Eri Yoshida doesn’t need A League of Her Own. She’s already found a baseball league that suits her just fine: the one with the boys.
As Tonic previously reported, Japanese phenom Yoshida, an 18-year-old knuckleballer, signed a pitching contract with the California-based Chico Outlaws, part of the independent Golden League. On Saturday, Yoshida made her pitching debut among a throng of media and scores of women she inspired simply by stepping on the mound.
So how did she do?
It might not have been an All Star appearance, but she certainly held her own. According to The New York Times she allowed four runs in three innings, but she managed to retire 7 of the first 10 batters she faced. She also drove in an important bases-loaded run by blooping a single into right field — a respectable accomplishment for any player, male or female.
Yoshida’s debut is even more profound because she is doing it on foreign soil. She grew up in Kawasaki, outside Tokyo, and requires an interpreter to communicate in English. While with the Outlaws she is staying with a host family along with two exchange students from Japan and is also enrolled in an English class at the local college.
“I can relate and I can’t relate,” Outlaws general manager Mike Marshall, a former major leaguer who also played in Japan, told the Times. “I was in my mid-30s when I went there, I had played major league baseball for 10 or 11 years, I had interpreters, my own apartment and people meeting me at the airport. Everything was made to order. Eri comes here at 18, just out of high school, without her family and just rolls the dice. Her maturity is remarkable.”
And her attitude is inspiring. She’s not afraid to show her feelings to the press, admitting before the game that, “I’m a little bit worried. But I’m looking forward to it. I really appreciate the opportunity.”
Women everywhere appreciate the opportunity she’s been given — a first since Ila Borders played in 2000 — and hope she’s paving the way for many brave, talented women to walk in the path she’s uniquely pitched.
Photo via Chico Outlaws.