San Francisco Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken on Tuesday became the first female coach to make an appearance on field during a Major League Baseball game.
Nakken took to the field after Giants’ first base coach Antoan Richardson was ejected in the previous inning. Eric Hosmer, the San Diego Padres first baseman, shook Nakken’s hand in acknowledgement as she walked on.
It’s one of multiple shattered ceilings for the former Sacramento State softball star, who became the first female full-time MLB coach when she joined the Giants’ major league coaching staff in January 2020.
“It was certainly emotional because I grew up just loving the Giants,” she told San Francisco’s KGO-TV earlier this month of that 2020 achievement. “I was 3 weeks old when I went to my first game, so it was like a combination of one, like ‘Wow no female has done this before,’ and two, I get to represent this baseball team that has meant so much to me for so many years, and what an honor that is.”
Giants manager Gabe Kapler, who hired her for the role, said she was the best person for the job.
“It’s our belief that diversity and winning are very much connected,” Kapler said.
She first joined the Giants baseball operations as an intern in 2014. In July 2020, she appeared on field for the first time at an exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics.
