Ayami Sato’s first pitch marked a lot more than the start of a baseball game — it also opened a new chapter in Canadian baseball history.
The 35-year-old Japanese pitcher is the first woman to play in a professional men’s league in Canada.
She made her debut with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday as they played against the Kitchener Panthers in the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) of southern Ontario (certainly not the only Leafs vs. Panthers match to watch out for this weekend).
The league is more than a century old, with Sato’s arrival breaking boundaries for women in Canadian baseball.
Young girls walked up to her ahead of the game, baseballs in hand, asking if she could sign them.
“Baseball is the kind of sport that anyone can play regardless of their age, gender. So by playing more with this team, I wanna make sure everyone’s more encouraged to play baseball and enjoy it,” Sato told reporters via a translator after the game.
A woman is poised to make baseball history in Toronto on Sunday, pitching in a professional men’s game for the first time in Canada. Japanese star Ayami Sato will take the mound with the Intercounty Baseball League’s Toronto Maple Leafs.
Sato struck out one batter without allowing anyone on base in the first two innings.
Despite high hopes, the Leafs ended up losing to the Panthers 6-5.
Sato moved to Toronto from Japan, where she helped its national team win world championships and was crowned MVP three times.
Sato said she was a little bit sad about Sunday’s loss, but that didn’t spoil the joy of her debut.
“When I was on the mound and just looking at all the crowds, the big crowds cheering, that was a very memorable memory for me,” she said.
New chapter for women’s baseball
Keith Stein, a Toronto businessman who is one of the Maple Leafs’ owners, is working on a Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) with American baseball trailblazer Justine Siegal.
“We think the WPBL is going to be the catalyst for the creation of a whole new baseball ecosystem and culture for women, not only in the United States but throughout the world,” he previously told CBC News.
The league is set to start with six U.S. teams in 2026, with hopes of potentially expanding it up north.
