TOKYO (AFP) – A 16-year-old schoolgirl with a mean knuckleball has been selected as the first woman ever to play alongside the men in Japanese professional baseball.

Eri Yoshida was drafted for a new independent league that will launch in April, drawing attention for a side-armed knuckler that her future manager Yoshihiro Nakata said was a marvel.

"I never dreamed of getting drafted," Yoshida told reporters Monday, a day after she was selected to play for the Kobe 9 Cruise.

"I have only just been picked by the team and have not achieved anything," she said. "I want to play as a pro eventually in a higher league."

Yoshida, 155 centimetres (five feet) tall and weighing 52 kilograms (114 pounds), says she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

A female professional baseball federation existed for a few years in the 1950s, but Yoshida will become Japan's first-ever woman to play alongside professional male players.

says she wants to follow in the footsteps of the great Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

I'm pretty sure the Dodgers drafted a girl a few picks before they drafted Piazza.

Wakefield is a great pitcher who has had a great career.

If you define "great" as "gimmick" and/or "mediocre", then I will agree with you. He lasted a long time, that's all I will give him. He was way too inconsistent and unreliable at times to be considered great.

He's been league average or better in 8 straight seasons and has a career ERA+ of 108. I won't go as far as saying he's a great pitcher, but he's been a good pitcher who is durable as hell who has had a great career.

He's been league average or better in 8 straight seasons and has a career ERA+ of 108. I won't go as far as saying he's a great pitcher, but he's been a good pitcher who is durable as hell who has had a great career.

Great career IMO makes him a great pitcher. Not a Hall of Famer, or one of the very best of his era, but he's earned the right to be called a great pitcher. At the very least, he's earned the right to not be laughed at on a message board because someone wants to be like him. He's had three 160 ERA+ seasons.