black person cant do that a white man can.

 

Hate me for it but it's not the same case with male-female. There are many things that a man can do that a woman cant do and in reverse, there are many things a woman can do that a man cannot. It's not to say that there is not special talent in baseball where some women are better than some of the men in the majors... but biologically speaking a male is built for something like baseball. A woman is not. There is no difference between a black man and a white man. However there are fine line differences between any man and any woman.

 

Please elaborate, biologically, why is a man built for baseball and a woman is not? I'm dying to hear this terribly intelligent argument. I'm sure it'll be in enlightening.

I bet if we had message boards back in Jackie Robinson's days you would see the same nonsense.

 

 

lol yeah... okay... you know there is one big thing wrong with that. Being black doesnt stop your abilities at anything. There is nothing that a black person cant do that a white man can.

 

Hate me for it but it's not the same case with male-female. There are many things that a man can do that a woman cant do and in reverse, there are many things a woman can do that a man cannot. It's not to say that there is not special talent in baseball where some women are better than some of the men in the majors... but biologically speaking a male is built for something like baseball. A woman is not. There is no difference between a black man and a white man. However there are fine line differences between any man and any woman.

 

Furthermore, there were plenty of intelligent and well educated people who literally believed that being black DID in fact mean that you were of inferior intellect and abilities than whites so I don't have any idea what you're talking about. Only now, through education have most come to know that skin color doesn't reflect your capabilities. Hopefully, the same can be said about sex years from now.

If this girl has a knuckleball anything like Tim Wakefield has, she is major league caliber.

 

The jokes are funny, they aren't hurting anybody. Truely thinking a female has no chance of being as good as a male is wrong though. If there is a girl in the future who has as good an arm as Stephen Strasburg or who has a bat as good as guys like Albert Pujols or Hanley Ramirez or anything that is major league caliber, they belong in the majors.

 

If they can help win games for a team, I wouldn't care if my world series MVP was Tim Lincecum or Tara Lincecum, if they're good, they're good. Sex really shouldn't make a difference.

 

And yes, there probably is without a doubt plenty of females who were pretty good baseball players out there who never got the chance to showcase what they have because of the gender discrimination that exists in all of sports. I bet there have been better pitchers than this Japanese woman go on by and were ignored because they are female. To say women are inherently inferior to men is just plain ignorant.

 

/rant for the day.

Plain and simple, if she can get people out give her a shot. If a girl can hit and play D give her a shot. I am sure there are quite a few ladys who can hit better than Corky Miller. I am also sure a fast woman who can play D would have no prob if given a shot. I doubt there would be many power hitting female players but I see no reason that if they can play D and get on base they couldn't play.

Plain and simple, if she can get people out give her a shot. If a girl can hit and play D give her a shot. I am sure there are quite a few ladys who can hit better than Corky Miller. I am also sure a fast woman who can play D would have no prob if given a shot. I doubt there would be many power hitting female players but I see no reason that if they can play D and get on base they couldn't play.

 

 

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZADTnKhUEpY

I bet if we had message boards back in Jackie Robinson's days you would see the same nonsense.

 

 

lol yeah... okay... you know there is one big thing wrong with that. Being black doesnt stop your abilities at anything. There is nothing that a black person cant do that a white man can.

 

Hate me for it but it's not the same case with male-female. There are many things that a man can do that a woman cant do and in reverse, there are many things a woman can do that a man cannot. It's not to say that there is not special talent in baseball where some women are better than some of the men in the majors... but biologically speaking a male is built for something like baseball. A woman is not. There is no difference between a black man and a white man. However there are fine line differences between any man and any woman.

 

Please elaborate, biologically, why is a man built for baseball and a woman is not? I'm dying to hear this terribly intelligent argument. I'm sure it'll be in enlightening.

 

Perhaps because biologically a man is stronger. I'd love to hear of a woman throwing 90. I never said it was not possible. If you'd read my quote you could quit being so overly sensitive about the comment. Of course there can be a woman in baseball. Who can function at the level or greater than a man. But there is a much, much less chance at that. She'd have to be a superwoman athlete, exceeding all expectations. If you'd actually read my quote you'd notice I never actually said a woman cant play baseball. But the relation of Jackie Robinson and a woman is absolutely ridiculous. Blacks were denied playing baseball with whites because of segregation. Women dont play in the majors because mainly of tradition. When was this league created? When it was tradition that a woman didnt play baseball. Now of course times have changed. That doesnt make it any different in terms of eligibility. The comparison of Robinsion (where you could easily make the league half black and the black players would be just as good as the white players) to a woman (where you could make the league half women and half men and the men would dominate) is ridiculous.

 

A woman can do anything a man can do. She can be a doctor, a lawyer, a whatever she wants to be. She can be a baseball player, but if you cant accept the fact that the odds of a woman being a baseball player are so many times less probable than a male (of any race) you are simply ignorant and stuck up. And you should go wave your woman power flag somewhere else.

