Bianca Smith: Breaking Barriers from the Red Sox to Japan

All right, Bianca, thank you again for joining us. It's great to see you and talk to you. Oh, thanks for having me on. You're welcome. Thanks for spending your weekday morning. It's early morning for you in Japan and I know you got a full day ahead of you. So looking forward to starting your day off with some good baseball banter here. Can never go wrong with starting off the morning talking about baseball. Yeah, I agree. I agree. So, let's start out like we're going to get to our themes of baseball as a global game and it's unifying powers and whatnot, but anytime I have someone on who's actually managed to find a way to work in baseball, I always want to talk to them about how they managed to do that. Your your journey has been a long one. And by long I just mean like super unique like lots of different stops. I mean, you even got a JD and MBA for goodness sake. You've you've done it all. You've coached at every level. You've played. So, when did you first think like, hey, I want to work in baseball? And then how did you begin to start taking steps towards making that a reality? Yeah. So, I think I was actually a late bloomer. I didn't decide to work in baseball until my sophomore year of college, and that's only because my first plan of being a veterinarian and majoring biology didn't work out. I didn't really have a backup plan when I decided I didn't want to major in biology anymore. And, I was at home during one of my off terms and started working at our local YMCA and I was just keeping time for a basketball tournament and I don't even like basketball and I still found myself thinking, "Wow, I love this environment." Like, I've never really thought of the people who work behind the scenes working in sports even though I'd played my entire life. And I realized, okay, this is something I could probably make a career out of. I have no idea how yet, but I think I can do this. And I knew if I was going to work in sports, it was going to be baseball. It's been my favorite sport since I was three. So, that was a given. And from there, I reached out to, you know, different, you know, alumni asking or alumni in baseball asking, you know, how did you get in? Just asking for advice, figuring out the different areas of the game and which area would fit me best and which area I thought I would be happiest in. And with just a lot of inter like informational interviews, I landed on baseball operations and eventually along the lines it led me to coaching. But that's when I first decided I wanted to work in baseball. so you're actually you're not you're not lying when you said it's been a long career. I think I'm in my 18th year now working in baseball actually. That's that's awesome. So I mean from going you know working college summer league baseball team manager unpaid in I know you've had a few internships they're baseball ones so I assume some of them are unpaid. then like you also have you know coached in professional baseball and you've been on Good Morning America on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Do you stop and like look back and reflect upon how much ground you've covered and or are you still too much in it and on the path to really have that perspective? Lately, I've actually had to force myself to look back. I grew up in a pretty ambitious family, academics and sports. So, it's almost a given that everybody in the family is going to do something big or they're going to succeed in whatever they want to work on. And there are definitely days where I feel like I actually haven't done enough and I have to force myself to look back and go, actually, you've done a lot. You should be happy with what you've done. cuz yeah, there are times where I am so in it where I feel like I still need to do more. like there's still so much more that I need to accomplish and I have to remind myself that you have accomplished a lot already. Totally. Yeah, I think that's great perspective and it's something that can only happen with the passage of time, I'm sure. But, you know, if you're pursuing your passion and the game you love, you know, it's definitely a good idea to stop and appreciate it because a lot of people would envy you know, would like to be in your shoes. so that's great to hear. so kind of speaking of on a similar note, so I assume I assume a lot of people would assume that you got your dream job like when the Boston Red Sox hired you, but when Carter Cromwell, our writer, interviewed you said your dream job was to go to Japan for baseball, which you're doing right now. so can you talk a little bit about that, please? And like why was that your dream job? So along with my love of baseball, I have been in love with Japan and the culture since I was 12 and probably Japanese baseball. Around 14, I think is when the first time I watched Hideki Matsui play for the Yankees around that time, 14, 15. So that's really what got me into Japanese baseball. And just by saying that, anybody who knows baseball can tell already that I grew up a Yankees fan. So, working for the Red Sox was not my dream job. In fact, I used to joke that I would work in golf before I worked for the Red Sox. So, funny how that worked out. but actually, so I think 2011 was when I first learned about opportunities working in baseball in Japan. And at the time, and it's actually