Baseballer, or girly gimmick?
March 29th 2009 02:41
Eri Yoshida
The knee-jerk knockers are out to write off the professional baseball career of Eri Yoshida before it gets started.
Eri, a 17-year-old Japanese high school student, made the news on Friday by being the first female to play in a men's professional baseball league in Japan. See the Associated Press story here and the Vyoos version here.
It is predictable that there will be a mixed reaction. There will be well-wishers who see it is a happy ending to a story of someone who dared to dream. There will be purists who are uncomfortable. There will be doubters. And there will be those who choose to mock.
Amongst the last is Rob Neyer, described as a 'senior writer' on espn.com. Neyer wrote, "Hmmm, let's see … five feet and 114 pounds … what happens when the enemy hitters start dropping bunts into that tricky area between the pitcher's mound and the third-base line? Will Yoshida have the quickness and the arm strength to throw anyone out at first base?"
The heading on the story was, "Female knuckleballer in Japan out of her league".
A knuckleballer is a pitcher with an unusual delivery which depends more on skill than strength. It is therefore, as David Pinto wrote in a comment to Rob Neyer's article, a logical path for women to professional baseball.
As for the rest, Neyer could have chosen to wait and find out the answers to his questions.
When Eri Yoshida took the step up onto that pitcher's mound on Friday night, she was a young baseballer with long-term hopes of establishing a career in professional sport and a short-term job to do. That's what her coach, her team management and the woman herself saw. What Rob Neyer saw was a girl and a sneering headline opportunity.
images: sportsillustrated.cnn.com, jhockey.wordpress.com
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