Who is Eri Yoshida? Japanese baseball pitcher influenced by Tim Wakefield's knuckleball

Inspired by watching Tim Wakefield playing for the Boston Red Sox on television, Eri Yoshida went on to become the first female professional baseball player in Japan.

At just 16, Yoshida made her professional debut for the Kobe 9 Cruise in Japan and became the first female player to play the sport profesisonally. Just weeks before the start of the new MLB season, we take a look back at Yoshida's career in celebration of Women's History Month.

Eri Yoshida was born and brought up in Yokohama and became a fan of the MLB at a young age, teaching herself to throw a knuckleball when she was just 14.

She did so by watching her idol Tim Wakefield pitching for the Boston Red Sox on TV, earning the name "Knuckle Princess" as a result. By the time she turned 16, she made her professional debut for the Kobe 9 Cruise in the Kansai Independent Baseball League in 2009.

Towards the end of the year, Yoshida made the move to the US, playing for the Yuma Scorpions in the Arizona Winter League. She went on to play for the Chico Outlaws in the Golden Baseball League.

However, the proudest moment of her baseball career came in 2010 when she got the chance to train with her idol Tim Wakefield in the Red Sox training grounds.

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Curt Schilling shares regret over action regarding Tim Wakefield diagnosis

While Curt Schilling is best known as a former MLB pitcher, he made headlines for the wrong reasons last year.

However, he recently took the opportunity to address his actions. On September last year, Schilling had made his former Boston Red Sox teammate Tim Wakefield's cancer diagnosis public without his permission.

As expected, Schilling received a lot of public backlash, especially as Wakefield succumbed to brain cancer the following month.

On the episode for the first time since then, Schilling expressed his regret on how he handled the situation.

"I’ll forever regret what happened," he said.