Plain and simple, if she can get people out give her a shot. If a girl can hit and play D give her a shot. I am sure there are quite a few ladys who can hit better than Corky Miller. I am also sure a fast woman who can play D would have no prob if given a shot. I doubt there would be many power hitting female players but I see no reason that if they can play D and get on base they couldn't play.

 

 

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZADTnKhUEpY

Well, I mean, it's a softball. Not exactly the same thing.

 

 

 

In all honestly, there are only 4 problems with women playing baseball:

 

1) HBP. A HBP in the breasts can be a serious issue. On one hand it would hurt like a mother f***er, on the other hand it could give a woman an advantage to get to 1st.

2) Menstruation: Let's say for argument's sake your start center fielder is a woman. Wouldn't it suck to lose her as day-to-day for 3 days once a month? Male players often go day-to-day when feeling sick.

3) Pregnancy: Now imagine having to put that same start center fielder on the 60-Day DL with "pregnancy". And seeing as the off season is only 4.5 months (3.5 for playoff teams) a woman would never be able to start a family without ending up on the DL.

4) Locker rooms: This is really the big one. There will never be split locker rooms and teams in general won't want women in their locker rooms. From men feeling uncomfortable to sexual harassment, it's just a terrible thing.

I bet if we had message boards back in Jackie Robinson's days you would see the same nonsense.

 

 

lol yeah... okay... you know there is one big thing wrong with that. Being black doesnt stop your abilities at anything. There is nothing that a black person cant do that a white man can.

 

Hate me for it but it's not the same case with male-female. There are many things that a man can do that a woman cant do and in reverse, there are many things a woman can do that a man cannot. It's not to say that there is not special talent in baseball where some women are better than some of the men in the majors... but biologically speaking a male is built for something like baseball. A woman is not. There is no difference between a black man and a white man. However there are fine line differences between any man and any woman.

 

Please elaborate, biologically, why is a man built for baseball and a woman is not? I'm dying to hear this terribly intelligent argument. I'm sure it'll be in enlightening.

 

Perhaps because biologically a man is stronger. I'd love to hear of a woman throwing 90. I never said it was not possible. If you'd read my quote you could quit being so overly sensitive about the comment. Of course there can be a woman in baseball. Who can function at the level or greater than a man. But there is a much, much less chance at that. She'd have to be a superwoman athlete, exceeding all expectations. If you'd actually read my quote you'd notice I never actually said a woman cant play baseball. But the relation of Jackie Robinson and a woman is absolutely ridiculous. Blacks were denied playing baseball with whites because of segregation. Women dont play in the majors because mainly of tradition. When was this league created? When it was tradition that a woman didnt play baseball. Now of course times have changed. That doesnt make it any different in terms of eligibility. The comparison of Robinsion (where you could easily make the league half black and the black players would be just as good as the white players) to a woman (where you could make the league half women and half men and the men would dominate) is ridiculous.  A woman can do anything a man can do. She can be a doctor, a lawyer, a whatever she wants to be. She can be a baseball player, but if you cant accept the fact that the odds of a woman being a baseball player are so many times less probable than a male (of any race) you are simply ignorant and stuck up. And you should go wave your woman power flag somewhere else.

 

No, you merely implied it so in case someone would call you out on your crap you can write something just like you've written.

 

Secondly, I never made the comparison between Jackie Robinson and women entering the MLB, I merely corrected you when you wrote that "being black doesnt stop your abilities at anything" which is the exact opposite of common thought during that time period. I can write out quote after quote of doctors and other intellectuals detailing all of the perceived shortcomings of Black people. Of course, now we all accept that train of thought as ignorant.

 

 

Thirdly, please point out where I, specifically, was discussing anything about the "probabilities" of a woman entering the MLB. I don't think ONE person on this board is arguing how hard it will be to break the "sex barrier". I'm pretty sure we can all accept that it will be very difficult so I really have no idea what your last rant is about.

 

 

As for your argument pertaining to strength, what's your point? Are you trying to say that women can't be power hitters or that they don't have the strength to throw hard? You hardly elaborated on your biological argument. All you did was write one sentence about strength and started discussing probabilities, of which no one brought up. I don't know what you're trying to argue here.

 

 

Also, read the last paragraph in your first post and then read the last line in your last post, no contradiction there... that's called backpedaling. So there are things that men can do that a woman can't but then women can do anything a man can do... do you have a coherent argument?

 

 

As for me being "overly sensitive" trust me, I'm not. My "woman power flag" and I don't have any problem debating the merits of having women play in the MLB in a perfectly civilized manner, if only you had a coherent argument.

Plain and simple, if she can get people out give her a shot. If a girl can hit and play D give her a shot. I am sure there are quite a few ladys who can hit better than Corky Miller. I am also sure a fast woman who can play D would have no prob if given a shot. I doubt there would be many power hitting female players but I see no reason that if they can play D and get on base they couldn't play.

