Female sidearm knuckleballer, 16, drafted by Japanese pro league

Is professional baseball ready for another female pitcher?

There have been a few in the past. Jackie Mitchell was the first, signing for the minor-league Chattanooga Lookouts in 1931, and she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition game. In more recent years, a left-handed pitcher named Ila Borders pitched for two men's teams in the Northern League, an independent league.

There's a prohibition from signing women's players in major-league baseball that's been on the books since 1952, despite the presence then of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, the league made famous by the 1992 movie, "A League Of Their Own."

But in Japan, an independent league has drafted a 16-year-old girl - all 5 feet and 114 pounds of her - to compete for the Kobe 9 Cruise. She's the first female professional player in the country.

And her calling card as a pitcher is quite unique - a devastating sidearm knuckleball. She had a tryout last month and fared well against male hitters.

"I always dreamed of becoming a professional," Yoshida said in a news conference to the Associated Press.