Fans of the New York Yankees and all of baseball have to learn the name of Rachel Balkovec. Because this young woman born 33 years ago is getting used to making history.
Balkovec has been breaking down gender barriers at diamonds since 2014. And now she will become the first female manager in the MLB Minor League system.
The Yankees have decided to give him the reins of the Tampa Tarpon, the branch of that currency in Class A low.
On April 8, in Lakeland, a female manager will coach for the first time in organized baseball.
Journalist Lindsey Adler reported the news this Sunday, dropping the news on Twitter, before writing her report for The Athletic site.
It is another step in the remarkable career of Balkovec, a former recipient in the US university system who has earned two master’s degrees in sports and has gone on to work with the Netherlands national team.
Originally from Omaha, in the state of Nebraska, she already has two years as part of the coaching staff on the Yankees’ farms.
Her promotion comes at the close of a week in which another girl, Genevieve Beacom, made her own contribution to breaking down gender barriers in baseball.
Beacom, a 17-year-old teenager, became the first woman to see action in the Australia Baseball League, the country’s professional circuit.
FROM THE MOUNTAIN TO THE BATTING CAGE
Beacom is not alone in the pursuit of her dream. The Mexican Rosy María del Castillo also wrote a remarkable chapter in this saga, when in May she made her leap to the rented field.
Del Castillo has a brilliant service record with El Tri, her country’s national baseball team, and was hired by the VP El Fuerte team, from the Clemente Grijalba League, in the state of Sinaloa.
Her debut came as a starting pitcher and was a sensation in the Mexican sports media.
As pitchers undertake the difficult task of showing off on the mound, several women already work as coaches in the MLB system.
Alyssa Nakken even already has a place in the Cooperstown Hall of Fame. The uniform he wore in 2021 on his first day as coach of the San Francisco Giants was claimed by the famous museum, to be exhibited there.
The Pittsburgh Pirates announced in December the hiring of Caitlyn Callaghan as a development coach. He will work in Brandenton, the spring headquarters of the buccaneers.
The signing of Callaghan and this announcement by the Yankees responds to a clear interest of MLB itself, which created the Take the Field program five years ago, to encourage the incorporation of female personnel to different areas of the business, from management to the field. .
A total of 23 ladies started last season as coaches in the various categories of Major League Baseball. Among them was Bianca Smith, in the Boston Red Sox affiliates, as the first African-American to cross the barrier.
Balkovec is the pioneer of that contingent, even before the creation of Take the Field. And when he takes a bat in his hands, he still looks.
In 2014, she became the first woman to be hired full-time as a fitness coach in organized baseball with the St. Louis Cardinals. She was assigned to the Johnson City Cardinals.
From the Appalachian League, in the Rookie category, Balkovec jumped to the Houston Astros in 2016. With the Texans, she became the first woman hired to be a strength and fitness coordinator for Latin America. There he showed another of his aptitudes: to better fulfill his work, he learned to speak Spanish.
In 2018 she was assigned to the Corpus Christi Hooks, the Double A branch of the Astros. But in 2019 she again marked a milestone, passing to the Yankees and becoming the first woman hired to be an assistant hitting coach, one of her passions.
Now Balkovec will make history – once again – as a manager in Tampa.
“Since you’re in college, women’s sports usually don’t follow the same route as men’s sports,” he said in a report that in 2019 the ESPN network dedicated to him. “But I wanted to work in baseball.”
“One day I received a call,” he recounted. “And (the executive) told me: ‘I want to hire you. But there is no way my organization will hire a woman. ‘ I changed my resume. I deleted that I was a girls softball catcher in Division 1 of the university and put only that I was a catcher in Division 1 of the university. Instead of my name Rachel I put Rae. I became gender neutral. And the calls began to arrive ”.
With the New York organization he gained even more respect. That is why he continues to break down barriers. And that is why he has made a name for himself that we must all learn.
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