I was surprised the other day to read in the news a brief story about the Kyoto team in the Girls Professional Baseball League, not only because I didn’t know that Kyoto had a team, but also because I didn’t know there was a league for women (or “Girls,” as they put it). So I went digging, and there is a website for the team, the Kyoto Asto Dreams, but I couldn’t find league standings, only results for Kyoto’s  games against one team, the Hyogo Swing Smileys. (Don’t you like the way teams are named in Japan? This is almost as good as Nippon Ham Fighters.)

As it turns out, I could only find head-to-head results because there are only two teams in the league, which just started playing this April as knuckler (OK, Knuckle Princess) Eri Yoshida started playing minor league ball in the U.S. That was mentioned in the story, but didn’t register in my mind.  Video highlights of the first game are here.

Now I’m itching to go write a feature story and/or shoot a video feature, especially since I see tryouts for next season are being held Sept. 17 in Kyoto. Last year 30 players passed tryouts and they were divided up, 15 to a team.

Journalism pals, any advice on where I should pitch this in the U.S.?