the job I'm in right now. At the time, I didn't think I was qualified enough, so I didn't apply. and I kind of just followed the job seeing whenever it opened. Unfortunately, it's such a rare opportunity. It doesn't come around a lot. And the last time it opened up before I applied was actually a month after I joined the Red Sox. And I was actually disappointed thinking, I already signed a contract. I can't do this now. Now I'm going to have to wait again. And then when I left the Red Sox, the position opened up again 3 months later. And I thought, okay, this is a godsend. This is a sign that I'm supposed to do this job now. I think I'm finally ready. So, I had followed this position for a good 12 years before I finally felt qualified enough to apply and I was actually able to apply and do it. So, this really was my dream job. This was the one job that I wanted to do for so long. And when I decided I wanted to work in baseball, too, I had a list of all the things that I wanted to accomplish. And one of the things on there was to either work for an NPB team or just work in baseball. It didn't even have to be coaching. I just wanted to get to Japan and work in baseball in Japan. So, that had been on my, you know, my bucket list for a very long time. Amazing. So, I know that with the JET Program that you're doing, I know multiple people who have done it and they all two of them wanted to work do the coaching program, but they said it's like impossible to get is everyone wants to go and coach, but they just get, you know, put in as an English teacher. So, can you just explain a little bit, I guess, about what that program is just for our audience who maybe isn't familiar with the JET program and then specifically what your assignment is? Yeah, so the JET Program is actually a government program. They send English speakers to Japan to help teach English in elementary or actually I think like kindergarten all the way to high school. And I think this year there's around 6,000 people who are part of the JET Program who are currently in Japan. We actually just got a new bunch of people a couple weeks ago and I did the calculations around 95% of the jobs are what's called ALTS or assistant language teach teachers and that's what people think of with this program are the ones who actually teach English and that's your general you go to school you help out with English classes. Then you have 4.9% I think it was are CIRS or coordinators of international relations. They're the ones who are actually fluent in Japanese. They help out with either government programs or town programs. They help the ALTS with any translating that they need at appointments. and they're the ones who they kind of do a little bit of everything. And then you have the.1% of us who are SC seas or sports exchange advisors. And our application isn't even part of the regular JET program timeline. Usually the pro the applications start going out in September. Ours will go out in around February and it only it's only available when a town specifically asks for a coach and usually it's a specific sport from a specific country. So there's that too. It's not if like if I wanted to work in a different sport a lot of times it's not available for Americans. It might be a completely different country unless they can't find somebody from that country. So, it's very specific, which is one of the reasons why it's so rare. I think this year we have 11 or 12 of us in all of Japan in this program right now out of the like the 6,000 who are part of the program. I actually I have to count because we just got a couple new ones. so that's one of the reasons why it took me so long to be able to apply. This position doesn't open up very often. And yeah, there's a lot of people in the JET Program who've actually never met an SEA, too. Well, that's some pretty cool alignment of everything like you becoming qualified, they opening up. So that I take it that means that the school you're at, they requested an American baseball coach. Is that correct? Yes. So, it's actually the town requested it. So I will I used to work with the elementary school and the middle school when I first started and now I'm just at the middle school because of the way they changed the baseball program. But yes, the town will request specifically an American baseball coach. So I might be the I think I'm the third or fourth in the JET Program who has come to this town specifically as a baseball coach. Wow. So what is it like? Why do they continuously want to request American baseball coaches? And Japan is such a distinct faseball culture. I'm so curious as to what makes this town unique in that they want that American influence. Well, one I know for sure at least with getting a baseball coach from America besides Japan and you know some of the Latin American cult or Latin American countries, America is like one of the top baseball countries and it's the country that started baseball. So, they're going to want an American baseball coach to teach the American way of coaching baseball, the American way of playing baseball. So, that's one of the reasons, but my town specifically is actually pretty foreigner-heavy for Japan. I think we're at four or 5% of the population is foreign because we had the first Japanese language school in Japan. So, we have a lot of foreigners, a lot mainly from Asian countries, but