St. Louis Cardinals first uniformed female coach starts journey with Peoria Chiefs
PEORIA — Christina Whitlock has been playing with the boys since she was 8 on a little league field.
Now she'll be teaching them on a professional baseball field as the first female uniformed coach in St. Louis Cardinals history.
The Cardinals, parent club to the high-A Peoria Chiefs, assigned the 47-year-old to Peoria for the 2023 Midwest League staff in the role as the fourth coach.
"I think it's exciting," Whitlock said. "To be able to do something different in a positive way, those are things that catch people's attention. There's truth to it.
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"I think it started way back when I played high school baseball, I had a coach who believed in me. I was always surrounded by people who were champions and wanted to achieve more.
"I want to achieve more, too."
Growing up baseball
The former Tina Plew loved baseball as a kid and used it as a stepping stone to a college scholarship as a softball player.
"I was a Navy brat born in San Diego," said Whitlock, who went to seven elementary schools as her military family moved around. "I grew up listening to Beach Boys concerts after Padres games. Some Dodgers, too. Later, I was a Braves fan in college. I loved Javy Lopez because he was a catcher. Had his poster in my dorm room."
But her journey started on sandlot baseball fields, playing against the boys.
"I played baseball in little league, played up until age 14," Whitlock said. "When I started high school I realized I could still train with baseball guys and use it to prep for softball. I decided to transition to softball because I wanted to get a scholarship to college."
As a softball player at the University of South Carolina, Whitlock was a two-time all-American catcher and helped lead the Gamecocks to the Women’s College World Series in 1997. She also spent time as a member of the U.S. national team.
"I wanted to get my master's degree in teaching after college," she said. "They had a graduate-assistant position to pay for my master's degree, and I was under the tutelage of some pretty good coaches."
And that put her on the coaching track.
Whitlock was hired as a minor league coach by the Cardinals in 2020 but could not take the position when the MiLB season was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. She spent the 2022 season as a tech fellow based at the Cardinals’ complex in Jupiter, Florida.
Tech fellow was a hybrid position that involved coaching, scouting, technology and analytics, designed to bring people into the organization and expose them to different jobs in the game.
A blessing in disguise
In hindsight, Whitlock says her brief delay in the Cardinals organization because of the pandemic was a blessing.
She is a single mother and professes a strong religious faith that guides her.
She has two boys, Aaron, 22, and Brian, 20. Married for just five years, she lost her husband, Brian, when he died from a heart ailment in 2002, only nine days before her son, Brian Jr., was born.
"The pandemic changed some things, I was supposed to do this in 2020," Whitlock said. "They both graduated in 2021 so it really timed up nicely, let me be there for it.
"They grew up playing lacrosse, soccer, T-ball. Brian was a long snapper in football. They are both working now, moving on with their lives.
"The role of coach — collegiate or professional — takes up a lot of commitment and time. They've been coach's kids. It's challenging. The game is good to you sometimes and sometimes it's not. My faith tells me there is a plan for us. They've experienced my goals. I've wanted them to see my journey."
Journey through the game
Whitlock played professional softball for the Durham Dragons and went on to more than 20 years coaching high school, college and international softball. She connected to the Cardinals via late pro baseball scout Charles Peterson, who died from COVID-19 in 2020.
She now joins a Chiefs team that once had Cardinals staff member Rachel Balkovec as a strength and conditioning coach here. Balkovec has gone on up the ladder, and in 2022 was appointed manager of the Yankees Class A team in Tampa.
Whitlock watches that and sees a path for herself.
"I like helping athletes to prepare on game day," Whitlock said. "That piece of it, you are also teaching young people important things on the field and for life.
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"The biggest thing right now is this has to be a commitment to go the long haul. I'm 47 and I've already been in the game in some capacity for some time. I know people are going to be watching how this works.
"The goal is not to get females into the game temporarily. It's to accomplish longevity in the game for women."
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: St. Louis Cardinals first uniformed female coach starts in Peoria
