Alyssa Nakken has enjoyed a few firsts over the last half-decade. First full-time woman coach in major league history. First woman to coach in an on-field role during a major league game. First woman to interview for any big league managerial position.
On Sunday, she’ll experience another.
After giving birth to Austyn Brielle Nakken on Jan. 21, 2024, Nakken will have the opportunity to enjoy her first Mother’s Day as a mom, an experience that has been defined by an abundance of joyful moments.
“I have never loved anything more than I do being a mother,” Nakken said. “I’m very grateful that I’ve been able to have a lot of time with my daughter and be able to grow with her over these last three months.”
As Nakken reflects on her first months of motherhood, she speaks of the depth of emotion she has experienced — a depth she didn’t know was possible. Nakken admits that she didn’t know if she would be able to be a mother, but alongside her husband, Robert Abel Nakken, she savors the opportunity to watch Austyn grow, day by day.
Austyn Brielle Nakken was called up to the show yesterday!
Mama Alyssa Nakken was an absolute rockstar and is felling great/healthy.
@kaiserpermanente Vacaville team of nurses and doctors were amazing!!
@sfgiants @Alpha_BSB pic.twitter.com/XCfmWuQoQt
— Robert A. Nakken (@CoachRobertabel) January 23, 2024
Nakken describes herself as a planner, an appropriate assessment given all that comes with being a major league coach. With motherhood, though, Nakken has slowly begun embracing the seemingly random nature of the days. She jokes how she’s “thriving in chaos” and relishing the moments — big and small. Still, the last couple months have brought their share of challenges.
By Nakken’s estimation, she was very sick for about 19 weeks of her pregnancy, leaving her unable to travel on several road trips last season. Austyn, expected to arrive in February, was born about three weeks early. Nakken says there were several “scary moments,” but smiles as she shares that she and Austyn are healthy and safe, crediting the doctors at the Kaiser Permanente in Vacaville, as well as the support she’s received from the organization.
“The whole time, my husband was saying, ‘One day, you’ll be able to look back on this and say this was part of your journey,’” Nakken said. “Now, I’m at that point where I can look back and say this is part of the journey. I’m not scared anymore and we’re in a really happy time right now.”
In addition to learning parenthood, Nakken, who has not been traveling with the team, has had to adjust to an altered role as a coach.
When the Giants are home, Nakken emphasizes in-person contact with her contemporaries, access she does not have when the team travels. On Friday, with the Giants having just returned from a three-city, 10-game trip, Nakken spent a good chunk of time pregame simply checking in with players and coaches. Her schedule, for the most part, remains the same, the main difference being that she’ll meet Austyn and Robert about three hours before a game and feed Austyn.
Along with the support she receives from Robert, who is also navigating parenthood for the first time, Nakken credits Carly Groves, her best friend and a mother of three, and Lori Perez, her coach at Sacramento State, as being invaluable resources over the course of the last several months.
Groves “didn’t try to put any fluff on anything” regarding motherhood, providing an honest reality of what Nakken would experience. Perez, who has been Sacramento State’s softball head coach for more than a decade, talked with Nakken about what she would do if the Giants hired her as a manager, as well as how to balance coaching, traveling and motherhood.
“We’re working as an ultimate team right now,” Nakken said of her relationship with Robert, the founder of the San Francisco CRABS (Coach Robert Abel Baseball School). “That’s what we said when we were dating and getting married: let’s continue to be really good teammates for each other. That’s what we’ve been. This is definitely new territory in a lot of aspects, and I’m glad that we get to go through it together.
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Added Perez: “She’s the type of person that’s the first one to show up to the field and the last person to leave. She’s going to put in the work. Now, having a child, that part of her, that go-getter mentally, that’s just going to immediately inject into everything she’s doing. … She’s the kind of person that’s made for this moment.”
When the Giants are on the road, by contrast, Nakken leans into the analytics, sharing her notes with the coaching staff. Nakken, who hopes to return to travel in the next “month or so,” says that communicating while the team is on the road is more difficult. That time away, though, incentivizes her to be mentally present when she is physically present.
Nakken will, in time, have the opportunity to once again don the Giants’ road grays, but for now, she’s enjoying what this specific chapter of her life has to offer. As she stands near the home dugout at Oracle Park and contemplates the last several months, she takes pride in the person she’s actively becoming.
“I feel like I’m witnessing myself be somebody who I never thought I could be.”
