It is official, former Olympic Gold Medalist in softball Jennie Finch will become the first female pro baseball manager in the history United States.
Finch, who took the sports world by storm as a member of the Arizona Wildcats national title team in 2001 and continued over a decade as an Olympian has officially been named a guest manager for the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (No MLB Affiliation). The opposition will be the Maryland Blue Crabs.
Though the move had been announced by the Bluefish earlier this year there was time for things to come up that could have potentially make this event not happen, but now heading into this weekend it is official.
From Bluefish GM Jamie Toole, “She is an incredible and wonderful person, and we hope our fans will enjoy seeing her in a Bluefish uniform for the day.”
The move is historic for baseball, this is a sport that has never had a female manager. The closest we got was when Justine Siegal was hired as a two-week instructional league coach for the 
Oakland Athletics. Regardless of it just being for one day, it is another barrier broken by female in baseball.
We have not seen a female professional player make it in the majors either, the closet we’ve had was Jackie Mitchell who is famously known for striking out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in a game for the Chattanooga Lookouts before seeing her contract voided by the MLB commissioner at the time.
We also saw another barrier broken this past year when French 16-year old Melissa Mayeux was added to Major League Baseball’s international registration last season. Meaning she is eligible to be signed by a team at any time. Though Mayeux isn’t expected to be signed by anyone, she still has proven she is worthy of being registered as a potential player to be signed.
Even though for just one night, Jennie Finch will be a manager of a baseball team. It is another step forward into seeing the advance of women in baseball. In a time where we’ve seen a female linebacking coach signed by the Arizona Cardinals (Jen Welter), and we’ve seen Becky Hammon become an important full time assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs, we’re now seeing the testosterone filled world of male sports accept that a coach is a coach regardless of gender. We’ve even recently heard Draymond Green say he learns a lot from the WNBA when it comes to technical skills. This is the progress that many have been fighting for and will continue fighting for in the world of sports.
While it is a long ways away for a female coach in the majors (maybe who knows), at least we can celebrate another milestone in our nations past time.
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