The Future Is Female

I love doing these "The Future Is Female" posts!  Every male-dominated sport that hires a qualified candidate, every time a female breaks through the glass ceiling or makes an advancement in a STEM field, is a move in the right direction!  But more on STEM leaders later. 

 

The big news in baseball this week is the hiring of Rachel Balkovec as a hitting coach with the minors.  She wants to be a hit with the New York Yankees — and the way to do that is to help their minor leaguers get more hits.

 

She was hired in November and starts work next month as a minor league hitting coach, believed to the first woman hitting coach employed by a big league team.

 

"She was really impressive. I really look forward to having more conversations with her," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday after talking with Balkovec at the winter meetings. "She has a really good understanding, especially when it comes to the pitch tracking."
 

A 32-year-old from Omaha, Nebraska, Balkovec was a minor league strength and conditioning coordinator and coach for the St. Louis Cardinals from 2011-15, then switched to the Houston Astros as Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator. She worked with the Dutch national baseball and softball teams in the past year while studying for her second master's degree.

Balkove is well aware that women have not been given the same opportunities as men in Major League Baseball. But she's past that.  "My mom always used to say, life's not fair," she explained. "So is it fair? No. Does it matter? No. You have to keep standing at that door banging on it."

All those hurdles in a male-dominated sport have toughened her.  "I view my path as an advantage," she said. “I had to do probably much more than maybe a male counterpart, but I like that because I'm so much more prepared for the challenges that I might encounter.”

Balkovec interviewed with Kevin Reese, a former major leaguer who is the Yankee' senior director of player development; Andrew Wright, hired in June as manager of staff development after four years as baseball coach at the University of Charleston; and Dillon Lawson, who joined the Yankees before last season as a hitting coordinator after working in Houston's minor league system.  "When I had Kevin Reese and Dillon rave to such a level about her as they did, that was all good enough for me," general manager Brian Cashman said. "Since we hired her, a major league club interviewed her in San Francisco for an open major league coaching position. So thankfully, she's still ours."

Born July 5, 1987, Balkovec played softball, basketball and soccer at Skutt Catholic High School in Omaha. She enrolled at Creighton, where she was a catcher, then transferred to New Mexico and received a degree in 2009 with a major in exercise science. Two years later, she got a masters in sports management from LSU.
 

She moved to the Netherlands in 2018 to study at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam for a masters in human movement sciences, focusing in biomechanics. She was exchanging videos of Dutch players with Lawson, and her former Astros colleague asked her to interview with New York. "I think you look around at the landscape of the coaches that are being hired and it's people that really understand how people move and how to get players to better understand their own bodies," Reese said. "And then she started to get into some of this vision-tracking-type stuff, and that's all really intriguing to us, too. So it's a combination of a lot of different things. We're always looking for problem solvers and people who are trying to figure things out on their own, and I think that's basically what she's done her whole career."

Lawson had encouraged her to make the jump to coaching. As part of the research requirement for her latest degree, she had worked since August at Driveline Baseball in Kent, Washington.

"Probably the most interesting thing from a broad perspective for me, leaving strength conditioning, going to the field, is the mental side of it, where a guy's in a slump for 30 ABs, what do you do?" Balkovec said.
 

She was excited to work with assistant general manager Jean Afterman, a beacon for women in baseball who is entering her 19th season with the Yankees, her ninth as senior vice president. Balkovec will help Gulf Coast League players at the minor league complex in Tampa, Florida, make trips to the Yankees' complex in the Dominican Republic and do some roving throughout the minor league system.

Fall into Fall ???

Sitting by the pool drinking my morning cup of tea and it is positively glorious!!  The temperature is way down, there's a beautiful breeze and you can actually smell the rain coming our way. I'd say the weather is starting to transition to Fall and I'm excited to see what Fall in Texas is all about!  I actually dreamt of Fall decorations last night (which I can explain!). Fall is my favorite time of year and Fall up North is gorgeous and Fall in Birmingham was always fun and fantastic. Coach loved putting his TV on the back deck, having a fire in the pit and watching some SEC football.

Last night Cosmo and I went to the Rangers vs Mariners game and had a great time!  He's  been to that stadium many times before (honestly, where hasn't he been) but it was my first Rangers game. One of his vendors dropped off the tickets and we had great seats 25 rows up off the 3rd baseline. The stadium is nice but I really think Camden Yards is my favorite place to see a baseball game. The O's are coming to town next weekend so maybe we'll catch part of that series.

We couldn't figure out why the Rangers mascot, which is a horse, was running around wearing a tartan kilt and a set of golf clubs. And then Jordan Speith threw the ceremonial pitch. 

On our way to the stadium last night we passed this great little nursery by our house. On the way there I noticed they had some Fall/Halloween decorations up but couldn't get a good look. On the way home it was dark and the decorations were lit up and looked super cute so that's why I think I dreamed of fall decor!!  I love the layout and look of this house and think my Fall things are going to look great in this house! 