 

 

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZADTnKhUEpY

Well, I mean, it's a softball. Not exactly the same thing.

 

 

 

In all honestly, there are only 4 problems with women playing baseball:

 

1) HBP. A HBP in the breasts can be a serious issue. On one hand it would hurt like a mother f***er, on the other hand it could give a woman an advantage to get to 1st.

2) Menstruation: Let's say for argument's sake your start center fielder is a woman. Wouldn't it suck to lose her as day-to-day for 3 days once a month? Male players often go day-to-day when feeling sick.

3) Pregnancy: Now imagine having to put that same start center fielder on the 60-Day DL with "pregnancy". And seeing as the off season is only 4.5 months (3.5 for playoff teams) a woman would never be able to start a family without ending up on the DL.

4) Locker rooms: This is really the big one. There will never be split locker rooms and teams in general won't want women in their locker rooms. From men feeling uncomfortable to sexual harassment, it's just a terrible thing.

 

 

By HBP are you referring to a pitcher's fear of throwing inside or just the injury that a woman could incur or both? Yeah, a HBP to the breast is very dangerous but I don't think it's something that can't be prevented or protected against with proper precaution. A better bra is the best suggestion I have. Perhaps with more padding to minimize impact or maybe more constrictive? What I don't like about the HBP is limiting a pitcher's strike zone for fear of hitting the woman.

I seriously doubt that a woman with the dedication and the perseverance to get to the MLB would go on the DL because of her period. The other two are valid points, especially pregnancy.

No, you merely implied it so in case someone would call you out on your crap you can write something just like you've written.

 

Secondly, I never made the comparison between Jackie Robinson and women entering the MLB, I merely corrected you when you wrote that "being black doesnt stop your abilities at anything" which is the exact opposite of common thought during that time period. I can write out quote after quote of doctors and other intellectuals detailing all of the perceived shortcomings of Black people. Of course, now we all accept that train of thought as ignorant.

 

 

Thirdly, please point out where I, specifically, was discussing anything about the "probabilities" of a woman entering the MLB. I don't think ONE person on this board is arguing how hard it will be to break the "sex barrier". I'm pretty sure we can all accept that it will be very difficult so I really have no idea what your last rant is about.

 

 

As for your argument pertaining to strength, what's your point? Are you trying to say that women can't be power hitters or that they don't have the strength to throw hard? You hardly elaborated on your biological argument. All you did was write one sentence about strength and started discussing probabilities, of which no one brought up. I don't know what you're trying to argue here.

 

 

Also, read the last paragraph in your first post and then read the last line in your last post, no contradiction there... that's called backpedaling. So there are things that men can do that a woman can't but then women can do anything a man can do... do you have a coherent argument?

 

 

As for me being "overly sensitive" trust me, I'm not. My "woman power flag" and I don't have any problem debating the merits of having women play in the MLB in a perfectly civilized manner, if only you had a coherent argument.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, because I've got so much to hide and I really, truely give a sh*t what you think about me. Do you think I care what you think about me? I'll tell you one thing, everything that I ever post I believe. I dont make things up, I dont care to convince you, I dont post to argue, and I sure as hell dont care if you dont like my opinion so go cry about it some more.

 

Of course we all accept that thought as ignorant, but you seem to believe that just because that was the case for blacks that somehow science will speak in the name of the Holy Woman and refute the current claims that males are physically superior to women. Just as a male is typically physically stronger when in good shape, a woman is usually more flexible. That is biology, you cant just argue with it because you have your fist held high for girl power. Women can give birth, Men have a dick. Most women can grow their hair long. Most men cannot grow their hair in the same way. Women are smaller. Men are bigger. Women have boobs. Most men do not. Women typically have much wider hips. Men do not. Women do indeed have different thinking patterns (which is more of a social psychology than a natural biology of course) than men. There are so many biological differences between a man and a woman. However there is almost no biological difference between a black person and a white person other than skin complexion and minute other differences (i.e. the susceptibility to skin damage from the sun).

 

You arent arguing anything here. All you are doing is telling me I'm not arguing anything. All I was doing was laughing at the fact that someone thinks that the color-barrier is even remotely similar to the "sex-barrier". There is no "sex-barrier". I dont know of any major-league female league that sits on edge waiting to get into the men's major league. That, however, was the case with the Negro League. Women are not segregated from baseball.

 

If there is one thing you are it's a typical desktop warrior, that is for sure. You are taking my points and making them "contradict" each other. It's not contradicting if you take it in its context. I claimed a female can do anything a man can do. Then I stated several professions. Grow up, you sound like a lawyer. The point of that was to establish that there could be a woman, or several women, talented enough to play baseball. But to even remotely reference these times of such 'severe woman opression in the sport of baseball' if you will... as the same as Jackie Robinson's time? are you kidding me? That's like saying that all of the "sexism" that women face nowadays is the same thing as the segregation blacks faced before segregation was ended.

You get worked up too easily.