March 8 is International Women’s Day, and MLB Network is commemorating by debuting a new program focused on women within the MLB coaching ranks.
“MLB Tonight: A Conversation” featuring Women on the Field, co-hosted by Lauren Gardner and Amy Gutierrez, premieres at 7 p.m. Tuesday night and will feature interviews with seven female coaches across Major League organizations, including Yankees Low-A manager Rachel Balkovec.
In addition to Balkovec, the program features interviews with Giants assistant Alyssa Nakken, A’s minor-league instructor Veronica Alvarez, Cubs ACL hitting coach Rachel Folden, D-Backs minor-league coach Ronnie Gajnowik, Red Sox minor-league coach Bianca Smith, and Red Sox development coach Katie Krall.
The program chats with all seven women about their roads to their current positions, with Balkovec giving this quote about her emotions when she was offered the job managing the Tampa Tarpons:
“This is a funny story, but it was really lackluster, just a conversation between (Yankees farm director) Kevin Reese and myself. Dillon (Lawson, now the Yankees’ hitting coach) was present for that. They pitched it to me and I accepted pretty quickly and went through the process. We didn’t notify the media or anything, because it was just so natural. It was like, ‘Okay, I’ve been in the organization for two years and this happens a lot. Hitting coaches become managers all the time.’ I don’t want to say I didn’t think it was a big deal, but also I didn’t feel a need to tell anyone. So I started telling a couple people and they were shocked. So I thought, ‘Maybe we should tell some media people.’ Okay, this could be a big deal. It’s the third time, so it felt like a big deal when I was being discriminated against and was broke out of my mind and just wasn’t even sure if I was going to be able to make a career out of this. That felt like a big deal, this felt like a normal job or role change.”
Check out two clips below courtesy of MLB Network.
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