Alyssa Nakken makes the big time and serves as an inspiration to girls of all ages
I met Alyssa Nakken twice during her upbringing in Yolo County and later after she rounded the bases at a Sacramento State game.
She smiled big and dreamed big even then, once offering on her career ambitions as a softball star who especially digs baseball, “The sky’s the limit.”
She reached it, and then some.
Nakken this week became the first full-time woman coach in Major League Baseball history to work on the field during a game, as first base coach for the Giants against the A’s Monday night.
This was no stunt. Nakken, 30, earned her promotions. She started with the Giants in 2014 and was elevated from intern in the baseball operations department after a stellar four-year softball run at Sac State. Nakken was a three-sport star at Woodland High School, finding time to maintain a 4.0 grade-point average.
The NFL and NBA have hired women for coaching or front-office roles. The Yankees hired Rachael Balkovec as a minor-league hitting coach, the Cubs brought in Rachel Folden as an assistant coach for their minor league teams, and the Cardinals tabbed Christina Whitlock for a minor-league role.
Nakken has not been made available to the media since the season reboot but was a hit on social media. Giants outfielder Hunter Pence offered congratulations.
Nakken said during a media conference in February, “Coaching, I never saw it. I’m so excited to be in this role for the challenge and the opportunity to make an impact for this organization that I love. I’m excited that now girls can see there is a job on the field in baseball. It’s really cool.”
Cross-generational cool
Some day, Nakken may meet Kay Johnston-Massar, a baseball pioneer from an earlier generation, who described her own historic journey as “so cool.”
Johnson-Massar grew up in upstate New York in the 1940s and 50s, drawn to the pinstripes and tradition of the Yankees. As a 13-year-old, she wanted to play on a Little League team. It wasn’t allowed then. People scoffed at the mere suggestion.
Johnston-Massar shared her story with me at a recent Yuba-Sutter Gold Sox game, a collegiate summer wood-bat league in Marysville. Johnston-Massar, charming and witty at 84, is a season ticket holder.
She was an emergency nurse in Marysville for 32 years. People and baseball inspire her.
“My mother was braiding my hair one day when I was 13, and my brother left the house with his bat to go practice, and I started crying,” Johnston-Massar recalled. “I knew I could play. I was just as good as him and better than some of the other boys.”
So mother and daughter came up with an idea. Johnston-Massar cut her braids. She borrowed a pair of her brother’s pants, grabbed a baseball cap and a glove and signed up as Tubby Johnston, a character from the comic strip, Little Lulu. And then she competed, making the 1950 team.
Fearful of being discovered, Johnston several weeks into the season told her coach that she was a girl trying to fit in with guys. The coach never wavered. He told her she was his first baseman.
”Played the the whole season, so much fun, a thrill,” Johnston-Massar said.
Still, Little League officials would not budge in allowing girls to try out. It unofficially became known as the “Tubby Johnston Rule.” It was abolished in 1974.
“I was pretending to be a boy just to play, to show I could do it, but I had no idea the impact,” Johnston-Massar said. “I played just one season of Little League and then wanted to play for the Yankees; first base.”
She didn’t suit up for the Yankees but did, at age 70, throw out the first pitch of a 2006 game at Yankee Stadium. In 2010, Johnston-Massar threw out the first pitch for an A’s game. Johnston-Massar’s Little League jersey is in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
When I mentioned Nakken, the Giants coach, Johnston-Massar leaned forward to better hear. Said she, “I’ve heard of her. I hope to watch her and meet her. What an inspiration she is.”
This story was originally published July 22, 2020 at 10:38 AM.