Plant City pitcher offered pro contract in Japan

Published: Wednesday, July 4, 2012 at 7:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, July 4, 2012 at 7:30 a.m.

At 15, she's in high school. She's got her driver permit, a boyfriend and a baseball contract to play in Japan.

The girl who gained national attention for using a knuckleball to throw two perfect games against boys in Little League, is in the spotlight again.

It was revealed on ESPN's E:60 series celebrating 40 years of Title IX last week that Baker has been offered a contract to play in the Girls Professional Baseball League, an all-girls professional league in Japan.

It was the second time Baker has been featured in the series, the first coming in 2010 when she was called the best Little Leaguer in the country.

The same video, narrated by "A League of Their Own" star Geena Davis, ran again -- this time with an update mentioning the contract offer.

Baker and her parents, mother Missy Mason and stepfather Rod Mason, met members of Hit and Run Baseball in Japan in March when Baker was on spring break as part of a good will tour. Baker and her parents visited Tokyo and Osaka, where she was treated like a celebrity.

"They love her," Rod Mason said. "She must have signed 5,000 autographs."

While she was there, the representatives from the GPBL talked to Rod Mason about Baker playing for the 4-year old league - and get paid to play. Baker couldn't play until next year, when she turns 16.

"They wanted her to sign and do it for five years," Rod Mason said. "That's our sticking point. Once she does that, her college eligibility is gone. She'd be a pro. The money has to right. I'd have to come with her and give up my job."

Missy Mason has other concerns.

"She would have to give up a lot," Rod said of his wife's feelings. "But she'd be getting a lot. It has to be in her heart."

Mason said the two are still negotiating. The league's season runs March to early October. It consists of six teams. Baker would be the first American to play in the league.

She is all in.

"Hopefully I can go one day," Baker said of the contract offer. "But I don't know if I can right now. I'd like to. My parents didn't want me to go that long by myself. I think I could do it. I think it would be fun."

Baker has been having fun at the expense of boys and as a ground-breaking athlete for years. She learned to throw the fluttery pitch from former major leaguer Joe Niekro when she was seven years old.

Baker was playing baseball in the Plant City Little League at age seven when she started pestering Niekro, her coach, to teach her how to throw the elusive pitch.

He relented, teaching her a secret, and a star was born.

Baker has recorded two perfect games with the pitch, including one in a Little League All Star game in Haines City in 2009. She's won many games, mixing the knuckleball with a curveball and a fastball that has been clocked in the mid-70 miles per hour range of late.

Her success grew across Little League circles, gaining her more and more attention, especially since she is a girl playing a boys' sport.

ESPN heard of her story and filmed Baker at her Plant City home and on the fields at Lakeland's Peterson Park in a Little League All Star game.

Baker visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in August 2010, giving the hall a jersey from one of her perfect games. The Baseball Hall of Fame displayed the jersey in its Diamond Dreams exhibit, which was a salute to women in the sport.

She also was featured on the Good Morning America television program.

Meeting another "famous" knuckleball pitcher, Eri Yoshida, brought her more attention in Plant City. Yoshida played professionally for the Chico California Outlaws of the Golden Baseball League and in Japan. Yoshida now plays for Na Koa Ikaika team in Hawaii, which is part of the North American Baseball League.

When she was younger, Baker also played travel baseball with a boys' team -- the Sebring Crush -- and for the Sparks, an all female travel baseball team led by Justine Siegal, the first woman to coach a men's professional baseball team.

More recently, Baker has played for the Bullets, another boys' travel team based in Dover.

She was reunited with J.J. Niekro, Joe Niekro's son and her close friend, with the Plant City Lions Club junior (age 13-15) baseball team. The Lions Club team lost just two games.

She was selected to the Little League Junior Baseball All-Star team, which starts playing in Lakeland next week. It's the fifth consecutive time she's been selected an all-star.

Not only did Baker get invited to play in Japan, she has also been invited by Siegal to play for the USA 21-and-under team in Canada in August in an exhibition series against Australia, which is part of the Women's Baseball World Cup, a series against other all women's teams from all over the world.

"I thought that was awesome," she said. "I love playing with the girls, It's so much fun. I like it because it's girls playing baseball. I don't see it that much. It's a cool experience."

Baker continues to battle baseball's gender gap issue.

Having heard through the grapevine that she would not be welcome to play baseball at Durant High School, she started her freshman year at Plant City High School. Soon, the baseball coach was fired and the junior varsity coach resigned.

She transferred to Durant using the choice school option, to attend the high school she really wanted to go to.

It cost Baker her eligibility to play sports as a freshman at Durant.

"I think it was worth it," Baker said. "I'm happier at school."

There, she found that Durant's baseball coach was also her physical education coach.

She mentioned her concern to him.

"He said that I could try out and he'd let me play and if I was good enough," she said. "He said it didn't matter if I was a girl or a boy. It was relieving. I was thinking he wouldn't let my play."

Even though she was voted to the Little League All Star team again, she heard rumors that some coaches didn't want to vote for her.

"I have a lot of coaches who don't vote for me," Baker said. "I guess some of them are jealous. It bothers me sometimes. I get kind of used to it. A lot of people tell me I can't do it and to quit playing.

"It actually motivates me kind of," Baker said. "I always get told I can't do it, but may family is behind me and I want to show them that I can."

Source: http://www.newschief.com/article/20120704/news/207045017

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