we do have a lot of foreigners who live here. And we have a lot of JET Program members who live here. I think there's around 20 of us, which is very rare, especially because our town only has around 8,000 people, so it's a pretty small town, but they are very big on you know, learning about different cultures. We've got JET Program members from all over the world. so that's one of their focuses is cultural exchange and just international exchange. And I think that's one of the reasons why they love having not just JET Program members, but we have out of the 10 to 12 coaches in our program. Five of us live in my town. So that's another big thing too that they're they're very big on trying to bring in foreigners to just educate the children and kind of give them a bigger perspective of the world. So, how do you feel about this task of like, okay, we want to teach, we're bringing you in here to teach American baseball. What does that feel like? A lot of pressure or how do you handle that assignment? It can be a lot of pressure because I think the town has one expectation and then the children have a different expectation like they just want a coach who teaches them baseball. So, it's a it's a fine balance of trying to do my job of cultural exchange, but also properly coaching the children because we're not just doing cultural exchange, at least for my job, I'm actually coaching them. Like, I'm at all the practices. I'm at the practice games. I'm at the games. I was actually named head coach of our team a couple of months ago. So, I still have to I still want to teach them some, you know, American culture. I introduce, you know, different games that we might play in the US that still focuses on baseball. I might teach or if there's something that's very specific that's Japanese, I might tell them, okay, well, in America, we do it this way. We don't have to do it here, but just to try to bring that in, but at the same time, I am very aware that this is still a Japanese baseball team and I still need to coach them as a team without completely disrupting their routine. So it can there can be a bit of pressure. Yeah. So I mean this is it's getting really the more I thought your job was interesting, but now that I'm hearing all this, it's getting even more interesting. But so I'm I'm curious like what are the aspects of American baseball that you really do want to impress upon the Japanese game? And then what are the Japanese approaches to baseball that you've learned that you want to leave in place? and even so like whenever you eventually get back to the US assuming you ever do like that you'd want to bring back to the US. Well, the second part of that or that question is a lot easier to answer. One of the things that drew me to Japanese baseball was the small ball. It was the strategy. It was the bunting. It was the base running, the defense, the fundamentals, the things that we don't really focus on as much in America anymore. And in my opinion is the pure way of playing baseball. Like that's how American baseball used to be until we got so focused on, you know, trying to power past everybody, like trying to strike everybody out or trying to hit home runs consistently without really focusing on anything else. And it's something I actually noticed even more with the Red Sox when we try to teach them base running and the most of the players had no idea what to do. Like these are pro guys. Yeah, I was at the rookie level, but these are still professional players now who made it to like the top 1% who don't know how to run the bases because it's just not something that's focused on. so if I ever get back to the US, that is something that I definitely want to bring back. and I mean they joke about it here that, you know, Americans can't bunt because it's just not a thing. We don't bunt at all. So Americans just can't bunt. so that's another thing like it's not I that I guess for Japanese baseball it's one thing I would like to see sometimes used more strategically. I think it's a it's kind of a given. Okay, you have a runner at first. We're going to bunt. And that's not always the game. I do think it's kind of a waste of it's a waste of talent if you have one of your best hitters up with a runner at first and you're going to make them bunt. Yeah. No, just let him. If this guy consistently gets hits, let him hit. But it's it seems to be just a given. Okay, now we're going to bunt. And I understand not wanting to hit into the double play, but now you're also just giving up an out for no reason really. I understand if it's a not if it's a weaker hitter, then yes, bunt them over or bunt the runner over, but that is one aspect that I've kind of been not really working on with my players. But I do I will bring it up. But I think my players hit more in those situations than a typical Japanese team would. Like they do actually they love to hit. They will practice bunting. They will make sure they can get it down, but if they have a choice, they will hit in those situations. And I actually don't think it's my influence. I think it's just them just watching Major League Baseball. there's situations like that. I think it's I'm trying to bring a little bit more American influence just to give them more options than they have to follow the Japanese way every single time. So, if you were drawn to the small ball aspect of Japanese