is a Japanese professional

baseball player Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

for the Japan Islanders of the

Empire Professional Baseball League The Empire Professional Baseball League (EPBL) is an independent baseball league that began play in 2016. The Empire League plays a 40-game regular season followed by a five-game post season. The four-team league consists exclusively of teams fr ...

. She plays as a sidearm

knuckleball A knuckleball or knuckler is a baseball pitch (baseball), pitch thrown to minimize the spin of the ball in flight, causing an erratic, unpredictable motion. The air flow over a seam of the ball causes the ball to change from Laminar flow, lamin ...

pitcher. In 2008, at the age of 16, she became the first woman drafted by a Japanese men's

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Moder ...

team.Schoolgirl knuckleballer headed to Japan pro league
(AFP) Retrieved on November 17, 2008

Baseball career

Yoshida was born in

Yokohama is the List of cities in Japan, second-largest city in Japan by population as well as by area, and the country's most populous Municipalities of Japan, municipality. It is the capital and most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a popu ...

, where she taught herself how to throw the knuckleball at the age of 14 after watching

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

pitcher

Tim Wakefield Timothy Stephen Wakefield (August 2, 1966 – October 1, 2023) was an American professional baseball knuckleball pitcher. Wakefield began his Major League Baseball (MLB) career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but is most remembered for his 17-year ...

on television. She stands tall, and her pitches have been clocked at , while her knuckleball pitch velocity measures around 50 mph. As a high school sophomore at Kawasaki-kita Senior High School in Kawasaki, she threw the pitch well enough to earn a place on the school's baseball team. Her success caused a sensation in the national media, who dubbed her the ''Knuckle Princess''. In 2008, she signed a contract to play for the of the Kansai Independent Baseball League. Yoshida made her professional baseball debut at the

Osaka Dome The (official name: ) is a baseball stadium located in Osaka, Osaka, Japan. Opened in 1997, the stadium was the home field of the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. In 2005, the stadium became one of the homes of the Orix Buffaloes, a result of the merg ...

in the opening game of the Kansai Independent Baseball League on March 26, 2009, in front of 11,592 fans. She faced two batters, walking the first and striking out the second in a 5–0 win over the . She appeared in 11 games for the Kobe 9 Cruise and moved on after the season to focus on advancing up the pro ranks. She appeared in a one-inning battle against the top hitters of the

Hiroshima Carp The is a professional baseball team based in Hiroshima, Japan. They compete in the Central League of Nippon Professional Baseball. The team is primarily owned by the Matsuda family, led by , who is a descendant of Mazda founder Jujiro Matsuda ...

on November 24, 2009. On December 15, 2009, the

Arizona Winter League The Arizona Winter League was an independent professional winter baseball league. Arizona Winter League games were all played at Desert Sun Stadium in Yuma, Arizona. The league was founded in 2007. It disbanded in 2013 due to parent league, t ...

announced that they had reached an agreement to allow Yoshida to play in their 35-game season. The league served to showcase players who had been overlooked by major league teams in the draft by giving them a chance to play in front of professional

scouts Scouting or the Scout Movement is a youth social movement, movement which became popularly established in the first decade of the twentieth century. It follows the Scout method of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activi ...

. On February 12, 2010, Yoshida got her first win in Arizona Winter League play, throwing four shut-out innings in a 5–0 win for her team, the

Yuma Scorpions Yuma can refer to: Places United States * Yuma County, Arizona ** Yuma, Arizona ** Marine Corps Air Station Yuma ** Yuma Proving Ground ** Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona (CDP) ** Yuma Territorial Prison * Fort Yuma, California * Yuma County, ...

, versus Team Canada of the Arizona Winter League. On February 28, 2010, she was offered a contract to play in the

Golden Baseball League The Golden Baseball League was an independent baseball league based in San Ramon, California, with teams located in the Western United States, Western Canada and northwest Mexico. The GBL was not affiliated with Major League Baseball or the org ...

, the major independent minor league in

western North America Western North America is the western edge of the North American continent that borders the Pacific Ocean. It consists of Alaska at the farthest north, down through the western Canadian province of British Columbia, the western U.S. states of Wa ...

, by the

Chico Outlaws The Chico Outlaws were a professional baseball team based in Chico, California, in the United States. The Outlaws were a member of the Northern Division of the independent North American League, which is not affiliated with either Major League ...

