Oakland Athletics hire Justine Siegal as MLB’s first female coach
Justine Siegal throws batting practice to the Cleveland Indians in February 2011.
The National League has existed for nearly 140 years. Major League Baseball has for more than 110. In that time, there have been no female coaches among the professional ranks.
The Oakland Athletics’ announcement on Tuesday has been a long time coming. The team announced that they have hired Justine Siegal, 40, to be a coach for the Athletics’ Instructional League team in October.
Siegal tweeted that day: “Honored and grateful to be a guest coach for @Athletics during Instructional League. Baseball really is a game for all. #DreamBig”
The job will last two weeks, but a team official told the San Francisco Chronicle they aren’t “ruling out” the post turning into full-time position next season.
The number of women holding any leadership position in Major League Baseball is minuscule.
Professional men’s baseball did not have any female coaches at all until 2009, when Siegal became a coach for the Brockton Rox, an independent minor-league team.
A few other women have worked as scouts and in the front office. Kim Ng, who was the Dodgers assistant general manager until 2011 and is MLB’s current senior vice president of baseball operations, has been mentioned as a potential general-manager candidate.
Jean Afterman, the assistant general manager of the Yankees, is the highest-ranking woman in an MLB front office.
Elsewhere, two NBA teams have employed female assistant coaches, and this summer, one NFL team hired a female preseason intern to work with the team’s linebackers.
But those examples are rare. In major-league baseball, there are no female general managers, umpires or coaches.
Siegal’s qualifications include her minor-league coaching experience, a Pd.D in sport and exercise psychology, completion of the Major League Scouting Bureau’s scout school and a lifetime in baseball.
Siegal’s job will run from Oct. 4 to Oct. 17. According to the Chronicle, her duties will include working with infielders, hitting fungos and throwing batting practice.
Twitter: @zhelfand
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