Japanese Girl, 16, Pitches Way Into All-male Baseball League

She weighs a mere 52kg and stands a little over five feet tall (152cm), but Eri Yoshida is about to become the first woman in Japan's professional baseball league.

The 16-year-old school pupil from Yokohama was chosen this week to play for the minor league team Kobe 9 Cruise. Though she has a long way to go before making it into the top flight, Yoshida has become a role model for the many Japanese women confined to playing for company teams or in amateur softball leagues.

"I never dreamed of getting drafted," she told reporters the day after she was selected along with 32 male players. "I have only just been picked by the team and haven't achieved anything yet."

Despite her size, Yoshida bamboozled male batters in trials with her trademark knuckle ball - a fiendishly difficult pitch that changes trajectory unexpectedly as it hurtles towards the batter's plate.

She said she was inspired to persevere in the conservative sport after watching videos of the celebrated Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who made a successful career out of delivering a mean knuckle ball. "I'm really happy I stuck with baseball," she said. "I want to pitch against men and, eventually, I want to play as a pro in a higher league."

Kobe and three other teams will compete in a new league in western Japan.

Japan had a professional baseball league for women in the 1950s, but it folded after two years. The professional baseball federation did not lift its ban on female players until 1991 and "little league" teams started accepting girls only 10 years ago.

The pitcher's face, partly hidden by a baseball cap, was splashed across the sports tabloids. The Asahi Shimbun, a serious broadsheet, ran an analysis of her unorthodox sidearm pitching style.

Cynics accused Kobe of choosing Yoshida to gain publicity for the fledgling league. "I think her recruitment is partly about publicity," said Toshihiko Kasuga, director of the Women's Baseball Association of Japan. "It would be extremely hard for women to compete fairly against men in any sport."

Faced with repeated requests from reporters to demonstrate her grip, Yoshida displayed some of the guile that has helped her break through baseball's gender barrier: "It's a secret," she said.

Though a first in Japan, Yoshida's elevation is not the first time a woman has pitted her skills against men in professional baseball. In 1997 Ila Borders became the first woman to play in an integrated professional league when she pitched for the St Paul Saints of the independent Northern League in the US.