CHICO, Calif. — Back the above above leaguer Ivan Ochoa laid a well-placed butt bottomward the third-base band for a distinct to advance off the game, it drew boos from the home army and a loud acknowledgment from one fan: “Hit like a man.”
But rather than an insult, Ochoa’s butt served as the ultimate compliment. It was a assurance that the pitcher, Eri Yoshida, a diminutive 18-year-old woman who accustomed from Japan with dimples and a sidearm knuckleball, was aloof one of the guys.
Yoshida fabricated her admission for the Chico Outlaws of the absolute Golden Alliance on Saturday night, the aboriginal actualization by a woman in American able baseball back Ila Borders in 2000.
Yoshida accustomed four runs in three innings adjoin Los Cimarrones de Tijuana, and she was hit adamantine at times; one 70-mile-per-hour fastball was ashamed for a two-run homer. But she retired 7 of the aboriginal 10 batters she faced afore tiring. And in her one bowl appearance, she collection in a run by bouncing a bases-loaded distinct to appropriate field.
“It was unbelievable,” Yoshida said through an interpreter, apropos to her hit.
Yoshida seemed to accept won the account of her manager, the army and abounding of her teammates for her perseverance.
“With all the media hype, all that attention, she went out there and did her job,” said Chico Administrator Garry Templeton, the above All-Star shortstop. “To me, she’s got some blubbery skin.”
As she stands 5 all-overs 1 and weighs 115 pounds, her allowance for absurdity is slight, and it ability be adamantine to agitate the angle that her attendance actuality is little added than a promotional gimmick.
“You don’t apperceive because nobody’s anytime activity to acquaint you the truth,” said Tijuana third baseman Kit Pellow, 36, who played briefly with the Rockies and the Royals. “It’s a acceptable befalling for her. It’s a acceptable befalling for the fans. It’s article different. Whether you do it with clowns or players or championships, that’s what it’s about — absorbing the people.”
That is decidedly accurate in absolute leagues, area teams are detached with above alliance clubs and area players are about angry for a attempt to accomplish or acknowledgment to the majors.
The Golden League, the aftermost stop in the careers of Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco and Hideki Irabu, has approved to accretion a ballast mostly in baby Western towns as an affordable summer ball option.
Chico, a academy boondocks set at the bottom of the Sierra Nevada about 90 afar arctic of Sacramento, retains some of its hippie vibe — a borough authorization bans the control of nuclear weapons, and home-brews and acquaintance are allotment of the bounded ethos.
It is a apple abroad — and center about the apple — from area Yoshida grew up, in Kawasaki, an burghal burghal on the outskirts of Tokyo.
“I can chronicle and again I can’t relate,” said Mike Marshall, the Outlaws accepted administrator and above Dodgers outfielder who played a division in Japan. “I was in my mid-30s back I went there, I had played above alliance baseball for 10 or 11 years, I had interpreters, my own accommodation and bodies affair me at the airport. Everything was fabricated to order. Eri comes actuality at 18, aloof out of aerial school, afterwards her ancestors and aloof rolls the dice. Her ability is remarkable.”
The night afore her debut, while her teammates were in the locker allowance afterwards accident their home opener to Tijuana, Yoshida leaned on the balustrade of the first-base dugout and gazed at the fireworks that were exploding above the left-field wall.
She accomplished into a bag and took out her camera to almanac a snapshot of Americana. She looked beneath like a bullpen accessible to action with developed men, some above above leaguers, than an agitable boyish tourist.
A few moments later, she did not try to adumbrate her anxiety.
“I’m a little bit worried,” she said. “But I’m attractive advanced to it. I absolutely acknowledge the opportunity. I’m actual analytical because it’s the aboriginal time.”
She was not the alone one apprehensive how it would go. About 50 associates of the account media abounding the game, at atomic bisected of them from Japanese outlets. And Nettleton Stadium, which holds 4,400, was three-quarters full, added than alert the cardinal that showed for the team’s home opener the night before.
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