. The Outlaws were managed by former major league all-star

Garry Templeton Garry Lewis Templeton (born March 24, 1956) is an American former professional baseball player and minor league manager. He played as a shortstop in Major League Baseball for the St. Louis Cardinals, San Diego Padres and New York Mets from 1976 ...

and the team president and general manager was former

Los Angeles Dodgers The Los Angeles Dodgers are an American professional baseball team based in Los Angeles. The Dodgers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League West, West Div ...

outfielder Mike Marshall. On March 2, 2010, she trained with Tim Wakefield at the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East Division. Founded in as one of the Ameri ...

minor league training facility. On April 8, 2010, she signed the contract with the Chico Outlaws and became the first female professional baseball player in the U.S. since the retirement of

Ila Borders Ila Jane Borders (born February 18, 1975) is an American former left-handed pitcher in college and independent professional baseball player. As a female pitcher in men's leagues, Borders achieved numerous baseball milestones at the college and p ...

10 years previously, and the first ever to play professionally in two countries. Her debut playing for the Chico Outlaws was on May 29, 2010. On Tuesday, July 27, 2010, Yoshida made her first road start against the

Victoria Seals The Victoria Seals were a professional baseball team based in Victoria, British Columbia. The Seals were a member of the North Division of the independent Golden Baseball League, which is not affiliated with either Major League Baseball (MLB) o ...

of the independent

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

, making her the first woman in baseball history to pitch professionally in three different countries. Yoshida was honoured with a spot on '' Venus Zines "25 under 25" list of remarkable women for 2009. On August 21, 2010, she was the feature story on

FOX Sports Fox Sports is the brand name for a number of sports channels, broadcast divisions, programming, and other media around the world. The name originates from Fox Broadcasting Company in the United States, which in turn derives its name from Fox Fi ...

' '' This Week In Baseball'', where she was shown meeting her idol,

pitcher

. Yoshida ended the 2010 season with an 0–4 record, but earned praise for her work ethic from team-mates and her manager, Garry Templeton, who noted that any 18-year-old would struggle in the Golden Baseball League. Yoshida played in the

, an instructional league, in February 2011 but chose to start the 2011 season with an amateur team from Japan that would be playing in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. She signed a contract with the Chico Outlaws of the professional North American Baseball League in July and pitched a no-decision as her team beat the

Edmonton Capitals The Edmonton Capitals, originally the Edmonton Cracker-Cats, were a Canadian professional independent minor-league baseball team that played between 2005 and 2011 in several leagues. The Capitals were based in Edmonton, Alberta. The team was fou ...

. She was traded later that week to

Maui Maui (; Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ) is the second largest island in the Hawaiian archipelago, at 727.2 square miles (1,883 km2). It is the List of islands of the United States by area, 17th-largest in the United States. Maui is one of ...

, rejoining her manager from last year, Garry Templeton, and started on August 9, pitching 5 innings of one-hit ball, and picked up her first professional win in the U.S. with Maui defeating Edmonton 4–1. In 2012, she returned to Japan to play for the of the Kansai Independent Baseball League. On May 3, 2012, Yoshida made her first start of the year for Hyogo. She hurled five innings, giving up just one run, walking 1 while striking out 2. She earned the win, making her the first woman to win a game in the Kansai Independent League. In June 2012, Yoshida returned to pitch for

Na Koa Ikaika Maui (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian for ''The Maui Strong Warriors'') were an independent professional baseball team based out of Wailuku, Maui, Hawaii and 2013 champions of the Pacific Association of Professional Baseball Clubs, Pacific Association. Th ...

of the North American Baseball League. In her first start on June 9, 2012, she earned the win in a 10–2 victory over the Hawaii Stars. She hurled 7-2/3 innings, giving up only four hits and two runs, as well as walking one batter and striking out another. Yoshida won her next two starts to begin the year with a 3–0 record, but then experienced problems controlling her pitches and lost five games in a row. She ended the season with a record of 4 wins and 6 losses with a 5.56

earned run average In baseball statistics, earned run average (ERA) is the average of earned runs allowed by a pitcher per nine innings pitched (i.e. the traditional length of a game). It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number ...

. Yoshida joined the Ishikawa Million Stars in 2013. Yoshida joined the of the Baseball Challenge League in 2017. On October 27, 2017, she became a free agent. In part due to injuries, in 2017 Yoshida accepted a coaching position with the women's baseball team of the Agekke Corporation. In 2023, she announced plans to return to pitching, in the

References

External links

Official blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Yoshida, Eri 1992 births Living people Chico Outlaws players Japanese expatriate baseball players in the United States Japanese women baseball players Ishikawa Million Stars players Knuckleball pitchers Na Koa Ikaika Maui players Sportspeople from Kawasaki, Kanagawa Baseball people from Kanagawa Prefecture Yuma Scorpions players Women players in men's baseball Women's baseball coaches Women baseball coaches 21st-century Japanese sportswomen

Baseball career

See also

References

External links