SEXISM IN ATHLETICS AND BASEBALL WITH 1ST FEMALE YANKEES HITTING COACH RACHEL BALKOVEC

Balkovec began her career in 2012 as a temporary contract strength and conditioning coach for the Saint Louis Cardinals' Johnson City, Tennessee, minor-league affiliate .[2] In that role, she won the Appalachian League's award for strength coach of the year.[3] In 2014, she assumed a full-time role as the Johnson City affiliate's strength and conditioning coordinator, the first time a woman had held that role in baseball.
In 2016, Baklovec was hired by the Houston Astros to be their Latin American strength and conditioning coordinator.[2] She learned Spanish for the position, so she could better communicate with players.[2] She was the first woman in that role in Major League Baseball.[3] In 2018, she was promoted to be the Class AA Corpus Christi Hooks' strength and conditioning coach.
After moving to the Netherlands to pursue a second master's degree, Balkovec worked for the Dutch baseball and softball programs as an assistant hitting coach.[2] After graduating, she returned to the United States to work at a fellowship at Driveline Baseball, researching hitters' eye tracking and pitchers' hip movement.
In November 2019, Balkovec was announced as the New York Yankees' newest hitting coach, to start in spring training 2020, again the first woman to hold such a position full-time.[2] She also interviewed for a position as a quality control coach with the San Francisco Giants in fall 2019, but decided to take the Yankees' role.