The Los Angeles Dodgers have been known to make groundbreaking choices when it comes to their personel, and hiring Sue Falsone as their head athletic trainer/physical therapist is no different. She's becomes the first woman to hold the position in any of the four major U.S. pro sports leagues, and brings her litany of experience to the table with her.
Falsone has been with the team since 2007, becoming the first female trainer in the majors in 2008, and having to deal with the issues of being a part of a boys club along the way:
"Sometimes I was changing in a closet, sometimes I was changing in a family bathroom," Falsone said. At some ballparks, like Wrigley Field, she'd have to go all the way up to the concourse and stand in line with the fans at the women's bathroom.
She fits right in with the rest of the team, and has from the start. Falsone made a joke back in 2008 that she needed a glove to play catch. Andre Ethier soon there after presented Falsone a black glove with the initials FWTMLB: First Woman Trainer, Major League Baseball.
"Everyone will know it's yours," Ethier said.
Falsone knows in the back of her mind what becoming the head trainer means in the great scope of things, but she just wants to get done to business and do her job:
"I just don't think about my gender every day," she said. "It's like waking up and thinking, I can't go do this job because I have blue eyes. You would never think that. So why would you think that about your gender?"