Bianca Smith is on a mission to find out how far her lifelong passion for baseball can take her as a coach, and whether her fascination with Japan can make that happen in Nippon Professional Baseball.
The first Black woman hired to coach by a Major League Baseball team, Smith is now a world away from America's minor leagues, in Japan's northern main island of Hokkaido, working as a sports advisor and coaching elementary school and middle school teams.
With her degrees in business and law, the 33-year-old Smith once saw herself as a future MLB team president, but found her true calling in uniform on the field with players.