Japanese girl signs baseball contract

Eri Yoshida (吉田 えり, Yoshida Eri, born January 17, 1992, in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan) is a high-school student at Kawasaki-kita Senior High School in Kawasaki, who at the age of 16 became the first female drafted by a Japanese professional baseball team, Kobe 9 Cruise of Kansai Independent Baseball League, to play alongside male teammates.

Yoshida is a sidearm knuckleball pitcher and stands 1.55 meters (5 ft 1 in) tall. Her pitches have been clocked at 101 kilometres per hour (63 mph),and knuckleball sits around 50 mph. She started throwing the knuckleball after seeing videos of American Major League Baseball knuckleballer Tim Wakefield. (from Wikipedia)