NAKKEN’S JERSEY GOES TO HALL
It took longer than expected, but the No. 92 jersey San Francisco Giants assistant coach Alyssa Nakken wore during her first major league game has finally reached Cooperstown.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum announced this week that the gray road jersey Nakken wore in the Giants’ July 23 season-opener at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles is now on display.
The first woman to hold a full-time coaching position in the majors told the Bay Area News Group in March that the Hall of Fame had reached out to the Giants during spring training to ask her to donate her first jersey from a regular season game and Nakken agreed.
“This is for all of the women in baseball and for all of the women who wanted to get in baseball and had the door shut in their face simply because of their gender,” Nakken told Hall of Fame writing specialist Bill Francis.
Her initial plans were to have her family and friends attend the Giants’ Opening Day game in Los Angeles in late March, but the coronavirus pandemic delayed the start to Nakken’s historic season. In lieu of watching Nakken in person at Dodger Stadium, her family saw her don the No. 92 jersey on television.
Nakken’s jersey from a March season-opener likely would have reached the Hall of Fame by the summer when visitors flock to Cooperstown, but after the pandemic put sports on hold, it has found its proper place next to other memorabilia from the most historic achievements in baseball history.
Nakken coached baserunning and outfield defense during her first season as a Giants assistant and made more history when she relieved Giants first base coach Antoan Richardson in two exhibition games in July against the Oakland A’s. Nakken became the first woman to coach in an onfield capacity during a major league game, which came after Richardson made the suggestion to Giants manager Gabe Kapler.
Nakken is expected to return to the Giants as an assistant coach in 2021 and could potentially expand her duties.
She said she chose No. 92 because no one had ever worn the number before at the major league level.