TOKYO —  Eri Yoshida, a 16-year-old high school girl, will be taking her knuckle ball to the pros.  Yoshida was drafted this week to be Japan's first female professional baseball player, taking the field with the Kobe 9 Cruise in an independent league that starts its inaugural season in April.  The Cruise are a far cry from the Tokyo Yomiuri Giants. Making the grade for the Cruise is more like earning a tentative slot on a farm team than warming up in the bullpen for the Red Sox.  Even so, the 5-foot-tall, 114 pound Yoshida has broken a barrier in baseball-crazy Japan, where women are normally relegated to amateur, company-sponsored teams or to the sport of softball.  "I'm really happy I stuck with baseball," Yoshida said in a news conference Monday after she was chosen with 32 others in the new league's draft. "I want to pitch against men."

Women are usually relegated to company-sponsored teams? That would be like comparing my Thanksgiving football game to making the practice squad for the Cowboys. 

No truth to the rumors the Yankees tried to hire her.

I love women. I want to see them as much as possible. But you know why it's a problem....