Americans know him as Tim Wakefield, Boston Red Sox pitcher who has made a successful career out of launching the unpredictable knuckleball. In Japan, the 43-year-old hurler is known as ウェイクフィール, and his popularity there is significant because he is the idol of Eri Yoshida, an 18-year-old girl who has become an idol to women herself. You see, Eri Yoshida is the first female to pitch in Japanese professional baseball, and she owes it all to the knuckleball. This week in Fort Myers, Florida – where the Boston Red Sox are in spring training – Yoshida got the chance to meet her idol and get some pointers.
Eri Yoshida is a sidearm knuckleballer, making her extra challenging
MLB.com reports that she was accompanied by an interpreter during her trip to Red Sox camp, but Eri Yoshida’s enthusiasm for Tim Wakefield’s knuckleball magic was impossible to lose in translation. Before television cameras and a crowd large enough to staff a cash advance loans business, Yoshida, decked out in a Tim Wakefield Red Sox T-shirt with his familiar number 49 on the back, showed the veteran her stuff.
“I’m impressed,” said Wakefield. “She spun a couple, but for the most part, it was very good. She was able to take the spin out of a lot of them and they had quite a lot of movement on them.”
Wakefield had suggestions for Yoshida regarding her pitching mechanics, specifically maintaining a stiff wrist while delivering her pitch. Through interpreter Masa Hoshino, we know that Eri Yoshida came away from the session with a sense of joy and renewed confidence.
Keeping the knuckleball tradition alive
The knuckleball is a dying art, for a variety of reasons. First of all, it’s difficult to control and difficult to catch. Of course that means that when it’s thrown properly – without added rotation – it’s also difficult to hit. Yet the most pervasive reason why few pitchers throw the knuckleball anymore is because it isn’t as “macho” as the fastball. Too many scouts are obsessed with pitchers who can light up the radar gun, perhaps even at the expense of pitching art. And throwing the knuckleball is an art.
Tim Wakefield understands this, is happy to help Eri Yoshida
“It’s an honor to have somebody carry on a knuckleball tradition, and somebody that’s doing it because she likes what I do,” he told MLB.com. “It’s pretty cool to have someone come over to the States from Japan. I heard about her last year. I know she’s pitching in independent leagues now. But for her to come all the way to Fort Myers and watch me throw, it was an honor for me to just talk to her and give her some tips.”
Eri Yoshida’s track to top-tier pro competition
Eri Yoshida made her Japanese independent league debut for the Kobe 9 Cruise in 2009, and made a brief but impressive showing. Over the winter, she has turned in more impressive work on this side of the pond for the Yuma Scorpions of the Arizona Winter League, capped by five shutout innings and a victory versus Team Canada. For 2010, she has options: the Mie Three Arrows of the Japan-Future league or the Chico Outlaws of the U.S. Independent Golden Baseball League. I’d like to see her make a name in America, the gateway to the big time.
Gokouun o inorimasu, Eri Yoshida!
That’s “good luck” in Japanese. Eri Yoshida appears to have a promising future ahead of her, one that could also signal a great sea change for women in professional baseball. Will success on the diamond translate into cash now for the Japanese knuckleballer? Time will tell – but I’m definitely rooting for her.
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