Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
Alyssa Nakken’s first spring training with a major league club was just about perfect before it came to a sudden end.
Prior to the coronavirus pausing the baseball world and world at large, the first female full-time coach in MLB history said she jibed well with the extensive Giants coaching staff and a packed clubhouse, adding she never felt any pushback from a group that was quietly witnessing history.
“My approach is to really just be myself. Some of the best advice I got soon after I received this opportunity was: Don’t be the type of coach that you’re not and don’t be the type of person that you’re not. I just go in as Alyssa Nakken and not as anybody else,” said Nakken, in a rare interview Friday and her first on the KNBR airwaves. “I think that comes out. I love human interaction, I love getting to know people, I love understanding where they come from. And I think that comes out.
“Also, I’m trying not to force relationships. I’m not trying to overwhelm anybody by forcing conversation. And that’s my approach — it’s most about making sure I’m staying true to who I am and getting to know these people. Try not to rush it. It’s worked out.”
Nakken, an assistant coach, is one of 13 below Gabe Kapler in a new-look, almost entirely fresh staff, having risen from being an intern with baseball operations to assisting with health and wellness initiatives and events to joining Kapler’s staff, whom she called her “brothers.”
While she was not set to be in a regular-season dugout before the pandemic struck, she was comfortable in a spring-training one. She praised her support system — not just family and friends but a Giants organization that has “supported me every single step of the way” — and said she’s only had positive interactions with the players.
“I’m going to build the trust and have the conversations and get to know these guys on a human level. They’re humans first, baseball players second,” Nakken said on “Murph & Mac,” sounding very much like a Kapler assistant coach.