baseball, and I'm sure it sounds like you had a pretty good idea of what Japanese baseball culture is like. So, what once you were immersed in it, what surprised you the most? Like there was something unexpected about the game in Japan? less about the game and more about just the overall culture of Japanese baseball is how much control the players actually have. I didn't expect that and it's not really something you see just watching the game because most people if they are going to watch Japanese baseball they're not watching amateur or if they are they might be watching high school baseball and that's even in America yeah the players do have a little bit of control but you get to college and you still have coaches who are calling pitches and of course like at every level the coaches are coaching the bases. It was a shock for me to come here and see elementary school players like second graders coaching the bases during games. and you know, the coaches are still calling the pitches, but my middle school team, it's a it's a no sign team, meaning the coaches don't give signs. We don't coach the bases. Our captain makes the lineup. Wow. The only time we step in for even pitching changes or is I've implemented a pretty strict pitch limit during practice games. During tournaments, we already have one, but during practice games, we never had one, and they just kind of kept pitching until their arm hurt. So, that's really the only time I step in is I'll let them know, hey, you've got 15 pitches left. And then they'll start figuring, all right, who's the next pitcher? When are they going to come in? How many batters do we have left? And what's the change going to be? So, a lot of times it's just them coming up to me and saying, all right, so this is what our defensive change is going to be. Can you let the umpire down? We don't even make those changes really unless it and well, we'll step in if absolutely necessary. But for the most part, the players plan most of the practices. They, like I said, they make the lineup. They change the they make all the defensive changes. They decide the pitching order. they coach the bases, they call the pitches, we just step in when necessary or if I think there's something we really need to work on. but otherwise the players have more control than the coaches do. Really? That's so cool. Yeah, I that would have surprised me too because I didn't realize that. And it's so on one hand, it's really surprising because Japanese culture is more like authority. You know, you respect your authorities and there's like hierarchies to everything. But it also doesn't surprise me in a sense of like they really use baseball as a tool to develop the individual or you know to develop the person as being part of a team and all and being invested in this greater organization which I think in the US you hear that a lot. Everyone says, "Oh, I'm not, you know, we're not making ball players. We're making human beings." You know, but like how many coaches are going to hand over the lineup to their kids and let them learn, you know, like, you know, be able to live with the consequences as far as wins and losses in the short term of handing over that sort of power to their players. I think it's that would be an extremely rare thing and it's it's pretty cool to hear. Yeah. I don't think it's common in a lot of Japanese teams, but I have seen like coaches will still give signs, but I have seen at particularly at the high school level, there are coaches who will give that kind of control over to the captain. Like the captains will run the practices, the captains will make a lot of the decisions. So, it might not even be a full team thing, but still giving players. I think there is definitely still hierarchy. When a coach makes a decision, they're going to follow it. But compared to what I've seen with American teams, especially amateur level, the players actually have more control here than you would think for Japanese culture. But I think that's one of the reasons why they are so good is they are completely immersed in the game. They are forced to learn the game because they make a lot of the decisions. Yeah. Cool. So, one of your most recent baseball cultural experiences was helping us out as a coach on our play abroad trip last month. it I guess it was really just earlier this month. 13 to 15 year olds coming from all over the US to the Kai area of Japan. They did a week of baseball exchange with their families and the families of their opponents. And can you please, this is the shameless plug part, talk about how awesome it was and why everyone should do extra innings travel play abroad programs, but I mean in a serious like seriously like what do you think those players and their families really got out of it? And was there anything unique about this experience compared to what you are already doing in Japan that impacted you in any way? Yeah, it's very different than what I'm doing now because I have all Japanese players who know a couple of words and phrases in English and mainly because a lot of those they're actually learning from me, not even in school. I help them with their English at practice sometimes or I'll even quiz them. So the biggest difference I think and one of the benefits for the players that were coming with this play abroad program is they had an American coach who understood Japanese