Changing the game: How the Boston Red Sox are making herstory
Bianca Smith has made a historic moment in professional baseball. Bianca Smith has always “proved people wrong” by becoming the first African-American female professional baseball coach for the Boston Red Sox.
We can’t wait for the next Red Sox game, but who is Bianca Smith?
Who is Bianca Smith?
Bianca Smith’s offer to coach the Boston Red Sox has become an opportunity to inspire other women to do the same. In an interview with CBS News host Dana Jacobson, Smith stated that she never “her gender has been a bigger challenge than her race” even though when people see her they see her race & gender exclusively.
Bianca Smith has always been a very sporty person as she started playing soccer at a young age before she found the love of softball in high school. Although Smith was extremely talented, she suffered an injury in her final year of high school and it ruined her opportunity of playing for Dartmouth University.
The new Boston Red Sox minor league coach then cheered for Dartmouth University and eventually worked for the Dartmouth baseball team. When Bianca Smith was going to work, she ran into Dartmouth’s softball coach asking her, “hey, do you want to try out for the team?” and couldn’t say no.
According to Skysports, Bianca Smith thrived in the Dartmouth softball team while helping the baseball team. After that Smith’s career only went up to more baseball games when she received an internship at the Commissioner’s Office and interned with two baseball clubs, MLB’s Texas Rangers & Cincinnati Reds.
However, as much as Smith was moving up in her career, CBS reported that she had to work eight jobs to pay for her apartment.
Herstory
At times Bianca Smith definitely felt like giving up the sport and moving to law, but told CBS News, “Surprisingly, there are times where they (her family) even said, why don’t you just go ahead and take the bar, go practice law for a bit, but they saw how much I wanted to do this. They saw the drive and the passion, how much I loved coaching. And they were willing to do whatever was necessary to help me.”
Making history with the Boston Red Sox was never part of Bianca Smith’s plan but now she has realized that her achievement means a lot more than it ever could before. Smith expressed, “But to me, this is just an opportunity to hopefully inspire other women, other women of color who are interested in this game, who might even have the idea that they want to coach.”
Skysports reported that Bianca Smith never wants to limit herself in the position she’s in. Smith explained, “I just want to go as high as I can, as far as I can, and if right now that’s the manager then that’s it. I just want to keep challenging myself.”
Baseball history
Bianca Smith’s Boston Red Sox hiring has come six years after the Red Sox were the first baseball team to integrate with the “Negro Leagues: the Negro National League, the Eastern Colored League, the American Negro League, the East-West League, the Negro Southern League, the Negro National League (II) and the Negro American League.”
Another recent Baseball moment came when the Miami Marlins announced Kim Ng as their first female general manager in November 2020. Baseball has taken a turn into a more integrated sport.
The minor league Red Sox coach, Bianca Smith hopes for more female coaches & voices. Although Smith loves the idea of representation, Smith told CBS News that “just because you don’t see it, doesn’t mean you can’t do it cause somebody has to be the first, otherwise it’s never going to happen.”
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Boston’s Red Sox are ready for coach Bianca Smith to make her mark. What are you most excited for this MLB season? Let us know in the comments below.
