Female sports pioneers

When the Kobe 9 Cruise of Japan’s new International League drafted 16-year old Eri Yoshida in November, the selection of the knuckleball pitcher raised eyebrows for more than just the athlete’s age.

Yoshida wasn’t just young. She was a woman, too, the first ever to play on a Japanese professional baseball team.

So much for yet another gender barrier. Soon enough, Yoshida’s emergence prompted Time to remember some other female sports pioneers.

Here’s the list they came up with:

– Annika Sorenstam: 72 LPGA wins, including 10 majors.

– Julie Krone: Hall of Fame jockey won the Belmont Stakes (1993) and Breeder’s Cup (2003).

– Manon Rheaume: Played for the NHL’s Tampa Bay Lightning in 1992, becoming the first woman to compete in one of the four major U.S. sports.

– Janet Guthrie: First woman to drive in the Indianapolis 500 and Daytona 500.

– Ann Meyers Drysdale: First woman to sign with an NBA team (Indiana, 1979).

– Billie Jean King: Tennis great routed Bobby Riggs in 1973 “Battle of the Sexes.”

– Wilma Rudolph: Track star was the first woman to win three medals at a single Olympics (Rome, 1960).

– Althea Gibson: Black tennis star won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1957.

– Babe Didriksen Zaharias: Basketball and Olympic track star also won three U.S. Open golf titles.

To read more about these groundbreaking performers, and to see a slideshow, visit Time.