Chelsea Baker's path to mound at Trop as unpredictable as her signature pitch | Tampa Bay Times

from MaxPreps.com

Chelsea Baker, a Little Leaguer we featured here back in 2010, throws BP yesterday at the Trop. 
http://slavieboy.blogspot.com/2010/05/girl-power-indeed.html

From the video, it appears she is facing the expected obstacles one would expect given the novelty of her participation in baseball rather than softball. But, I will still say that her mastery of the knuckle-ball could be the equalizer that allows her to continue to advance another step closer to being the first female to participate in MLB. It takes power and force production out of the equation for her as a pitcher, which is ultimately the largest impediment to having a female pitcher, even at the HS level. 

from Tampa Bay Times:
Chelsea Baker's path to mound at Trop as unpredictable as her signature pitch | Tampa Bay Times:

She pitched 5 ½ years without a loss, pitched two no-hitters, grew so solid on the mound that she landed on ESPN's E:60, Good Morning America and CNN. At the request of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, she sent her jersey for an exhibit called "Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball." The press started calling her the Knuckleball Princess.

Last week she met Maddon at an event where she was honored for being the first female player to make a varsity baseball roster in Hillsborough County (she wore a black dress and Chuck Taylors). She gave him a signed baseball from her first game pitching for Durant High School. He invited her to throw some pitches to his boys during batting practice.

'via Blog this'

The ides that a woman can pitch at the professional level is not that far-fetched. Another young lady we profiled in 2008, Eri Yoshida has gone on to pitch professionally both in Japan as well as in the Arizona Winter League.

from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eri_Yoshida

Eri Yoshida (吉田 えり Yoshida Eri^?, born January 17, 1992, in Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan) is a Japanese professionalbaseball player. She plays as a sidearm knuckleball pitcher for the Ishikawa Million Stars of the independent Baseball Challenge League.^[1] In 2008, at the age of 16, she became the first female drafted by a Japanese men's professional baseball team.^[2]

Baseball career[edit]

Yoshida was fourteen years old when she taught herself how to throw the knuckleball after watching Major League Baseball pitcher Tim Wakefield on television.^[3][4] She stands 1.55 metres (5 ft 1 in) tall,^[2] and her pitches have been clocked at 101 kilometres per hour (63 mph), while her knuckleball measures around 50 mph.^[5] As a high-school sophomore at Kawasaki-kita Senior High School in Kawasaki, she threw the pitch well enough to earn a place on the school's baseball team.^[3] Her success caused a sensation in the national media, who dubbed her the Knuckle Princess.^[3] In 2008, she signed a contract to play for the Kobe 9 Cruise of Kansai Independent Baseball League.^[2][4]

Yoshida made her professional baseball debut at the Osaka Dome in the opening game of the Kansai Independent Baseball League on March 26, 2009 in front of 11,592 fans. She faced two batters, walking the first and striking out the second in a 5-0 win over the Osaka Gold Villicanes.^[6] She appeared in 11 games for the Kobe 9 Cruise and moved on after the season to focus on advancing up the pro ranks. She appeared in a one-inning battle against the top hitters of the Hiroshima Carp on November 24, 2009.^[7]

On December 15, 2009 the Arizona Winter League announced that they had reached an agreement to allow Yoshida to play in their thirty-five game season.^[5] The league served to showcase players who had been overlooked by major league teams in the draft by giving them a chance to play in front of professional scouts.^[5] On February 12, 2010, Yoshida got her first win in Arizona Winter League play, throwing four shut-out innings in a 5-0 win for her team, the Yuma Scorpions, versus Team Canada of the Arizona Winter League.^[8]