The Baseball Chick

Eri Yoshida

18-year-old Japanese female knuckleballer Eri Yoshida has signed with the Chico Outlaws.  She was the first female to play in the Japanese men’s baseball league, and now is the first female professional baseball player in the U.S. in a decade.  Her pitches only top off at around 50 miles per hour, but Yoshida allegedly has a sweet little knuckleball.

Yoshida spent March working with  fellow knuckleballer Tim Wakefield at the Boston Red Sox’s minor league training center.  She also won games in the Arizona Winter League this past year.