Japanese knuckleballer Eri Yoshida, a player-coach for Agekke Corp.'s women's baseball team, will attempt to compete in an American independent minor league this summer, her club said Tuesday.
The 31-year-old Yoshida, who said she wants to be the first woman to play in Major League Baseball, is to play for the Empire Baseball League's Tupper Lake Riverpigs in June and July.
Her stock in trade, the knuckleball, is thrown with as little spin as possible in order for air currents to make it dance and swerve unpredictably.
Yoshida, who has pitched in Japan's independent minors, in 2011 became the second woman to earn a pitching win in America's independent minors.
"My baseball career has, like a knuckleball, been irregular," she said in a statement. "But I'm going to give this my best shot so I'll have no regrets."
