Giants’ Alyssa Nakken coaches first regular season game as a mom with baby daughter at the ballpark
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Baseball Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Alyssa Nakken stole a quick moment to make an important pregame stop ahead of San Francisco’s home opener: the assistant coach ducked into the family room not far from the Giants clubhouse to check on her new baby daughter and husband.
Already dressed in her cream-colored No. 92 uniform, Nakken gave her girl a tender kiss on the right cheek and carefully placed noise-canceling headphones over her tiny ears, making sure they were exactly right for 11-week-old daughter, Austyn, born three weeks early on Jan. 22.
The first full-time female coach in major league history, Nakken isn’t yet traveling full-time on manager Bob Melvin’s staff. The Nakkens are learning on the fly together how to navigate this challenging, daunting, thrilling and unprecedented new normal that is life of a major-league coaching mom and how that balance might look over the coming months and even years.
It’s Robert Nakken who is now taking on much of the load behind the scenes during these early days of parenthood — at least on game day.
“I’m definitely a proud husband and also a new, proud dad,” Robert Nakken said. “It’s a beautiful time to experience the journey with Alyssa and our family is very proud and we’re excited to support her in this journey that is really the first journey for a coach in this realm. So it’s going to be a little different, it’s going to be a little hard and that’s what makes it great.”
Robert Nakken hopes they can provide an example for future women to become professional baseball coaches while realizing they can also be parents.
“I think it’s something that can happen, we want to happen more and more and hopefully we can lay the groundwork for other women, because we want to have more babies, that’s for sure,” Robert Nakken said, Austyn cradled in his arms sporting her own pint-sized Giants jersey. “If someone else that’s a female wants to pursue this career that they’ll be supported and have outlets, especially when they become a mother.”
Alyssa Nakken received huge applause when introduced during pregame festivities at Oracle Park. The 33-year-old Nakken, a former softball star at Sacramento State, announced last season she was expecting her first child.
Just more than six weeks after giving birth, she and her family made a brief visit to spring training in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Austyn has already been to her first spring training and received gifts from Nike. Robert Nakken posted photos from the stands on a sunny Bay Area day before the series opener against San Diego. It was also against the Padres in April 2022 when Nakken became the first female to coach on the field in a regular-season game when she took over at first base for a 13-2 win after Antoan Richardson was ejected.
On Friday, Austyn showed off her darling toothless smile, and there are early signs she might just turn out a redhead — her parents would love that.
“It’s definitely uncharted waters, but we navigate this with the support of the coaching staff and the front office but also taking it a day at a time as a family,” Robert Nakken said. “We’re just here to support Alyssa and anything and everything that she needs from us. It’s just exciting to watch her go. Every day’s a challenge but athletes adjust and that’s what we’re here to do.”
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