Ayami Sato, Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club set to make history
The IX: Baseball Sunday with Hayley McGoldrick, May 11, 2025
Ayami Sato was named the starting pitcher for the Toronto Maple Leafs Baseball Club’s home opener on Sunday. When she takes the mound at Christie Pits Park, she will make history as the first woman to join a professional men’s league in Canada.
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Sato, 35, hails from Kagoshima, Japan. She won six world championships for her country, throws at a speed of 129 kilometers (or about 80 miles) per hour, and is known as the best female pitcher in the world. Now she is set to play for the Maple Leafs, one of nine teams in the Intercounty Baseball League (IBL) of southern Ontario.
The IBL is more than 100 years old and features some players who spent time in Major League Baseball or other elite leagues. Fellow Maple Leafs pitcher Dustin Richardson spent parts of two seasons with the Boston Red Sox, posting a 3.31 ERA across 29 games.
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Sato has earned three MVP awards in women’s international baseball on top of her championships, but she feels even more honor as she is set to break barriers with the Maple Leafs.
“By joining [a] men’s league, I understand that I can grow not only personally but technically. So I want to learn as much as possible from [a] men’s league and bring in feedback to the girls league to encourage them and hope that spreads out to other females in baseball,” Sato told The IX through a translator at her introductory press conference on Thursday.
In 1969, the Maple Leafs began competing in the IBL as an amateur team and made Christie Pits Park their home. The team has won the Jack and Lynne Dominico Trophy, awarded to the IBL champions, eight times. The trophy is named in honor of Jack and Lynne Dominico, who jointly owned and operated the Maple Leafs for 40 years. After Lynne’s passing in 2008, Jack continued to own the team exclusively until he passed away in 2022.
While the Toronto sports market is blossoming with both men’s and women’s professional talent, the Maple Leafs do not charge fans for admission, making them one of the most accessible teams in the city. They hope that Sato will bring new female baseball fans and aspiring players to Christie Pits.
Maple Leafs CEO Keith Stein, whose ownership group acquired the club for an estimated $1 million in 2023, said that signing Sato is one of the most “consequential” things this team has done in its 100-year history and is also significant for the league.
Stein isn’t just interested in Sato’s involvement in baseball, but also in creating even more opportunities. He is helping to build the Women’s Pro Baseball League (WPBL) with American baseball trailblazer Justine Siegal. Sato is a special adviser with the league.
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Rob Butler, the Maple Leafs manager and a former World Series champion with the Toronto Blue Jays, said Sato is known to be the best pitcher ever in women’s baseball. He is happy she is making history with a club rich in a history of its own.
“It takes a lot of courage,” Butler told The IX at Sato’s introductory press conference. “You’ve got to be brave to go out there and play against boys first and maybe start a girls league or get a bigger group of girls doing it. I wish it had happened sooner. I’m not surprised that this is happening finally, because it’s the opportunity [that] has to happen. We need to see that it can happen.
“It’s important for women [and] girls growing up, having someone they can look up to who has done it before. She can kind of pave that road. A lot of Canadians paved the road for me. I paved a road for other Canadians playing in the World Series on a Canadian team, things that have never happened before. So to be a part of something that’s special like this … I’m happy.”
For Sato, Canada is a special place. When she last came for the 2024 Women’s Baseball World Cup, many fans wanted to meet her and get her autograph, as she was recognized as a trailblazer for women in the sport.
On the pitch, she is aware of the growing talent across Canadian women’s baseball and wants to prove she can do even better than when the country last saw her.
“I know hockey is pretty popular here, but last year … I could feel that there is a lot of attention in women’s baseball as well, and it’s pretty growing in Canada,” Sato said. “… I want to show that I can do a lot better than last game, so I am just doing my best.”
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Sato has the stats to back up why she deserves to be on the mound on Sunday. In 11 World Cup starts, Sato has only walked seven batters across 70 2/3 innings.
Making her Japan Women’s Baseball League debut in 2013, Sato led the league with 62 strikeouts. She led the league in strikeouts in three of the last four seasons.
She is excited to give fans in Canada, in Japan and across the globe a performance to watch out for on Sunday.
“I’m just so excited to be able to play on opening day on the mound,” Sato said. “And I understand there are a lot of Japanese people and community [who are] going to be there to cheer me on, so I’ll just do my best and show what I can do to the fans.”
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