Balkovec represents what’s possible for women in baseball

Representation can go a great distance. There had been few ladies in baseball when Rachel Balkovec started making her manner via the ranks in 2012, and so they had been a few of the figures who helped lead her to the place she is at present as a Minor League supervisor within the Yankees’ group — and the primary full-time feminine supervisor in affiliated baseball historical past.

Now, she will be able to solely hope to do the identical for the subsequent era of feminine leaders via MLB’s Take the Field program.

“There were plenty of women in the front office at the time, but very, very few on the field. And so, there were a couple women that I kind of clung to as visible ideas of what was possible for myself,” Balkovec stated. “Knowing how impactful that was, it’s just really on my heart to be here for the women who are getting into the game to be that visible idea for them and really just giving back. Because I know there are plenty of women who paved the way for me, and so it’s just important for me to do the same.”

Take The Field — which concluded its first in-person gathering since 2019 over the weekend in San Diego — is an annual occasion designed for ladies taken with on-field careers in baseball. 

Throughout the two-day occasion, contributors met with membership representatives, participated in profession workshops and breakout teaching classes and had the prospect to listen to from quite a lot of leaders within the league, together with Marlins common supervisor Kim Ng, as they networked and honed their résumés.

For these couple of days, attendees like New York native Madeleine Calick had been surrounded by ladies with related passions and targets for the primary time.

“I don’t know any women that like to talk baseball besides my mom and my sister, and at some point, we just regurgitate the same things. So, it’s really nice to meet a whole new group of people, new women, new friends [to talk baseball with],” Calick stated. “I’ve never been in this community before and I’m so grateful.”

At one level, Calick stopped to write down Ng a letter to share how a lot she impressed her. Calick and Arizona native Gabriela Diaz keep in mind precisely what they had been doing the day Ng was employed.

It was a second that confirmed them, “If she can do it, I can do it” — a sentiment that has been echoed all through the years whereas folks like Balkovec, Mets director of Major League operations Elizabeth Benn, Rockies participant improvement and professional scouting assistant Avery Griggs and lots of others have made their manner via the ranks.

“To know that people I admire and want to emulate are in the same room as me right now — Oh my God,” Calick stated. “Just hearing them talk, I just want to absorb it all. I’m never going to forget it. … Through this whole experience, I’ve become my Major League self.”

Ten years in the past, Balkovec was being instructed that girls don’t belong in baseball. Obviously, occasions have modified. The ladies across the league, the ladies paving a path for the youthful era and the ladies taking part within the Take The Field program are a testomony to that.

“Now it’s just this incredible network of people in this community and something that MLB has invested in quite a bit,” Balkovec stated. “I think sometimes people think change is so slow and there hasn’t been too much change and we need more, but from my perspective the past decade, it’s changed quite a bit.”