baseball and then they also have a Japanese coach who can also help them with Japanese baseball. Like they already know American baseball, but being able to there's one it's one thing to have a Japanese coach teaching you Japanese baseball. I think it's another to have an American coach who truly understands the difference, who is able to really bridge that. And I think that's one of the things that my players probably don't get as much with the team that I work with. Yes, I can help bridge that, but there's still something different than having somebody from your actual culture being able to try to explain the differences. Like, I've only been here 3 years, so there's still so much more I know I need to learn. it's it's different when you've actually grown up here. And I think that's a very unique experience that the American players got to get was they got to see kind of both worlds and really experience that immersion while having somebody who understands what it's like to come over to a completely different culture and try to adjust to that. and also just being able to work with, you know, American players who are excited to learn about a different culture. You don't, unfortunately, you don't see that a lot with Americans. They're they even the ones who they say they're excited about a different culture, they come to a different country, and then they expect to be just like America and they get disappointed. Yeah. It's it's nice having players who want to come and learn about a different culture through baseball because it really it's such a it's a universal language. I mean, the players were taking I/O together and while they couldn't always communicate, they were figuring it out through baseball. And I think it's we even act we did actually joke during the tour that it doesn't it doesn't really matter what your language is when it comes to baseball. you can figure it out. Like baseball is just one of those languages where it everybody can speak it. And you know, I've I've joked with the coaches on my staff here in Japan that even a lot of Japanese baseball is just English with a Japanese accent. And they've actually brought it up on their own like why is there so much English in Japanese baseball? I'm like, well, it helps me. I understand a lot of what you guys are talking about. So my Japanese baseball is I'm almost fluent at this point in Japanese baseball. just everything else or I guess in baseball Japanese, but everything else I'm still working on. But it is such a unique experience getting to play against a Japanese team and really see what it's like to play baseball in a different country, especially one that's as baseball crazed as this one. And it was honestly it gave me a huge boost because it's something that I love being able to help people from other countries learn about Japanese baseball and Japanese culture. It's one of the reasons why I also wanted to move here. Anytime I get to meet an American or really anybody from a different country who's interested, I am I'm more than happy to be like their tour guide and help them out learning anything that they want. So, it's it's definitely experience. I think anybody who is interested in baseball in a different cult in a different country, especially in Japan, it's experience. I think they need to have at least once. And honestly, I don't think it'll they'll stop at one. I know a lot of the players, a lot of the parents were really they're trying to figure out a way to come back and do this again because they just they enjoyed it so much. even like everything even outside of baseball, just Japanese culture. I think they also they loved every bit of that program, every bit of the tour. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm so glad that you felt like you got a lot out of it, too. And it's interesting what you were saying about like, you know, baseball is a universal language and that's a theme that comes up a lot in these interviews I've been doing and just in general in my line of work. And I'm curious if you think that there's something unique about the game of baseball that makes it that lends itself towards the you having that connective quality across cultures or language barriers and whatnot. I think baseball is a unique sport. I feel like you can say it with a lot of sports that yeah, they bring people together. That's just what sports are. That's I mean that's why the Olympics is such a powerful time for just the world because people kind of come together even though they're being competitive. Baseball though, it's I say it's one of those sports that like you need to play to really understand. because baseball players are just unique. And I think only baseball players can really understand what I say when I what I mean when I say that. like you it takes a special person to be able to play baseball because it's one of those sports where it's a team sport where it's also individual at the same time where your stats matter but it's still all about the team. It's it's such a it's almost like a contradictory sport honestly. But and it's also one of those sports where people will say it's boring but the ones who truly understand the game will say no it's one of the most exhausting games you can ever watch or play. Like mentally it is one of the most exhausting games ever. So, it takes an intelligent person to play baseball, but then