Eri Yoshida, 16, takes to new Japanese league - SI.com - MLB Page 1 of 2

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Posted: Tuesday December 2, 2008 3:04PM; Updated: Tuesday December 2, 2008 3:05PM PRINT EMAIL RSS YAHOO! BUZZ SHARE

Story Highlights Teen pitcher becomes Japan's first Eri Yoshida will play for the Kobe 9 Cruise starting next April Yoshida is a 16-year-old knuckleball pitcher female professional player The new league is a far cry from Japan's top leagues

TOKYO (AP) -- A 16-year-old Japanese girl signed with a regional baseball team Tuesday, becoming the country's first female player.

Eri Yoshida, a knuckleball pitcher, will play for the Kobe 9 Cruise in a new independent league starting in April 2009. The team selected her last month along with 31 male players in the league draft.

"I still don't feel like I've really become a pro baseball player, but I want to do my best," Yoshida said at a news conference after signing her contract. "My specialty is the knuckleball, so I really want to be able to get batters out using it effectively."

The Cruise are more like a farm team and a far cry from Japan's mainstream pro teams such as the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. But the 5-foot, 114-pound Yoshida has broken a barrier in baseball-crazy Japan, where women are normally relegated to amateur, company-sponsored teams or to softball.

Yoshida, who started playing baseball when she was in second grade, said she wants to emulate pitcher , who has built a successful major league career as a knuckleballer.

The fledgling Japanese League, based in western Japan, is hoping to find enough success to eventually challenge the likes of the long-established Central and Pacific leagues. Those leagues, home to the best Japanese players, have Eri Yoshida is 5 feet tall and weighs 114 pounds, but plans to get Japanese hitters out become an increasingly fertile ground for talent headed to with her knuckleball. the U.S. major leagues. AP

Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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