Siegal’s Time With A’s This Fall Not Just About Breaking Barriers

Feature Photo Credit: Kimberly Contreras

LogoMLBOAKFall Instructional League is as much about learning the mental aspects of succeeding in professional baseball as it is about developing physical skills. Organizations bring in guest coaches with a variety of backgrounds to their “Instructs” programs to augment their player development staff, and broaden the horizons of their youngest prospects.

This fall, the Oakland A’s invited Justine Siegal, a Ph.D. in sport psychology and a pioneer in the area of gender equality in baseball, to their Instructs to share her coaching expertise and deliver a message about fighting through obstacles to reach a dream. With her two-week stint in the A’s fall camp, Siegal became the first woman to coach members of a major league organization.

“The Instructional League is such an impressionable time for our players. For the majority of them, it is their first time being around the A’s complex and around the rest of the organization – besides whoever their staff was over the summer,” Oakland A’s general manager David Forst said.

“It’s the best chance that we get to really explain to them how the A’s work. We have always felt like diversity of opinion is a great thing and only leads to better decisions and better processes. To have someone like Justine give them her perspective I think is really unique and it was a great experience for this group of guys.”

A’s minor league field coordinator Aaron Nieckula runs the A’s Instructs program. He says that “45% of the Instructs program involves off-the-field work, such as the mental game, the approach, handling success and failure,” as well as time in team meetings and in the video room. According to Nieckula, Siegal made a significant contribution to that aspect of the program, while also contributing in a variety of coaching roles for on-the-field instruction. Despite the expected uncertainty of how a woman might fit into the coaching staff, Nieckula said Siegal became a part of the team quickly.

“Ever since I have been a coach with the A’s, Liepp [A’s director of player development Keith Lieppman] has made it a point to stress not only the on-the-field stuff but the off-the-field things, as well,” Nieckula said. “With Justine having a Ph.D. in sports psychology, that expertise brought credibility and firepower to what she was able to offer. The players were very responsive to that.”

Siegal was 16 when she decided that she would be the first woman to coach baseball in college. When she told her high school baseball coach, he laughed and said that a man would never listen to a woman on a baseball field.

“I decided then that I was going to ignore him and that I was going to get my PhD.,” SiegaI said. “I knew that I wasn’t going to have the same playing opportunities as men. At the A’s camp, most of those coaches have minor league experience – if not major league experience. Realistically, that just wasn’t going to be my path. I thought if I got a PhD., I could out-educate most of the guys and bring something different to the table.”

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Justine Siegal, Ph.D. (Photo courtesy baseballforall.com)

Siegal pushed open many doors that were historically closed to women to gain coaching experience. From 2008-2010, she was an assistant baseball coach at Springfield College (MA) where she earned her Ph.D. In 2009, Siegal became the first woman to coach a professional baseball team as first base coach for the independent Brockton Rox, who, at that time, were part of the Can-Am League. Then in 2011 and 2012, she made news when she was invited to throw batting practice to a number of major league teams, another first for women in the sport. Along the way, Siegal also founded the nonprofit organization Baseball for All, which focuses on gender equality in youth baseball.

The A’s were one of the teams that brought Siegal in to throw batting practice in 2012. Oakland’s front office reconnected with Siegal during the 2014 Winter Meetings, which she attended with A’s scout Craig Conklin. When Siegal reached out to Forst late in the summer about possibly joining the organization for 2015 Instructs, Forst and Lieppman were eager to take her up on the offer.

Siegal said being given the opportunity to coach with the A’s this fall exceeded her expectations. During the camp, she served as a field instructor, throwing batting practice, helping to run drills during the morning workout sessions, and coaching the bases and in the dugout during games.

“I never thought I would be coaching with the A’s,” Siegal said. “That’s almost an impossible dream. I was still trying to get to the college level [as a full-time coach], which had never been done.”

Although she has more than three decades of playing and coaching experience, and is a graduate of MLB Scout School, Siegal knew that she would have to prove to players and coaches alike that she belonged on the field.

“There were first day jitters. I knew when I was throwing BP that everyone was watching to make sure that I can throw it,” Siegal said. “A few days in, a player comes up to me and says, ‘I want you to throw to me. I’ve heard you can throw.’ Once that travels around camp, you’re good. It’s about performing well on your first day and being someone that people like. It can be really easy to be thought of as a publicity stunt. As soon as they realize that I love the game the way that they do and I’m there to make the players better, the more we are able to get along.”

Nieckula says that Siegal added a lot to the camp.

“She was easy to get along with,” Nieckula said. “She threw BP and shagged in the outfield, all the things that a coach would do. Players were very comfortable around her. She had some great dialogue not only with the players, but the staff. She brought a different voice to the training process.”

Siegal gave a formal presentation to the players on the importance of education and how to use their MLB College Scholarship Plans. Since the early 1960s, Major League Baseball has had this program in place to help players who haven’t completed a college degree reach that goal. To be eligible to use the plan, players must negotiate being part of the program as part of their first minor league contract.

Outside of the presentation, Siegal said the majority of her interaction with the players came in the dugouts and on the field. She said the players were curious about her story and the unique career path she had taken to get to camp. Siegal says that she was also able to serve as a person of trust for players who were uncertain about how they were progressing.

“I had one player sit down and specifically talk to me about his hitting and the challenges he was having implementing swing changes,” Siegal said. “In that case, my job isn’t to change the swing. But I can tell him, ‘you’ve got to give it a minute for your mind and your body to catch-up.’ He was, like, ‘yeah, yeah.’ Then I went up to the hitting coach once the player was gone and I said ‘why don’t you go over and tell so-and-so that he is doing a good job? Give him a thumb’s up or something.’ He asked ‘why?’ And I said, ‘he’s struggling a little bit. Just let him know that you see him.’ He did that.

“I think that I was the person that a player felt safe connecting with where maybe he wouldn’t have wanted to talk directly to the hitting coach about it, and then just letting the hitting coach know a little about what is going on without betraying the trust of the player. It ended up that the kid hit a homerun and a double in that game, but I can’t take full credit for that. It’s not just what I accomplished, but I know the game.”

Siegal doesn’t currently have another coaching job lined up with a major league team, but she is actively exploring opportunities to serve as a guest coach for an organization this spring. The A’s are keeping the lines of communication open with Siegal about a possible return during next fall’s Instructional League, as well. Siegal has a busy summer schedule, spearheading a first-of-its-kind national girl’s baseball tournament for ages 13-and-under. For more information on the tournament, visit: http://www.baseballforall.com/#!nationals/wkvot.