Red Sox Hire First Black Woman to Coach Professional Baseball

The Boston Red Sox have made history with their latest hire. On Monday, the team announced they had hired Bianca Smith to be a minor league coach. She becomes the first Black woman to coach in professional baseball.

"The opportunity is amazing," Smith said in an interview on MLB Network's Hot Stove program on Monday as MLB.com reported. "I'm still wrapping my head around it. I probably won't really have it sink in until I'm actually there. I think it's a great opportunity also to kind of inspire other women who are interested in this game. This is not really something I thought about it when I was younger. I kind of fell into it being an athlete. So I'm excited to get that chance to show what I can do."

Smith, 29, is currently the assistant coach and hitting coordinator at Carroll University in Wisconsin. She previously served as director of baseball operations at Case Western Reserve University from 2013-2017 and was also an assistant coach at the University of Dallas in 2018. When the Red Sox made the announcement, Smith went to Twitter to show her appreciation.

"I am so incredibly grateful for all of the support I've been getting!" Smith wrote."Of course, none of this would be possible without the help of my family, friends, and the trailblazers who came before me. I can't wait to get started. Thank you so much and go Red Sox!!"

Smith has also served as an intern for Texas Rangers and Cincinnati Reds, doing work in their baseball operation departments. She will start her Red Sox career in Fort Meyers, Florida, at the team's developmental facility and will work with position players.

"As the hitting coordinator, I run all of our technology side for hitting at Carroll," said Smith. "The number of different resources that the Red Sox have as far as tech goes, I'm really excited to get my hands on that and learning the different metrics and being able to dive deeper into what I currently have is pretty exciting."

Smith played softball at Dartmouth College and graduated from the school in 2012. The news of Smith comes nearly two months after the Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng as the first female general manager in MLB history.