baseball players are also some of the smartest dumb people you will ever meet. And like it I think baseball play baseball people understand what I mean when I say that. So, it that's why it's such a unique sport, but it doesn't matter which country you're in. And I've seen baseball now in multiple countries played against multiple countries and all the baseball players are the same. Doesn't matter if the culture is different. Like even in Japan where the culture is so different from America, baseball players still act the same. They still goof around. They still mess around. They're still really intelligent. They're even in Japan where they're very serious about the game. you will still see them in the dugout where they have moments where you're just like, "Yeah, that's a baseball player." You can just tell the way that they act, that is a baseball player. And it's amazing to see that it doesn't matter which country you're from. It's like I've I've between play abroad working here in Japan, I've coached for the Great Britain team. I was in China for the 23 and under World Cup with the Great Britain team. So, we got to play against like we've seen Venezuela, we played against Taiwan, we played against Japan. I mean, Korea, I got to meet several of those players. and then, you know, I've also helped coach with the there's a new women's Christmas league with the Women's Baseball Federation of Japan. That's an international league. So, I got to coach players from Japan, the US, Australia, Taiwan, and Korea. and then you know there's also an international team or there's a independent team here, the Asahikawa Be Stars that have players from South Sudan and Uganda and the UK and the US and being able to see players from all over, they still all act the same. And this is why it's such universal sport. It does not matter where you're from, you will make some kind of connection through baseball. I love that. Yeah, couldn't agree more. so looking ahead, if you even can, I'm just curious where you're at as far as I know the JET Program can't go forever. like where what are your goals? Or if there's not even maybe you have goals, maybe you don't. What is the framework that you view like your future? like we'll make decisions on what to do next and where to apply all these different experiences that you've had. Honestly, it's difficult. I had the same problem in the states that you know a lot of people they'll get into baseball and they have the goal of a specific level that they want to work at or a specific team they want to work for. And one of the reasons why it was so easy for me to leave the Red Sox, as much fun as that job was, is that I've never had a goal of being like, I want to be a professional coach or I want to be a college coach. For me, it's just I want to coach. And honestly, the only real goal I had was to work in baseball in Japan. And now my goal is to stay in Japan. And I don't even really care what level I'm at as long as I can make a living. So, I've made connections with NPB teams. I've been networking with them. and I'm still in touch with them, but I've also, you made connections with amateur teams. I'd be happy to stay in my current town and continue doing what I'm doing. But again, just kind of just like with any job, it kind of falls on the salary at this point. So, my goal really is just to be able to stay in Japan. I just started my fourth year with the JET program, so I do still have one more year. I can stay up to five years. So, I'm good there. but it's just networking, learning the language more. Right now, I can certainly get by in the field. I can survive in Japan outside of the field, but now it's getting a little bit more detailed and really being able to not need a translator for most things. so my goal is just to continue networking and, I would love to be able to have a job that would allow me to continue with the different, you know, avenues I've gotten to work with. so far like with Play Abroad or like I said the women's Christmas league, being able to continue with cultural exchange, international baseball, that's that's another huge thing for me is kind of being like a baseball ambassador in any country that I'm in. But I would love to continue being able to do that here, sharing my love of Japanese culture, Japanese baseball, but also getting to meet and work with players from all over the world. It's it's a learning experience for me too, getting to learn different ways that baseball is coached or played in different countries and being able to kind of use everything that I've learned with my players here. so that's kind of what I'm focused on now, just finding a way to be able to stay in Japan and continue coaching baseball. Well, I'm so happy to hear for you like this is your dream. you're a few years into it and it's like only even strengthened as far as like you always wanted to get here and now it's like you want to stay which is really cool to hear that it's it's working out like that and selfishly I'm also really happy to hear it because now I have a friend and a resource in Japan hopefully you know for the next many years who's well connected in the baseball world and we'll continue to build on that so I'm happy to hear that so have you adopted did the fighters as your team or is it I mean I assume you like the Giants initially because of Matsui what does that expression