Ayami Sato will make baseball history in Toronto — and blaze a trail for women in sports
CBC
When Ayami Sato takes to the mound at Toronto's Christie Pits park on Sunday, her first pitch will make history.
Sato, 35, has come all the way from Japan to play for the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of nine teams in the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) of southern Ontario. She'll be the first woman to join a professional men's league in Canada.
The IBL is more than 100 years old and some of its players spent time on Major League Baseball teams or in other elite leagues.
Sato is already considered a legend in women's international baseball. As part of Japan's national team, she helped her country win world championships and took home three MVP awards along the way.
She told CBC News in a recent interview at the ball diamond that she's honoured to be a Maple Leaf and to break the gender barrier in Canadian baseball.
"I am so happy, very excited," Sato said in English, with much of the rest of the interview conducted via a translator.
Maple Leafs manager and former Toronto Blue Jay Rob Butler says Sato is considered the best pitcher ever in women's baseball, and the team is happy to give her the chance to showcase her skills.
"We're excited to see something new, something different, something fresh," he said. "We want to break some barriers down and give her a great opportunity."
Ashley Stephenson, who played against Sato as a member of the Canadian national team, predicts she'll easily earn the respect of fans in Canada.
"She's an outstanding pitcher, the best pitcher I ever faced in international competition," Stephenson said in a video call from Florida where she coaches with one of the Blue Jays' minor league teams.
"She was in a league of her own."
But Stephenson, who's a member of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, says she's also sad that there's no professional women's baseball league in Canada for players at Sato's level, especially considering the recent success of women's professional leagues in soccer, hockey and basketball.
"Part of me wishes we had that for baseball, too," she said.
Keith Stein, a Toronto businessman who is one of the Maple Leafs owners, is working on granting Stephenson's wish.
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