An obscure baseball stadium in northern California is becoming a real-life field of dreams for Eri Yoshida. In just three months, the 18-year-old has pitched herself into sporting history and the affections of some of the most fickle baseball fans in the world.
This year Yoshida became only the third woman in history – and the first from Japan – to play in the US male professional baseball leagues. Despite struggling to adapt to the rigours of the game at that level, Yoshida is being hailed as a pioneer for equality in sport while earning the respect of hard-nosed pundits for her performances on the mound for the Chico Outlaws in the minor Golden Baseball League.
Yoshida was already the first woman to play professional baseball in Japan when, as a 16-year-old schoolgirl, she was chosen to play for Kobe Cruise 9 in the minor Kansai Independent League. Her face, partly hidden by her ever-present baseball cap, was splashed on the pages of Japan's sports tabloids, while the Asahi Shimbun broadsheet ran an analysis of her pitching style.
In her first few weeks in the US, Yoshida was again a familiar face in the sports press and the subject of a TV documentary. She played poorly on her debut in late May, but Japanese reporters focused on her spirit rather than what Yoshida described on her blog as "extremely regrettable" pitching.
Yoshida is known in both countries as the Knuckleball Princess in honour of her trademark pitch, a fiendish delivery in which the ball suddenly changes trajectory. As the first woman to pitch in men's professional baseball since Ila Borders in the 1990s, she has brought international attention to her new home in rural California, where she lives with a host family.
Last week, she was honoured with a public proclamation by the mayor of Chico, Ann Schwab. "She has brought a positive image to Chico; of dreams that are possible, goals that can be achieved and that Chico is a family-friendly community," Schwab said. "She has put Chico on the map all over the world."
Yoshida has already found her way into the sport's Hall of Fame, where her Outlaws jersey appears alongside memorabilia from Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and other baseball legends.
She is proving a marketing dream for the previously unheralded Outlaws. Young female sports fans, thrilled to see a woman take the field in a male league, are snapping up T-shirt versions of her No 3 jersey, and her presence has boosted attendances at the club's 4,200-capacity Nettleton stadium.
Back home, one travel agency is courting her fans with a three-night, two-game package tour to Chico this month. The cost: 270,000 yen (£2,000).
Three months and 22 innings into her American adventure, the Yokohama-born pitcher is still winless, although according to her coaches and teammates, it is not for want of trying.
"Eri has performed quite well under the circumstances. She is 18 years old and halfway around the world from her home," said the Chico manager, Garry Templeton. "Eighteen-year-old males don't play at this level. Like any 18-year-old in any business, you're still a kid and still learning. But this means a lot for girls in general.
"There are probably ladies who think they might be able to compete at a high level, but maybe don't have the confidence. This will give them the confidence. This will open doors."
The Outlaws catcher Robby Alcombrack described her performances and attitude as incredible. "She's getting better, she just needs to throw harder and realise when she floats [the ball], it's not effective."
Throwing harder is easier said than done for the 5ft 1in teenager, who weighs about nine stone. Most observers believe what she needs to do is simply pitch more knuckleballs, which, if thrown correctly, fool batters by fluttering around in mid-air after they leaves her hand.
So far Yoshida isn't fooling many. Only four of the 121 batters she has faced have struck out. "She's not doing great right now, but what she needs to do is practise more and more," her interpreter told reporters recently.
But if there has been frustration on the field, there has been only success away from it. When she pitched in Calgary last month, becoming the first woman to pitch professionally in three countries, she was hailed as a feminist icon.
Baseball in America has long been a defiantly macho world and the Golden Baseball League, which features players who have starred at the highest level of the game, is no different. But aside from the use of an interpreter and a separate locker room, Yoshida receives no special treatment. Outlaws catcher Robby Alcombrack said: "She's just as much a part of this team as anybody else. If something's wrong with her or somebody's hassling her, we'll be protective that's for sure."
Yoshida says she hopes to inspire more women to try male leagues. "I'm excited to see how many join me," she said in a matchday programme.
The Japanese media, meanwhile, have begun the buildup to another exciting prospect for baseball fans and historians: a Japanese woman competing against a male compatriot – the pitcher Mac Suzuki, newly of the Calgary Vipers – in the US professional leagues for the first time.
Female pioneers
Danica PatrickNamed Rookie of the Year in the 2005 season of IndyCar, America's equivalent of F1, and became the first woman to win an IndyCar race when she claimed victory in Japan in 2008. Has been linked with a possible drive in an F1 car.
Michelle Wie
Touted as the female Tiger Woods and turned pro shortly before her 16th birthday. Played her first men's event in 2004 at the age of 14 but missed the cut and critics say her participation was down to publicity rather than talent. Has won only one tournament on the women's professional tour.
Hayley Turner
UK's most successful female jockey and has captained the British team three times at the Shergar Cup. Strong and stylish in the saddle, she was the first woman to be champion apprentice and the first with 100 winners in a year.
Billie Jean King
In 1973, former Wimbledon champion Bobby Riggs claimed that, at 55, he could still beat the best women. King accepted his challenge and "The Battle of the Sexes" took place in front of a crowd of 30,000. King won in straight sets. "I thought it would set us back 50 years if I didn't win that match. It would ruin the women's [tennis] tour and affect all women's self-esteem," King said later. Tom Lutz