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Rachel Balkovec, the 1st woman to manage an MLB-affiliated team, debuts with a win

Tampa Tarpons manager Rachel Balkovec watches from the top steps of the dugout, while making her debut as a minor league manager of the Tampa Tarpons on Friday in Lakeland, Fla.
Phelan M. Ebenhack
/
AP
Tampa Tarpons manager Rachel Balkovec watches from the top steps of the dugout, while making her debut as a minor league manager of the Tampa Tarpons on Friday in Lakeland, Fla.

Rachel Balkovec, the first woman to manage an MLB affiliated team, took home a victory for the Tampa Tarpons on Friday.

Balkovec, 34, has broken glass ceiling after glass ceiling. She was the first woman to be a full-time minor league strength and conditioning coach, and later, she became the first woman to serve as a full-time hitting coach in the minor leagues.

On Friday, when the New York Yankees-affiliated Tarpons matched up against the Lakeland Flying Tigers — which are affiliated with the Detroit Tigers — crowds cheered her name. Balkovec's Tarpons defeated the Flying Tigers 9-6.

"I've never heard my name chanted like that," 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."

Before she got her start in professional baseball, Balkovec played college softball. In January, she told NPR that she's not much of a baseball fan, which might be "jarring to a few people's ears." It was the minor league system, instead, that fascinated her.

When she was a strength and conditioning coach at Louisiana State University, she remembers hearing players talk about the minors.

"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."

Fireworks and an autograph session marked the end of Friday night's game in Lakeland, Fla.

"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.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Rina Torchinsky

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

The independent journalism and non-commercial programming you rely on every day is in danger.

If you’re reading this, you believe in trusted journalism and in learning without paywalls. You value access to educational content kids love and enriching cultural programming.

Now all of that is at risk.

Federal funding for public media is under threat and if it goes, the impact to our communities will be devastating.

Together, we can defend it. It’s time to protect what matters.

Your voice has protected public media before. Now, it’s needed again. Learn how you can protect the news and programming you depend on.

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