Eri Yoshida breaks barriers as she becomes the first female to be on a Men's Sports Team.
I would like to address something that I found extremely fascinating in the sport of baseball back in 2010. I would also like to elaborate a bit about this a bit more on my Final Presentation as well. When I first read about it online, I was absolutely stunned. A Japanese pitcher, Eri Yoshida became the first female athlete to be drafted from a Professional Japanese Baseball Team, the Kobe 9 Cruise of Kansai Independent Baseball League. Most of the time, these Independent Leagues are not associated with the Professional Sports Association. (example: MLB, NBA, NPB) That was not a concern for me. It was the fact that Yoshida was going to compete against men.
By now, the majority knows that playing professional sports, women should not compete with men. That includes football, basketball, soccer, and more. The only time I know where it actually happens is at the Taco Bell All Star Legends and Celebrity Softball Game. But, that doesn't count because it doesn't mean anything. I am talking about a young woman breaking that barrier opening many doors for others. This easily reminds me of Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier which allowed others to follow after him. Yoshida may not be as famous as Robinson, but it's important to take small footsteps to receive recognition.
What made Yoshida feel she could compete with men? Throwing a knuckleball instead of the fastball. Yoshida stated that she feels it would be harder to compete without the knuckleball since that pitch travels around 50-65 mph as to the fastball can go up to 100 mph. Having watched a lot of baseball games, the knuckleball is one of the hardest pitches to hit because of the movement it has and it loses the batters rhythm at the batter's box because they are used to the known pitches such as the sinker, splitter, slider, curveball, changeup, 4-seam and 2-seam fastball. Yoshida's idol growing up was Red Sox knucleballer Tim Wakefield who used that pitch throughout his entire career. She said she one day wants to be successful like Wakefield.
Tim Wakefield (left) impressed with what he has seen from Eri Yoshida (right)
Since Yoshida was a sensation in Japan and played baseball in the United States, she also became the first woman to play a professional sport in two different countries. I remember when Hideki Matsui became a New York Yankee, the Japanese media was on top of what every little action he does constantly. Also, since he was in New York, the spotlight is bigger and brighter. That led to many endorsements for him at the time. As for Yoshida, she appeared in Sportscenter, CBS News, and a featured story in This Week in Baseball on FOX. Most sports fans watch these programs on a daily basis so although there may not be as much news on her as one would like, but in Japan, I am certain she is constantly on the look out.
According to the article, "Feminist Manhood" written by Bell Hooks, she stated that "the world patriarchy promotes woman-hating." (Hooks, Page 107) In sports today, there have been issues were women would be criticized for how they approach athletes. For instance, interviewing someone too close can cause controversy. Bell Hooks also brought up interesting within patriarchal culture, men are exposed to emotion. "As long as they break with sexist roles, men can never be free." (Hooks, Page 116) The only issue I have about this is even in patriarchal culture, men can be emotional? And women cannot? What is the reason behind that? For Eri Yoshida, she is best defined as female masculinity according to Bell Hooks. Defined as "one's capacity to be responsible for one self and others." (Hooks, Page 117) Yoshida is on a baseball team carrying her responsibilities to help her teammates stay in the game and to win. Also, being in a men's team already shows enough in my opinion. It's interesting because in the chapter "Understanding Patriarchy" by Bell Hooks, she wrote saying most men cannot pronounce or spell the word Patriarchy correctly. When they hear that word, they would automatically think of women's liberation with feminism and just brush off anything women say, even if it is relevant within the men's lives. For Hooks to go up to the podium and use that word often, men would always ask her what she mean by patriarchy. When I first read this, I thought of athletes "always" throwing questions right back at the female interviewers. They want to make sure that the women knows what they're actually talking and going to write about. I believe most of the time, men never really give women a look on how much they know in the male-dominated fields.
Overall, even though Eri Yoshida did not make it to the big club, it is still a wonderful story to me since now anything is possible. For those not familiar with Yoshida and recently have heard of Jeremy Lin (Linsanity) or the emergence of Toronto Blue Jays slugger Jose Bautista, it seems anything in sports can be a possibility. As cliche as this sounds, if one works hard, that dream will become fulfilled. I never thought that but that is what makes sports great because in the end, we never know what or who is going to come out on top.
Work Cited
1.) Hooks, Bell. "Feminist Manhood." The Will to Change. Web.
2.) Hooks, Bell. "Understanding Patriarchy." The Will to Change. Web.
3.) "Is Eri Yoshida The Next Tim Wakefield?" ESPN. Web.
<http://espn.go.com/sportsnation/post/_/id/4961290/>.
4.) "Tim Wakefield, Yoshida Talk Knuckleball" ESPN Boston. Web.
<http://sports.espn.go.com/boston/news/story?id=4961259>.
5.) Fletcher, Jeff. "At Age 18, Eri Yoshida Doesn't Knuckle Under in her Pro Debut" AOL News.
<http://www.aolnews.com/2010/05/30/at-age-18-eri-yoshida-doesnt-knuckle-under-in-her-pro-debut/>.
6.) "Eri Yoshida, Female Pitcher, To Play Pro Baseball In U.S." Huff Post Sports. Web.
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/09/eri-yoshida-female-pitche_n_531452.html/>.
7.) "Eri Yoshida the first woman to play pro baseball in U.S. in a decade" USA Today. Web.
<http://www.usatoday.com/sports/baseball/2010-05-29-eri-yoshida_N.htm/>.
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