Ishikawa Million Stars Ishikawa Million Stars The are a semi-professional baseball team in the Baseball Challenge League of Japan. The team was established in 2007. Their home is Ishikawa Prefecture. 57-year-old former Major League Baseball star Julio Franco is the team's player-manager. The team is also notable for having female knuckleball pitcher Eri Yoshida on their roster. The team has won four Baseball Challenge League championships, in 2007, 2010, 2011, and 2013. Ishikawa Infielder Kensuke Uchimura led the BC League in steals in 2007, which led to him being drafted by Nippon Professional Baseball's Rakuten Golden Eagles, In 2008, he became the first
Knuckleball be contributing to its demise. Says Bob Humphrey, a former major-league knuckleball pitcher: "you just don't have time to mess with it." A fast-track scheme is developing, eliminating the knuckleballer pitcher's chief ally: time. Tom Candiotti said: "to get signed, you have to be impressive on the radar guns." The knuckleball takes time to master and is not an attractive pitch on the radar guns, both of which may be contributing to its demise. Perhaps as a result, knuckleball pitchers often view themselves as members of an exclusive club, with its own uniform number (49, first worn by Wilhelm) and