In the world of trading cards, where cardboard collectibles immortalize sports legends and fleeting moments of athletic brilliance, Coach Robert Abel is taking a decidedly unique and heartwarming approach to collecting. Instead of chasing after the rookie cards of baseball phenoms or legendary home run hitters, his focus is on capturing a piece of history much closer to home—literally. Abel is on a heartfelt quest to gather every possible variation of trading cards that feature none other than his wife, Alyssa Nakken.
For those who are unfamiliar with Alyssa Nakken’s groundbreaking journey, let’s rewind to 2022, a year that ushered in a historic moment for Major League Baseball and for the world of sports at large. It was the year Alyssa Nakken became MLB’s first female on-field coach with the San Francisco Giants, a leap forward in a predominantly male-dominated arena. Her appointment as assistant coach wasn’t just a victory for Nakken and the Giants; it was a triumph for gender equality and an inspiration to many aspiring female athletes and sports professionals worldwide.
While the sports community celebrated this monumental achievement with cheers, and rightly so, it stirred a more personal pride for Abel, one underscored by his affectionate journey to collect his wife’s cards. The 2022 Topps Now series recognized Nakken’s historic achievement, and like a proud fan and partner, Robert Abel has made it his mission to collect each card from this series. This endeavor is as much about preserving a pivotal moment in sports history as it is about embracing the shared personal triumphs of their family life.
Robert Abel’s pursuit could be likened to a collector’s odyssey, an adventurous connection of dots marked by the joy of the hunt, the thrill of acquisition, and the satisfaction of preservation. What might seem like a simple assembly of paper and ink is, in reality, a collage of love and pride. There’s more than nostalgia at play here, though it certainly tugs at those heartstrings most collectors will recognize.
The nature of card collecting often delves into a realm of competition—acquiring, trading, boasting a card that completes a series or sets records. But Abel’s collection is imbued with a personal integrity that transcends these traditional motivations. This mission goes beyond collector comradery or displaying compilations in pristine albums; it’s about preserving a piece of personal history, of recording an era where the boundaries in sports were challenged and redrawn by none other than Alyssa Nakken herself.
To Coach Abel, each card is a testament, a tangible reminder of an intangible shift in the sports landscape—a marker of courage, conviction, and the quiet, persistent battles waged behind the scenes by Alyssa and others like her. Each card he adds to his collection isn’t just a reflection of Nakken’s significance in MLB; it is also a celebration of progress, of hope, and of the unstoppable force that is change.
Moreover, Abel’s story drives home the point that trading cards can serve as more than just snapshots of players in action. They can become profound representations of stories that resonate with society at large, that defeat the fleeting nature of headlines and get shuffled alongside the stats and the numbers. They bring us back to the stories, to the people, to the influences that change us and the way we view sports.
There’s a broader palimpsest to Abel’s endeavor, too. It touches on how card collecting, often regarded as mere hobby, is also a means to preserve cultural and personal narratives—one where collectors are curators of history itself. In seeking out these particular cards, Robert Abel is elevating this simple hobby into a narrative tapestry that celebrates not only a groundbreaking occasion but also the shared experience of family pride and achievement.
As Abel continues on this peculiar yet heartfelt journey, it’s clear his odyssey goes beyond merely preserving cards in glassine pockets or protective cases. It’s an embrace of the meaningful connections that sports and stories bring us, and the way they weave into our lives, making us part of a larger, ongoing story.
In a world where definitions are constantly changing, where limits are being tested and paradigms shifted, Robert Abel reminds us that history is sometimes made not only on the field but also captured in the loving quest for small pieces of cardboard that tell a much bigger story—one that began with love, bravery, and an indomitable spirit sealed in the legacy of Alyssa Nakken’s trailblazing career.
