Alyssa Nakken

Alyssa Nakken

• School Sacramento State University, University of San Francisco

• Born June 13, 1990

Biographical Information

Alyssa Nakken became the first woman to hold the position of coach with a major league baseball team when she was appointed by the San Francisco Giants as an assistant coach on January 16, 2020.

Nakken played softball at Sacramento State University from 2009 to 2012 before joining the Giants as an intern in 2014. She was a three-time All-Conference player at Sacramento State, where she played first base, as well as a four-time Academic All-American. With the Giants, she worked in the baseball operations department overseeing health and wellness initiatives. She also worked for a year with the University of San Francisco as the chief information officer for the baseball team while earning a graduate degree in Sport Management.

Her promotion to the coaching staff came at the same time as that of Mark Hallberg, who also did not have a playing background, and new manager Gabe Kapler described their duties as "focus[sing] their talents on helping to build a winning culture in the clubhouse". With the two nominations, the Giants had 13 coaches on their staff, although major league rules limit the number of coaches in uniform during games to seven, although this was only inflating a trend already started by other teams who had named various persons as "quality control coach" and "special coach" on top of the traditional coaching positions.

There had been female coaches in collegiate baseball and in the independent leagues before this (e.g. Justine Siegal) but her hiring was clearly a breakthrough, even if it was not in a "traditional" coaching position. While the news was largely welcomed, it was not universally so: former Giants player Aubrey Huff, well known for his conservative, or even reactionary, opinions, stated that he "couldn't imagine taking baseball instruction from an ex female softball player." Which probably said more about him than about her. Notwithstanding these minority views and her gender, her background was very similar to that of other employees gaining prominence within major league organizations around that time. On July 20th, she had an opportunity to coach at first base during the final innings of an exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics, for another first. She had previously assumed the position in intrasquad games. It then took a couple more seasons, but on April 12, 2022, she did the same thing in a regular season game, replacing first base coach Antoan Richardson in the top of the 3rd inning after he had been ejected from a game against the San Diego Padres. That made her the first woman to appear on the field in uniform during a major league game. This was not a stunt, as Nakken had been training to be Richardson's back-up in addition to her other coaching duties for a while now.

Nakken remained an assistant coach for the Giants through the 2023 season. Following Kapler's dismissal at the end of that season, she was one of the candidates interviewed by the Giants' front office for the top job. Nakken was expecting her first child with her husband Robert when she was interviewed.

Further Reading

• ESPN News Services: "Giants make Alyssa Nakken first female coach in MLB history", ESPN.com,January 16, 2020. [1]
• Alyson Footer: "These women are taking their turn at bat: Coaches Nakken, Balkovec setting new trend in MLB", mlb.com, May 14, 2020. [2]
• Scott Gleeson: "Ex-Giants player Aubrey Huff criticizes former team for hiring Alyssa Nakken as first MLB female coach", USA Today, January 17, 2020. [3]
• Maria Guardado: "SF rounds out coaching staff with historic hire: Assistant coach Alyssa Nakken becomes first woman with role at Major League level", mlb.com, January 16, 2020. [4]
• Maria Guardado: "Nakken ready for new challenge with Giants", mlb.com, February 6, 2020. [5]
• Maria Guardado: "Alyssa Nakken coaches 1st base for Giants", mlb.com, July 21, 2020. [6]
• Maria Guardado: "'Sense of pride' for Alyssa Nakken in debut", mlb.com, July 27, 2020. [7]
• Maria Guardado: "First on first: Alyssa Nakken makes coaching history", mlb.com, April 13, 2022. [8]
• Maria Guardado: "Alyssa Nakken interviews to be Giants manager", mlb.com, October 15, 2023. [9]
• Josephine Harvey: "Alyssa Nakken Makes History As First Woman To Coach On Field At MLB Game", HuffPost, April 13, 2022. [10]
• Gabe Lacques: "'I love going to work': Alyssa Nakken completes quest for fulfillment as MLB's first female coach", USA Today, July 31, 2020. [11]