“Let me tell you about my daughters. I’ll start with the one that’s coaching for the Yankees.” - Rachel Balkovec channels her father.
Rachel and Danielle discuss surprisingly similar childhood aspirations, deliver a message to "old school" baseball fans, and compare and contrast the pitch sequencing and mechanics of the highest level of baseball and softball.
Two Master's degrees later, Rachel discusses her "baseball nerd" mentality, how it brought her to Amsterdam to study under the leading researchers in baseball analytics to Driveline, the most well-respected American advanced metrics company.
Now, as a hitting coach for the New York Yankees, Rachel reflects on a time where she had $0 in her bank account, pushed it "all on red", and took a gamble on herself.
We'll also tackle:
- Fulfilling the American Dream
- Putting on the iconic pinstripes every day for work
- Girl Dads
- Practicing advanced metrics techniques... before it was "a thing"
- Level of vulnerability needed to be each other's "Rosetta Stone": when working through a language barrier with players in the Dominican Republic
- From a coaching perspective: practice philosophy, player acclimation (to a female coach), and how to create a healthy tension in coach/player relationships to elicit the best from the athletes.
- The return of baseball in 2020?
- and how a Marcus Aurelius quote applies to today's COVID world.
A listener question from Kevin in Camden, NJ: Who has been your biggest career influence so far?
