Alyssa Nakken coaching first for the Giants pic.twitter.com/yl8qtT6ct4
— SF Giants on NBCS (@NBCSGiants) July 21, 2020
The Giants now have the first Major League Baseball manager to kneel during the national anthem during a game, albeit an exhibition.
The club made history early Monday. And then made more history late.
Alyssa Nakken, the first female full-time coach on an MLB staff, entered in the later innings of the 6-2 exhibition win over the A’s at the Coliseum to coach first base.
Nakken has been coaching first a good deal during intrasquad scrimmages, and the Giants are handling coaches the same way they’re handling players: Everything is about development. Just like the Giants added Joey Bart to get the catcher some reps, they inserted Nakken to help develop her coaching, Kapler said.
“Did a great job out there at first base today,” the manager said over Zoom, before referring to the team’s other assistant coach. “I think you saw also Mark Hallberg at third base a little bit, [Ron Wotus] was able to get Mark some reps out there. It was nice to interact with him, and [first-base coach] Antoan Richardson stepped up and made sure that Alyssa continued her development as well on the bases.”
It’s unclear if Nakken will replace Richardson at all during the regular season, but Nakken has been a presence around the club and the subject of much praise from just about everyone around her. The former Sacramento State softball star has been with the organization since 2014, but knocked on doors as the team was transitioning looking for a path toward the baseball operations department, where she had originally interned.
She talked with Farhan Zaidi, with Kapler, with everyone, and eventually found herself in uniform with the title of assistant coach. She was expected to not suit up for regular-season games because the number of coaches in the dugout is capped, but there now is plenty of space behind dugouts in empty stadiums.
