A Japanese Pro Baseball Team Drafts A Girl.
by Administrator on Nov.18, 2008, under Baseball
Yoshida was drafted this week to be Japan’s first female professional baseball player, taking the field with the Kobe 9 Cruise in an independent league that starts its inaugural season in April.
The Cruise are a far cry from the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. Making the grade for the Cruise is more like earning a tentative slot on a farm team than warming up in the bullpen for the Red Sox.
“I’m really happy I stuck with baseball,” Yoshida said in a news conference Monday after she was chosen with 32 others in the new league’s draft. “I want to pitch against men.”
Yoshida said she wants to emulate Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has built a successful major league career throwing a knuckle ball.
November 18th, 2008 on 9:40 pm
That is a really good news for baseball and sports as a whole.
November 19th, 2008 on 7:28 am
I hope it happens here soon.