Publicity is the lifeblood of any independent league, and the Golden Baseball League has a winner in Eri Yoshidi, a 18-year-old female knuckleballer from Japan.
Publicity is the lifeblood of any independent league, and the Golden Baseball League has a winner in Eri Yoshidi, a 18-year-old female knuckleballer from Japan.
She's created a stir both with the Chico Outlaws and the rest of the league, garnering a feature in The New York Times and lots of other press in the area.
Of course, any woman playing pro baseball is bound to generate a lot of headlines — we were following the St. Paul Saints and Duluth-Superior Dukes when Ila Borders played in the indy Northern League — but it does appear Yoshidi (like Borders) is the real deal. She's been effective so far (relatively speaking), but she's touched a nerve with fans, who seem more inclined to head to the ballpark to see the Knuckle Princess. While her goal of pitching in the majors seems unattainable, she's clearly more than a novelty act.
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