on your face mean? So, when I moved here, yes, I had Fighters jerseys. I had Samurai Japan jerseys, mainly because I loved watching Ohtani. And, I thought it was a given, you know, I'm moving to Hokkaido, I'm going to be a fighters fan. But one of my strongest connections has been actually to the Swallows. And I've probably been to more Swallows games than Fighters games, which is crazy because again, anybody who knows like NPB, that requires me to fly to Tokyo just to go to a game. And I've actually done that several times a year where I'll fly to Tokyo just to go to a game. my contact, my friend will get me tickets. I'll get to go. I've met a couple of people in the front office. And yeah, the same with the Marines. But I think the Swallows I've now been watching like I watch almost every game I can whenever they play and I remember watching the W the most recent WBC and joking that I always knew when Murakami was coming up to hit without watching because I've watched so many swallows games. I know his song just from here because I' I've like I don't know. There's there's just something about the swallows and the stadium. I love Meiji Jingu. Like it the stadium is it gives me one of the it's kind of like Fenway almost. It's really old, kind of complicated to maneuver. There's areas where you're like, "Okay, they could update this." But the history behind it is what's so enjoyable. So I still follow the fighters. I will stay say I'm still a fan. But yeah, if I if I had to choose just one team at this right now, it'd actually be the Swallows. That's funny because you live I mean you don't live in Sapporo, of course, but the fighters have like one of the in my opinion maybe like a top five ballpark in the whole world and yet you want to go to the most rundown. I mean, I love Meiji Jingu Stadium, don't get me wrong. It's a It's a has tons of character. It's a relic. It's got history. I love that ballpark. I always recommend to people who go to Tokyo, like everyone wants to go to Giants games, don't go to Giants games. Go to Swallows games. It's going to be a better experience. but ES CON Field is incredible and I just I was blown away when I first went there and I still continue to encourage people to go and especially I don't know if you saw this shirt. This is This is his laser beam. He's got the 66, which you say. and like going to watch him play in ES CON is pretty cool. Have you last time I was there, we watched them warming up and his like just his like his pregame throughout like watching his arm was pretty awesome. Have you had a chance to see him play much? Yes, actually I will say as much as I love the swallows, he's probably my he's actually probably my favorite player to watch because I'm an outfield coach, so getting to watch him throw, I love watching his highlights. I do like ES CON. It's not bad. And, you know, my first pro team that I worked for were the Rangers, and their new stadium was built by the same company. but I think it's almost a little too modern for me. Yeah. Yeah. I still do prefer like I love going to these old fields that are that like the grass is barely sticking out of the outfield. Like it's it sucks to play at, but there's just something about it's it's like backyard baseball. And I track that tracks with the woman who moved across the world to chase small ball that you also like 100y old stadium. all right. Well, I think that mostly wraps up my questions. I feel like I'm super glad to hear more in depth about your story and your journey and how happy you are in Japan. And I appreciate you sharing all that. And now we got to segue to our show and tell segment which I asked you ahead of time to bring something some sort of momento that represents the global andor unifying powers of baseball. So Bianca, what did you bring today? Yeah, it was really hard for me because there's actually a lot of things I probably could have picked. I was actually Oh, I just realized I actually have the lineup card from when the Great Britain team played Japan. You did two items. I won't I won't hold it against It's okay. It'll take too long to get it off the wall. I was really happy about that. Our the man our manager at the time would give the lineup card to different people of the coaching staff and he specifically waited until we played Japan to give me that one because he knew how important it was for me. But I didn't pick that one. I instead picked There we go. Nice. So, Chinese Taipei or the Taiwanese hat that we got. And the reason why I picked that one instead of the lineup card actually same event. It was the 23 and under World Cup. And you know when we do the you know we get to greet the team before the game starts and we get to pass or give gifts to each other. And that was one of the gifts that they gave the coaches. And I guess it was kind of it's big for me cuz it just shows like I've got the Japanese team cap, I've got Great Britain, I've got different NPB caps, I have different MLB caps. And it's just one of those things that to me again it's kind of like a unifier. Like everybody baseball fans like we wear we have baseball caps. And that's kind of something like a lot of my baseball caps I actually still have in the States, but even teams that I don't really root for, I have the caps. The teams that I've gotten to meet with here with NPB, they give me a cap. So, and that's