The call to take her place in baseball history that Alyssa Nakken had long been preparing for came in the third inning Tuesday night when the San Francisco Giants’ third base coach was expelled for an allegedly racist remark.
Nakken, an assistant who works with Giants players on baserunning and outfield defense, became the first woman in MLB history to coach on the field after Antoan Richardson was kicked out. When called out, she left her seat in the batting cage, replaced her sweatshirt with her No. 92 jersey, and grabbed a batting helmet.
“I think we’re all inspirations, doing everything we do day to day, and I think yeah, that carries a little bit more weight because of the visibility, obviously it has a historical character,” she said (via Associated Press ) after the Giants’ 13-2 win over the San Diego Padres. “But again, that’s my job.”
Her helmet is on the way to the Cooperstown Hall of Fame, not that Nakken needed a reminder of the importance of her performance, which came days after Rachel Balkovec became the first woman to manage a major league team’s minor league affiliate.
“It’s a big deal,” Nakken said of her moment. “I feel very responsible and see it as my duty to honor those who have helped me get to where I am.”
The Padres first baseman Eric Hosmer greeted them with a handshake as the crowd at Oracle Park in San Francisco applauded.
“Right now in this moment when I think back I think back to someone that had to go out, we needed a coach to coach first base, our first base coach got kicked out, which I coached as first base coach I got into the I’ve worked with Antoan for the past few years, so I did what I was hired to do, which was to support those people and that team,” said Nakken.
While the moment was historic, it wasn’t a big deal either because “it’s not a strange place on the field for them,” Giants manager Gabe Kapler said. “She’s good at so many other things that you don’t see, so it’s nice to see her taking the spotlight and doing it on the field.”
How the San Francisco Giants, deliberately different, built a power of surprise
Nakken, 31, a star softball player in Sacramento State, was the first female coach to be hired by a major league team when Kapler brought her on board in January 2020. She also has a master’s degree in sports management from the University of San Francisco and had an internship with the Giants baseball department in 2014.
Her moment came when Richardson was ejected for responding to a comment with “racist overtones” from Padres third base coach Mike Shildt. According to Richardson, Shildt was looking for pitcher Alex Wood in the Giants’ dugout. After a brief back-and-forth, Richardson said Shildt told Kapler, “You have to control that m———–.” Richardson then climbed the Giants’ dugout steps and said to Shildt, “Sorry.” He was promptly thrown by referee Greg Gibson for “incitement,” Richardson said.
“[Shildt’s] Words were disproportionately unwarranted and reeked of racial undertones as he referred to me as “that m———–” as if I should be controlled or owned or enslaved,” said Richardson (via KNBR). “I think it’s really important that we understand what happened tonight. And the second part, which is equally disappointing, is that the fact that I got kicked out by that referee gives that coach the opportunity to keep having those kinds of conversations with people like me. And it’s really unfortunate what happened tonight.
“With that in mind, I am delighted that Alyssa has been given the opportunity to make her major league debut and I am very proud of her. I think she did a really wonderful job and we won, so that’s the most important thing.”
Shildt and the Padres are yet to comment on the matter and Kapler told reporters he did not hear the exchange.
“I know Antoan wasn’t out of control at all and that anything said to suggest he was is totally inappropriate,” Kapler said. “He didn’t instigate any part of it.”