Giants’ Alyssa Nakken Becomes First On-Field Woman Coach in MLB History

Maria Guardado, reporting for MLB.com:

Alyssa Nakken broke another historic barrier on Tuesday night, becoming the first woman to coach on the field in a Major League game in the Giants’ 13-2 victory over the Padres at Oracle Park.

Nakken took over as the Giants’ first-base coach in the top of the third inning after Antoan Richardson was ejected from the game by crew chief Greg Gibson following a dispute with Padres third-base coach Mike Shildt. Nakken said bench coach Kai Correa came down to the batting cages and told her she would be replacing Richardson. And so she made her on-field coaching debut with the Giants, who originally hired the 31-year-old as an assistant coach in January 2020.

Meanwhile, in similarly cool news from Florida:

Cheered by many fans who came just to see her make history, Rachel Balkovec debuted with a win Friday night as the first woman to manage the affiliate of a Major League Baseball team. Balkovec guided the New York Yankees’ Class A Tampa Tarpons over Lakeland 9-6.

“I’ve never heard my name chanted like that,” she said. “It was so much fun. Again, I just see, it’s like I see me sitting in the stands, whatever 15, 20 years ago, and so it’s just really cool.”

★ Wednesday, 13 April 2022