The New York Yankees have become the latest team in the MLB to hop on the female hiring bandwagon, signing Rachel Balkovec to be the skipper for their Single-A farm system team, the Tampa Tarpons.
Now to be fair, this hire is not solely just to look good or create internet buzz, Belkovic is a qualified candidate. A former catcher in college, she has worked internationally and throughout professional baseball’s minor league landscapes in a variety of roles and certainly has the experience necessary to be a successful manager.
Unfortunately, Balkovec has commented in the past on how she thinks she has to do more to prove that she is a worthy candidate for the job than a male prospect:
"I view my path as an advantage," Balkovec told The Associated Press in 2019. "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’s attitude towards being hired is very off-kilter. How does she know that all her work is more or less than a man would have to do to be hired? She was hired to manage a professional baseball team (albeit a minor league one), so she was always going to have to work incredibly hard to prove she was up to the task. And in the end, if her work results in a job, does it really matter what path she had to take to get there?
Balkovec should just be thankful for the opportunity she was given. If she thinks it’s unfair, I’m sure there’s a long line of people who would love to take her job.
