CLEARWATER, Fla. — Someplace over Tampa Bay, whereas driving on the causeway connecting Tampa to Clearwater, Fla., Rachel Balkovec requested the 2 high Yankees prospects within the again seat if that they had ever watched softball.
Antonio Gomez, 20, a catcher from Venezuela, stated he had. Jasson Dominguez, 19, one of many highest-ranked prospects in baseball, stated he had, too — nevertheless it was males taking part in in his native Dominican Republic. Neither had seen girls play school softball.
“You’re about to see what feminine athletes seem like,” stated Balkovec, 34.
It was throughout a dinner with these gamers that week in mid-February, lengthy earlier than the minor league season started, that Balkovec realized that they most likely didn’t know a lot about her background.
They knew she was a unicorn — the primary girl to function a supervisor in affiliated skilled baseball — however they didn’t know a lot about softball, the game Balkovec performed in school earlier than her winding and making an attempt path so far. So Balkovec, the supervisor of the Tampa Tarpons, a low Class A affiliate of the Yankees, had an concept: take Dominguez and Gomez to a preseason school softball event that was happening close to the Yankees’ spring coaching facility.
Balkovec’s hiring has been a watershed second for the male-dominated sport of baseball. Numerous girls can relate to the rejections she acquired for job openings, to her constructing an much more complete résumé in consequence (she has a grasp’s diploma in sport administration and pursued a second, in biomechanics), to her small paychecks and to her lengthy path to working a baseball workforce.
She has shattered glass ceilings throughout her 10 years working in skilled baseball: the primary girl to carry a full-time place as a minor league energy and conditioning coordinator (with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2014); the primary girl to function a full-time hitting teacher by an enormous league workforce (with the Yankees in 2019); and now the primary feminine supervisor. All alongside the best way, Balkovec has opened individuals’s eyes. Spending 4 hours of a Saturday night taking Dominguez and Gomez to softball video games was the most recent instance.
“I didn’t have this dazzling sports activities profession, however I used to be a high-level athlete,” stated Balkovec, a catcher on the softball groups at Creighton College and the College of New Mexico. “And within the Dominican Republic, for instance, you simply don’t see that that always with girls. In reality, virtually by no means. They usually don’t get it, so I wish to present them.”
Balkovec stated this as she drove to choose up Dominguez and Gomez from the lodge they have been staying at throughout a Yankees’ preseason camp. Throughout the 30-minute drive to the location of the St. Pete/Clearwater Elite Invitational, they talked in regards to the intricacies of softball, her early forays into skilled baseball in 2012 (working as a receptionist for the gear firm Marucci within the early morning and, within the late morning, as a energy and conditioning intern for the Cardinals) and the explanation for his or her journey within the first place.
“I got here as a result of Rachel all the time has good concepts,” Gomez stated in English — following a rule of Balkovec’s designed to get the 2 gamers working towards their second language. (Balkovec, a Nebraska native, regularly answered in Spanish, which she discovered from Latin American gamers through the years.)
The 2022 M.L.B. Season
A season that was doubtful is all of the sudden in full gear.
All through the night, the gamers discovered extra about Balkovec, who made her managerial debut on April 8, and about what she represented. As they rode the event trolley from the parking zone to the softball stadiums, Balkovec defined why she was now extra snug hanging out along with her gamers away from the sphere.
As a younger energy and conditioning coach, she stated she would take gamers to the grocery store to show them how you can eat wholesome, however she would by no means take them to dinner. She known as these days “the Wild West” as a result of there have been barely every other girls in baseball. She stated that folks feared romantic relationships creating with the gamers, and that she would by no means put on a crop high or tank high round them.
“She’s an enormous image thinker, and in any stroll of life — a coach, a supervisor, my supervisor at my job — firstly, in the event you like somebody and also you belief them, you’re prepared to do no matter they ask,” stated Balkovec’s sister, Stephanie, in a cellphone interview. “For a very long time in her early days, I used to yell at her as a result of she wouldn’t allow them to see her be human.”
However, Balkovec stated, as she received older, her colleagues and gamers received to know her higher and society advanced (little by little, extra girls labored in baseball). She didn’t fear about how issues like clothes have been perceived anymore as a result of her priorities have been clear. She sees herself not solely as a supervisor however as a life coach to her gamers, notably the Latin American ones who face distinctive challenges. She not solely talks to her gamers about how you can enhance their swings and their our bodies, however she can also be robust or compassionate as wanted, and he or she speaks to them about such issues as their off-field objectives and the way they need to respect girls.
“That’s a part of who Rachel is, someone who cares so much about these guys, and it’s not all the time in most conventional approach, like ‘Oh, let’s go to a baseball sport so we are able to discuss this man’s slider’ or ‘Let’s watch video,’” stated Kevin Reese, the Yankees’ vice chairman of participant improvement, in a cellphone interview. “That’s the place you’re most likely going to get some fringe advantages of Rachel as a result of she sees issues by means of a little bit bit completely different lens of life and that has plenty of benefits.”
