Eri Yoshida

The 16-year-old knuckleballer will be the first woman to play on a professional baseball team, after being drafted by Japan’s Kobe 9 Cruise on Nov. 17. Cynics have suggested the pick was a publicity stunt by the team, part of the country’s new Independent League. But the manager who picked Yoshida said he did so because of her formidable sidearm knuckleball, which Yoshida has said she modeled after pitcher Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox.
Annika Sorenstam

Though she went out with a whimper — missing the cut in her final LPGA tournament on Nov. 21 — Sorenstam’s career scorecard holds up to just about any other in history. The 38-year-old Swedish superstar racked up 72 LPGA wins (including 10 majors), eight player of the year awards and more than $20 million in prize money. Having dominated the women’s tour, in 2003 she sought to challenge the men, becoming the first female golfer since Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1945 to contest a PGA Tour event. The same year, she was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame.













