Rachel Balkovec, first woman MLB-affiliated team manage, debuts with victory

On Friday, Rachel Balkovec, the first woman to manage an MLB affiliated team, led the Tampa Tarpons to victory.

Balkovec, 34, has shattered one glass ceiling after another. She was the first woman to work as a full-time minor league strength and conditioning coach, and she went on to become the first woman to work as a full-time minor league hitting coach.

Crowds cheered her name as the Tarpons, who are associated with the New York Yankees, faced the Lakeland Flying Tigers, who are affiliated with the Detroit Tigers, on Friday. The Tarpons of Balkovec defeated the Flying Tigers 9-6.

“I’ve never heard my name chanted like that,” Rachel Balkovec said, according to The Associated Press. “It was so much fun. Again, I just see, it’s like I see me sitting in the stands, whatever 15, 20 years ago, and so it’s just really cool.”

Balkovec began her professional baseball career as a college softball player. She told NPR in January that she isn’t a big baseball fan, which might be “jarring to a few people’s ears.” It was the minor league system, instead, that fascinated her.

She recalls hearing players discuss the minors while working as a strength and conditioning coach at Louisiana State University.

“Their stories of the minor league experiences and eating hot dogs before the games and training in YMCAs in random towns in the country,” Balkovec began. “And I just thought, ‘Wow.’ Like, I had no idea, even as a college softball player, the extensive, incredibly long and twisting journey that these athletes go through.”

The game in Lakeland, Florida, ended with fireworks and an autograph session.

“Strangely, it’s like I’ve always had a very strong vision, not specifically this maybe, but I’ve always had a strong vision for my life and understood I could make a really huge impact no matter area I’m in,” Balkovec said.

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