Instantly after stepping off the event’s trolley, a fan acknowledged Balkovec. Gomez and Dominguez laughed to themselves however have been impressed.
This continued for the remainder of the night time. Because the three bounced between the concurrent video games of the College of Texas-U.C.L.A. and Michigan-Louisiana State, Balkovec was stopped at the very least six extra occasions for an autograph or to pose for pictures, together with by a youth women’ softball workforce in attendance. That occurred to Gomez and Dominguez, a extremely touted prospect who signed with the Yankees for $5 million when he was 16, a mixed 3 times.
“Rachel is so well-known!” Gomez stated.
Throughout the video games, Dominguez and Gomez peppered Balkovec with questions or observations. They identified swings they appreciated. They cheered after massive performs. (At one level, Gomez joined the Texas followers’ chant.) They snapped pictures and took movies of the sport. They identified {that a} nationwide community was broadcasting the video games. They marveled on the pitchers and puzzled if they may hit a softball. Dominguez known as the video games thrilling and quicker than baseball.
“They’re so good!” Gomez stated. Dominguez, who had by no means seen girls’s softball, added, “I’ve discovered that girls are very succesful. I by no means imagined in my life seeing girls doing this, throwing this tough and taking part in like this.”
As soon as the Texas-U.C.L.A. sport ended, Dominguez and Gomez adopted Balkovec so she might say hiya to the U.C.L.A. coaches she knew.
Balkovec launched her gamers to Kelly Inouye-Perez, U.C.L.A.’s head softball coach. Gomez needed a photograph with the U.C.L.A. workforce, and Dominguez, whereas initially shy, quickly relented. Inouye-Perez instructed her squad about Balkovec’s new gig.
“The cool half is that she’s in an influence place, and it says so much about alternatives for us as females and being a feminine chief and on the Yankees,” she stated. “How about that?”
Off to the facet, Inouye-Perez defined that her workforce had been followers of Balkovec for a while. And when Balkovec was promoted, Lisa Fernandez, an assistant U.C.L.A. coach and three-time Olympic gold medal winner, despatched her a textual content message, forgetting that Balkovec had her quantity.
“‘Hey, Rachel. That is Lisa Fernandez, the coach from U.C.L.A., and I’m so excited for you,’” Balkovec recalled. “And I used to be like, ‘Lisa, you don’t have to elucidate to me who you’re! I had your bat once I was a child.’”
Inouye-Perez requested for a photograph with Gomez and Dominguez “so whenever you go massive league, you’ll bear in mind who I’m.” As they posed, Inouye-Perez known as over to Balkovec, “Get in right here, Coach.”
“Supervisor,” Gomez retorted with a smile.
Throughout the drive again to Tampa, Balkovec had just a few parting ideas for her gamers.
First, she instructed Dominguez and Gomez a couple of pet peeve she hoped to not see in the course of the upcoming Tarpons’ season: gamers misplaced of their cellphones within the clubhouse quite than interacting with one another.
Second, she needed to plant a seed. A part of why she aspired to develop into a common supervisor someday, she instructed them, was as a result of she needed to overtake the expertise pipeline from Latin America. Whereas M.L.B. groups had education schemes, she felt not sufficient emphasis was placed on creating gamers as people. She famous how corrupt the worldwide beginner signing system might be. She requested for his or her opinions.
Balkovec then instructed them about her dream that each of them would go to school. Gomez known as it his Plan B.
“In case you’re only a good baseball participant, and also you make some huge cash, that’s it,” she stated, including later, “It’s important to do extra. Go to highschool. Be completely different. And completely different on this enterprise is placing worth on different issues past cash, girls, going out — that’s so widespread.”
“That’s the straightforward life,” Gomez stated. However then he provided his perspective. He instructed Balkovec about how she grew up with extra alternatives in the US than he did in Venezuela. He defined how, when he was 12, his father requested him if he needed to deal with college or baseball, and he selected the latter. He continued, “It’s completely different. We weren’t born right here.”
“I do know what you’re saying, however now you’re right here,” she responded. “You might have cash and a little bit little bit of safety, so you can begin desirous about different issues past simply this.” She added later, “I do know you’re younger. It’s OK. It’s one thing you should take into consideration in your life. What are you doing right here? Simply to play baseball? What’s your objective on this world?”
“I don’t know,” Gomez stated. “Baseball continues to be onerous.”
The dialog carried on as Balkovec become the parking zone of their lodge. When she stopped, Gomez and Dominguez stated goodbye and added one thing few baseball managers are prone to hear from their gamers.
“Rachel, love you,” Gomez stated. “Thanks.”
“Thanks,” Dominguez added. “I like you.”
