[ODDS and EVENS] Eri Yoshida Embarks on Next Chapter of Unique Baseball Career

And she compiled a 5-10 won-loss record. For Yoshida, control issues were a defining trait of those years, as she issued 57 walks and hit 28 batters in 78 innings.Now 31, Yoshida is preparing for another overseas challenge ― this time as a veteran ballplayer.

Yoshida recently signed to play in the Empire Baseball League, a short-season independent league with five teams, including hers (Japan Islanders), in upstate New York. The ESL's two-month 2023 season begins on Friday, June 9 at Municipal Park in Tupper Lake, which is located near Lake Placid in Adirondack Park.

Let's fill in a couple key details about Yoshida's career: Between 2013 and 2017, she pitched for the Ishikawa Million Stars and Tochigi Golden Braves in Japan's Baseball Challenge League. Currently the league features eight teams and operates independently of Nippon Professional Baseball. In 2017, Yoshida began working as a player-coach for the Agekke Corporation women's baseball team in Oyama, Tochigi Prefecture. 

For Eri Yoshida, the Dream is Still Alive

Elbow and shoulder injuries put her greater ambitions on hold in recent years. But Yoshida has never let go of her dream of pitching in a Major League Baseball game.

"I know it's a really difficult challenge, but I have a dream in my heart that I really want to stand on a mound in the majors with a knuckleball," Yoshida said in a recent interview with The Associated Press in Oyama. "So I've decided to challenge myself."

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