SAN FRANCISCO -- Alyssa Nakken became the first woman to ever coach on the field in an MLB game, but as she stood a few feet from first base on Tuesday night, all she could think about was something that has gone through the mind of just about every man who has stepped onto Oracle Park's grass for a night game.
"It was cold," Nakken said later, laughing. "It was freezing!"
In the moments before she made history, Nakken didn't have much time to think about what it all meant. She was just like any one of the pinch-hitters she helps get ready on a nightly basis in the batting cage. Nakken was working in the cage behind the dugout when Antoan Richardson was ejected. Bench coach Kai Correa ran over and told her to get a jersey on, and Nakken rushed to find an orange City Connect helmet before the top of the next inning, never thinking that it would later be shipped off to the Hall of Fame.
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For the Giants, that is perhaps the coolest part of all of this. Manager Gabe Kapler has said since he hired Nakken that she was chosen because of her talent and the ways in which she can help the team win, and over the last three seasons Nakken has taken on more and more responsibility behind the scenes. She was not chosen Tuesday for any reason other than that she's Richardson's backup at first base, and has been for three years.
As Nakken said Tuesday, "this is just my job," and that's important. She might get more attention than others, but for the Giants, she's just a coach they like to call "Nak."
"Last night, I was in a pretty pragmatic space about it," Kapler said on Wednesday. "When it was happening in the dugout, we needed a good coach to go out and handle the responsibilities of first base. Alyssa was the natural and obvious choice. She had been preparing for that moment, so at that point it was very much, 'Okay, what is the next step in front of us.'"
Nakken was the first woman to take that step, but in that moment it was no different than assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez taking over for pitching coach Andrew Bailey, or Correa taking over for Kapler. Of course, the long-term effects will be much different.
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"In hindsight, I recognize how huge of a moment that was for our staff, our players, Alyssa, all of our fans, and everybody around the world," Kapler said. "It's huge."
Nakken has coached first before during exhibitions, but for the first time she got to share that moment with the fan base and her husband, who was at Oracle Park. Nakken was hired in January of 2020, and Kapler didn't wait long to throw her into the fire. Nakken started working with Richardson during intrasquad games that July and she coached first in the late innings of an exhibition game at the Coliseum. That game, though, was played without anyone in the seats.
Nakken didn't have much time to look around at the crowd when she took the field Tuesday night. Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer ran over right away to congratulate her, but Nakken quickly put her focus on the action in the batter's box. When she returned to the dugout, she was greeted with hugs and handshakes, and home plate umpire Chris Guccione sought her out before the start of the next inning to shake her hand.
Nakken said she was focused on filling in for Richardson, but she knows how big the moment will be in moving the game forward.
"It's not just women -- young men, men, young girls, women, everybody can just see that there are a lot of opportunities in baseball. I think we always limit ourselves to thinking what we could do, at least that's my experience. I never thought that I could do something like this because I never saw it," she said. "Sure, it's certainly important for people to be able to see that this is an opportunity and they can see somebody that kind of looks like them going out there and coaching in the big leagues."
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Nakken is the first woman to be a full-time coach at the big league level, but it won't be long before she's joined by others. More and more women have been hired to coaching and development jobs at the minor league level in recent years, with Rachel Balkovec -- who was interviewed by Kapler as he filled out his initial coaching staff -- making history earlier this month as the manager of the New York Yankees' Single-A affiliate. Balkovec is the first full-time female manager of an affiliated baseball team.
When the Miami Marlins visited last weekend, Nakken spent some time with Kim Ng, the first woman to run a baseball operations department in MLB. There will be others following in their footsteps, and eventually there won't be many "firsts" left on the field. Nakken continues to check those boxes off.
"I think yes, this carries a bit more weight because of the visibility," she said. "Obviously there's a historic nature to it, but again, this is my job."
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