We've Got Heart continues their series on Women in Baseball with a profile of Tatiana Tchamouroff, massage therapist for the Washington Nationals. The players love her work:

Tatiana arrived to meet us a few minutes after the game started, just after her baseball duties were completed for the evening. Her twelve hour days start at 8:00 am in her Bethesda office, where she sees clients until noon before heading to the park. The players fight for spots on her schedule, especially after long road trips. They will bargain with each other for those open slots; others will just schedule a morning appointment at Tatiana's Bethesda practice. "It's pretty funny the arguments that take place outside the door with guys trying to get on the list. I mean, I do everything I can to see everybody." They are fighting to see her because she's one of the best.

She was widely credited for relieving Dmitri Young's debilitating back pain in the early part of the '08 season. She was an integral part of Cal Ripken Jr.'s rehab team, and the trusted personal massage therapist to Brady Anderson. Despite having dozens of professional athlete clients, it wasn't until 2008 that Tatiana had her first real opportunity to work for a professional team, something she's been dreaming about for a long time.

She's led a very interesting life in addition to her work with athletes.

A new Japanese independent team drafted a woman. Eri Yoshida is just 16 years old:

"I always dreamed of becoming a professional," Yoshida, who is 5-feet tall and weighs 114 pounds, told a news conference Monday. "I have only just been picked by the team and haven't achieved anything yet."

Yoshida throws a side-arm knuckleball and says she wants to follow in the footsteps of Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield, who has built a successful major league career throwing a knuckleball.

I've thought for a while that a knuckleball might be the way for a woman to play against men, or as a really slick fielding second baseman. I hope she pitches well.

There's going to be a seminar for women to learn about baseball at Shea Stadium on July 26th. Sounds like fun, and you'll learn to score.

A game, that is.

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Just wanted to offer a tip of the cap to Cat Osterman, Lisa Fernandez, Jennie Finch and the rest of the U.S. women's olympic softball team for so convincingly winning the gold medal in Athens. I wonder, though, if their opponents might have finally discovered a weakness - after all, in the gold medal game the U.S. gave up their first and only run!

Jim