just one of those things that I've really loved. so, that's why I picked that one. It's just kind of reminder for me of just how far baseball can take you. Very cool. Very cool. Well, thank you for sharing that. I have my item, which I don't know if I'll ever have a showand tell item that more directly relates to our guest, but this is it's all blurry, which I'll share a picture, but you can tell what it is already. my Bianca Smith signed Sports Illustrated, which is also signed by Veronica Alvarez, coach with the A's. Do you know Veronica? Yes, I know her. I assumed you did. And Billie Jean King. And also on this cover, well, not signed, but is Serena Williams, Pat Summitt, Allyson Felix, Simone Biles. What was it like learn Did you have any heads up that this was going to happen? And how did you learn about it? And I don't know, what did it feel like being on the cover of Sports Illustrated? thankfully, actually, I did have a heads up, but we I didn't get a big heads up. So, anybody with that cover, they'll see that I'm posing with Katie Krall, who was the other female Red Sox coach with me. It was her first year, my second year. And, I forgot where we learned about the cover. I think somebody with the Red Sox actually told us and they're like, "Yeah, they want a picture of you two put on the Sports Illustrated cover, but we need it by like today." So, we're like, "Okay, let's hurry up and take a picture together." like we'd run into each other, but I think this was the end of spring training. Like we hadn't actually taken a picture together because we hadn't been together in uniform because we were on different teams. So, we carved out some time quickly to take a picture on one of the fields and we sent it in that day. And then they didn't give a give us a heads up of when it was being printed. They just told us it was going to be on the cover and they wanted us to submit our picture. So, they also didn't tell us if we were going to make the cover. They just wanted us to send in a picture. So, I don't even remember how I found out. I think somebody just probably sent me a picture of the cover and like, "Hey, you're on the cover of Sports Illustrated." Like, "All right." I knew it was coming. I just didn't know when or if it was actually going to happen. but I actually remember taking that picture specifically cuz we I think it was like 2 days before Katie left cuz she was with the she was with Portland at the time. So, I think it was 2 days before camp ended. So, we were kind of in a rush like, "Okay, we need to hurry up and get a picture together because who knows when we're going to see each other again." But, it was Yeah, that was I mean, with the interviews and everything that happened in my first year, that was that was a pretty big thing for me. Like, I grew up in a sports family, but not a baseball family. And we didn't really do Sports Illustrated or magazines. Like, we didn't do baseball cards, any of that stuff. When I say sports family, I meant we all played sports and then we watched a lot of sports together. But when it came to memorabilia, that wasn't really a thing. Like I still don't really do baseball cards or autographs. And our family is like that's No, it's like it's you play sports. Yeah. So it was it's still really cool though getting to actually I don't even think I have a copy of that honestly. My parents might. I'm not sure. but that was a pretty cool highlight in my career so far. Not a lot of people can say they've been on the cover of Sports Illustrated, especially with so many other really impressive and amazing women. Yeah, totally. Totally. Well, I'm I'm honored to be talking to a Sports cover athlete. but seriously, thank you so much. and it was, you know, well deserved. like I think your journey is just so unique. I appreciate it so much because you know the baseball is not a like there's capital B baseball as I say and lowercase B baseball and like you just love baseball for what it is and you're not chasing anything and it's cool to follow along with what you're doing and I'm I'm grateful that you've helped us out with our tours and our play abroad and that we've gotten to know each other. So, thank you so much for spreading the gospel of baseball and for sharing your time with me. Yeah, no problem. Thanks again for having me and always happy to talk baseball. Yeah, you're welcome. last thing is do you have social media or anything if people wanted to follow you. and if you don't then I can just cut this part but if you have anything or any way people could get in touch from afar please do share. Yep, I am on Instagram and X. I still think of it as Twitter. Yeah, can't think of it as anything else. I'm pretty sure both for both of them my handle is Bianca E. Smith12. I have to check with that for X, but I'm not too Yeah, I'm not too hard to find if you just put in the E Smith 12. And that's a good segue to for those who are still listening to the end. Thank you. And if you are, then that means you must have enjoyed this. So please, subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube. give us a review. Follow us on social media, Extra Innings Travel. Visit our website, extrainningstravel.com, and subscribe to our newsletter to be kept informed of our global baseball tours. And thank you so much for listening. Thank you again, Bianca, and I will see you at the ballpark.