Rachel Balkovec gets used to being the first.
Eight years ago, she was the first woman to work as a full-time strength and conditioning coach in major and minor league baseball.
Two years ago, she was the first woman to be hired to work as a batting coach anywhere in professional baseball.
And this year, she will be the first woman to become a full-time manager in the minors or majors, leading the Yankees-based Tarpons Class A team in Tampa.
Someday she hopes it won’t be a big deal.
“First of all, I’ve been in baseball for 10 years, so it seems a little interesting to me that there is so much attention now,” Balkovec said Wednesday. “But obviously society has changed, the world has changed, social media has changed. And so we celebrate women in sport, in general, a lot more than we ever were in 2012, when I first walked in. “
There was enough interest on Wednesday that more than 110 reporters signed a call for Zoom to hear him and Yankees officials talk about the historic opportunity, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has issued a statement.
“I think we’ve made progress,” said Balkovec, 34. “In the numbers, obviously, there will be 11 women in uniform (throughout professional baseball in 2022.)
“But also just the way people react to me and the way they talk to me. It becomes more normal. It is quite apparent. And it’s just exciting to see how far we’ve come. We certainly have a lot of room to grow. But it’s really exciting.
Balkovec had expected to work as a batting coach again after spending last summer with the Tampa-based Yankees Complex League team, but her bosses approached her during a visit in December to move on to the position of manager of the Tarpons.
She had to be convinced, love the chance to grow as a leader. She acknowledged that as a manager for the first time she would need some help and said she was happy the opportunity presented itself to the team base in Tampa.
“It’s absolutely an advantage,” she said. “I love Tampa. It was great to be there. Getting to know some of the community members and getting to know the town and the city, it really is a phenomenal place. Obviously having our resort there is going to be really helpful.
“I’m obviously going to need support, there’s no hiding it. And having a lot of our staff there who can just jump in and have a conversation anytime is going to be really helpful. “
Balkovec grew up in Nebraska, played college softball in New Mexico, and worked as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach at LSU while earning a master’s degree in athletic administration.
She wanted to work in baseball, with the long term goal of becoming a general manager, which she still has. She eventually made her debut as a strength and conditioning trainee in the minor leagues for the Cardinals and then the White Sox.
She got that groundbreaking first full-time job as a strength and conditioning coordinator for the Cardinals in 2014-15, then joined the Astros in 2016. Following the 2018 season with the Houston Double-A team, she decided to broaden her skills. focusing on hitting, as an apprentice hitting coach for the Netherlands national baseball and softball programs while earning a master’s degree in biomechanics from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. She has also done eye tracking research with the high tech group Driveline Baseball.
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This led to her being hired by the Yankees in November 2019 as a batting coach and ultimately to the historic opportunity she now has – with the added benefit of doing less business for others. to be continued.
“We look forward to the days when these are no longer newsworthy items,” said Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. “But this is an important and impactful next step. … Rachel should be very proud of how far she’s come so far, and the sky’s the limit.
“The cover is appreciated in that it will continue to send messages around the world to women who have similar hopes and dreams of finding ways to make an impact and that there is nothing ‘impossible.”
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