O's and Cards

Last week we started watching House of Cards on Netflix.  I am totally hooked!  It's so, so good!  House of Cards is everything I love about living in DC!  The power struggles, the intrigue.  I think Kevin Spacey is one of the greatest actors of our generation and his on-screen wife, Claire, is portrayed by Robin Wright who was in two of my most favorite movies ever -- The Princess Bride and Forest Gump (aka Princess Butter Cup, aka Jenny).  Robin Wright was also married to the other actor I consider one of the greatest of our generation . . . Mr. Sean Penn.  I couldn't sleep one night and kind of went on a marathon and finished Season 1.  Champ is only on episode 5 or 6 but that's the beauty of Netflix . . . you can watch at your own pace.  T and The Dew are watching it also so that's been kind of fun.

Friday KJ had her 8th grade formal.  Sniff, Sniff.  Can't believe she's graduating from 8th grade in a few days and will be a high school freshman in the fall!  She had a couple of girls come over for photos beforehand and said she had a really good time at the dance.  Today they cleaned out their lockers, tomorrow she has her 8th grade field trip to Mountainside for zip lining, swimming, rope course and lunch.  Friday morning is the graduation ceremony and she's done!  Next week she's going to volleyball camp with her friend Corrine and next weekend we have two sets of friends coming to town!

This past weekend Champ surprised us with tickets to the O's home game vs. the A's and he made hotel arrangements in the Inner Harbor so we didn't have to drive home late at night.  The weather was incredibly perfect, mid-80's, and we had a wonderful late lunch before heading to the game.  I had never been to Camden Yards and it was quite an experience!  The O's have a HUGE fan base.  EVERY person in that stadium was wearing orange.  It was a great game and we had an easy walk back to our hotel.

I thought we had a graduation party on Sunday but totally read the invitation wrong and missed the party!  It was on Saturday, not Sunday.  I swear, sometimes I think I'm dyslexic!

Tradition

Tonight is our annual "End of School" sleep-over tradition.  T started it way back in elementary school and KJ carries on the torch.  It's such a fun way of kicking off the summer!  I don't even know why they have school this week -- today they got out around 1 PM and tomorrow they are released around 11:30 AM.  T will take them to school in the morning and then head over to the SEC games at the Met.  #hottytoddy

Got My Life Back

While I'm sad KJ's travel volleyball season is over, I am so happy, happy, happy to have my life back!  I'm looking forward to not traveling on the weekends and I'm looking forward to not having to organize my life around her weekly practice schedule!  Whoop!  Whoop!  They had such a great tournament this past weekend at the BJCC.  While they didn't win Regionals, they played SO incredibly well and had a couple of really awesome games! 

Coach had DALC all weekend but was able to leave Mountain Brook and catch KJ's last match Sunday afternoon.  DALC is so unpredictable -- we've had tournaments where one day we're freezing cold (using space heaters, sleeping bags, and people are buying sweatshirts to wrap around their head to keep warm and buying socks to use as gloves) and the next day is in the 80's.  And at least one day is pouring rain or it rained the week leading up to the tournament and the fields are a disaster.

Saturday night KJ and I left the BJCC to meet Coach and some friends at Jackson's in Homewood for dinner.  It was such a beautiful night we all sat outside and watched the kids going into Prom at Rosewood Hall.  I don't know what school it was but the kids looked nice -- some of the girls had long gowns, some had short cocktail dresses.  A lot of party buses and stretch Hummers pulled up and we had so much fun counting the kids coming out of the cars. 

So I always bitch and complain about how much of our personal time lacrosse takes up but I have to say, I absolutely love our lacrosse family.  Coach had a couple of guys come down from the Louisville store to help out with DALC and they came out to dinner with us along with Patrick, Evan, Schuler and Nick.  Lacrosse is definitely a special fraternity and we've made life-long friends across the country.  Just a great group of people and I know if Coach was unavailable and me or the girls ever need anything, they would help out in a heart beat.  My girls love all these guys and, depending on their age, think of them as the big brothers they don't have or honorary Godfathers (of course it doesn't hurt that most lax players are good-looking and in great shape!).  It's a very special relationship. 

T had a great weekend, too.  Saturday she was up at 5 AM to participate in the AOPi Run for the Roses 5K, then she was off to the Grove Bowl and then she went to the baseball game to see the Rebs sweep the series against Bama.  Sunday she had an RA meeting and then rush practice.  Busy girl!  She has had an AMAZING freshman year and we are so happy she's right where she needs to be! 

I am proud to say I am now flip-flop worthy.  Friday afternoon I had what was quite possibly one of the best pedicures of my life.  Holy crap.  I was so damned relax I was afraid I might fall asleep on my drive home.  And for a brief second I thought about stepping out of my comfort zone, I snapped out it at the last possible minute and went with my old stand-by, "Cajun Shrimp."  Why mess with perfection?