A new presence in the coach’s corner

In 10 seasons of minor league baseball, the Hillsboro Hops have never had a home opener like this one.

Making this chilly spring night in northern Oregon historic is the team’s first-year manager, whose long, blond ponytail falls down her back from beneath her navy-blue cap. Tonight marks Ronnie Gajownik’s home debut as the skipper of the Arizona Diamondbacks’ affiliate in the High-A Northwest League.

No woman has ever managed at a higher level of professional baseball than Gajownik has. Her team was hot out of the gate, winning 6 of its first 7 games. The Hops then struggled through a 10-game losing streak before closing out April by going 3-1 in their last four games of the month.

Gajownik’s presence in the Hops’ third-base coaching box—or more accurately, around it, as she consistently stands either behind or in front of it throughout Hillsboro’s nine-inning contest against the visiting Everett (Wash.) AquaSox—is not exactly an anomaly in pro baseball. It’s even part of a trend: Whereas men coaching women in college and pro sports has been so common as to be unremarkable, in baseball and other sports more women are starting to appear on sidelines.

Gajownik is one of two women tasked with guiding a Major League Baseball farm club this season: The other is Rachel Balkovec, who is now in her second year leading the Tampa Tarpons, a Low-A affiliate of the New York Yankees. Balkovec broke the proverbial glass ceiling last year by becoming the first female minor league manager.

There’s also a woman coaching in the major leagues: Alyssa Nakken became the first female to coach in uniform at the major-league level when she joined the San Francisco Giants as a hitting coach in 2020. Her No. 92 jersey from Opening Day that year is now in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Last season, Nakken made history a second time when she became the first woman to serve in an on-field role, replacing Antoan Richardson in the first-base box after an umpire ejected Richardson from a game against the San Diego Padres.

As historic as Nakken’s appearance in a big-league dugout was, though, she wasn’t the first woman on an MLB team’s staff. That distinction belongs to Andrea Hayden, whom the Minnesota Twins hired as a strength and conditioning coach—a more behind-the-scenes role—in 2019.

There are also women in MLB front offices: Kim Ng, the Miami Marlins’ general manager, is the first woman to hold that title in any of America’s four major men’s pro sports (football, basketball, and hockey are the others). Raquel Ferreira is a vice president and assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox, and Sara Goodrum is the Houston Astros’ director of player development.

The trend of women coaching men in baseball began in 2015 when the Oakland A’s hired Justine Siegal as a guest instructor for their Arizona fall instructional league team. Rachel Folden followed as a hitting coach for the Chicago Cubs’ Rookie-level team in Mesa, Ariz., in 2019.

Sacramento Kings’ Terence Davis watches film with assistant coach Lindsey Harding prior to a game against the Phoenix Suns. John W. McDonough/Sports Illustrated via Getty Images

Baseball isn’t the only men’s pro sport embracing this trend. Over the past decade, 14 women have served as assistant coaches in the National Basketball Association, including five who are still active—Jenny Boucek (Indiana Pacers), Lindsey Harding (Sacramento Kings), Sonia Raman (Memphis Grizzlies), Kristi Toliver (Dallas Mavericks), and Teresa Weatherspoon (New Orleans Pelicans).

At least three women who have served as NBA assistants are now the head coaches of women’s pro or ­college teams: Becky Hammon, an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs from 2014 to 2022, led the WNBA’s Las Vegas Aces to their first-ever championship last season.

Lindsay Gottlieb, an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2019 to 2021, and Kara Lawson, an assistant for the Boston Celtics in 2019-20, now head the women’s programs at the University of Southern California and Duke University, respectively.

Back in Hillsboro, Ore., Gajownik has avoided giving interviews in the early going, according to Hops team officials, because she wants to grow comfortable in her role in the spotlight. However, she’s hoping her ­presence on the field will show girls who see her on the Hops’ home field and in other Northwest League cities that their opportunities in sports need not be limited.

“I know that if my dad took me out of school on a Wednesday and we went to a baseball game and I saw a female coach on the field, I know Thursday my life would have been changing in the trajectory of where I want it to go,” Gajownik told MLB.com in January. “So the visibility aspect is huge, because again, it’s showing little girls that we’re breaking the glass ceiling, and we’re leaving breadcrumbs for everybody behind us for us just to keep adding onto it to see how far we can go.”