New York Post, Saturday, November 14, 2020
nypost.com
By Mollie WalkerThe Marlins made history Fri-
day morning when they hired Kim
Ng as general manager, making
her the first female GM of any of
the major professional men’s
sports teams in North America.
Ng, who has previously served
as assistant general manager of the
Yankees and White Sox, is now the
highest-ranking woman in base-
ball operations among the 30 MLB
teams. She was most recently the
league’s senior vice president for
baseball operations since 2011 and
was the highest-ranking Asian
American female baseball execu-
tive.
“I entered Major League Base-
ball as an intern and, after decades
of determination, it is the honor of
my career to lead the Miami Mar-
lins as their next general man-
ager,” Ng said in a statement
through the team. “We are build-
ing for the long term in South
Florida, developing a forward-
thinking, collaborative, creative
baseball operation made up of in-
credible talented and dedicated
staff who have, over the last few
years, laid a great foundation for
success.
“This challenge is one I don’t
take lightly. When I got into this
business, it seemed unlikely a
woman would lead a major league
team, but I am dogged in the pur-suit of my goals.”
Yankees general manager Brian
Cashman recruited Ng to work as
assistant GM in 1998, which made
her the youngest in the major lea-
gues at 29 years old. She was one
of three women to ever hold the
position at the time.
“It is wonderful seeing people
accomplish their stated goals, and
this has been a dream of hers for
as long as I’ve known her,” Cash-man said. “As Assistant General
Manager with the Yankees, she
was indispensable to me when I
first began my tenure as the GM.
Kim was a tireless and dedicated
executive back then, and in the en-
suing years, she has ceaselessly
added to her skill set to maximize
her talent. She will provide the
Marlins with vast experience and
institutional knowledge along
with a calm demeanor and anamazing ability to connect with
others — all of which will serve
her well in her new leadership role
as head of baseball operations”
Ng wasn’t the last woman to
hold the job in the Yankees organi-
zation, with Jean Afterman com-
ing after her — and still holding
the titles of assistant GM and sen-
ior vice president.
“When I succeeded Kim as the
assistant general manager of the
Yankees almost 20 years ago, I
knew that I needed to up my game
to match hers — Kim had set a
high standard,” Afterman said.
“Her hiring demonstrates what I
have long said, that to be a GM in
Major League Baseball, you need
intelligence, vision and experi-
ence. These qualities of leader-
ship, which Kim possesses in
abundance, are gender-blind. It is
a tremendous achievement to be
the first female GM in Major
League Baseball, and I hope young
girls (and boys) take notice of this
and further understand that there
are no limits to their dreams. I
congratulate the Marlins — that
after a remarkable season, during
extraordinary times — they have
broken a barrier that needed shat-
tering.”
In Miami, Ng reunites with
some familiar faces from her days
with the Yankees in Marlins CEO
Derek Jeter and director of player
development and scouting GaryDenbo. At the start of Ng’s tenure,
Jeter was in his fourth year with
the Yankees and Denbo was the
team’s hitting coach.
“My goal is to bring champion-
ship baseball to Miami,” she said.
“I am both humbled and eager to
continue building the winning cul-
ture our fans expect and deserve.”
After beginning her career as an
intern with the White Sox after
graduating from the University of
Chicago, she became a special
projects analyst before she was
promoted to assistant director of
baseball operations under
then-GM Ron Schueler in 1995.
The same year, she became the
youngest person, and the first
woman, to present a salary arbi-
tration case in the major leagues.
Her history is not lost on MLB.
“All of us at Major League Base-
ball are thrilled for Kim and the
opportunity she has earned with
the Marlins,” Commissioner Rob
Manfred said via statement.
“Kim’s appointment makes history
in all of professional sports and
sets a significant example for the
millions of women and girls who
love baseball and softball. The
hard work, leadership, and record
of achievement throughout her
long career in the national pastime
led to this outcome, and we wish
Kim all the best as she begins her
career with the Marlins.”
[email protected]Trailblazer’s path was long, challenging
T
HE memories poured out of Dan Evans
like Niagara Falls on Friday: Interview-
ing Kim Ng for an internship 30 years
ago at the brand-new Comiskey Park II, as
his 3-month-old daughter slept in his office.
Watching Ng rise with the
White Sox, then with the
Yankees, then again with
Evans at the Dodgers be-
fore she did more good
work at Major League
Baseball’s headquarters.
Cheering her on as she
interviewed for general
manager after general manager opening,
without getting an offer. Watching her grind
through the indignities that, sadly, came
with being such a highly ranked Asian
American woman in an industry dominated
by white men, including one horrific nightat the 2003 general managers’ meetings
when a recently hired (and soon to be fired)
Mets executive named Bill Singer drunk-
enly confronted her with sexist and racist
rage.
“For those days,” Evans
said in a telephone inter-
view, “I am thankful she
stuck with it.”
This day, Friday, was one
heck of a day in the base-
ball world, as Ng reunited
with an old work associate
named Derek Jeter to
make sports history: Jeter’s Marlins hired
Ng, the Yankees’ assistant general manager
from 1998 through 2001, to be his team’s
new GM, the first woman believed to hold
that position full-time for a major North
American men’s professional sports team.“When I got into this business, it seemed
unlikely a woman would lead a Major
League team, but I am dogged in the pursuit
of my goals,” Ng said Friday in a statement.
“My goal is now to bring Championship
baseball to Miami.”
Ng’s credentials — Dodgers assistant GM
for 10 years after leaving the Yankees, then
nine years as an MLB senior vice president
of baseball operations — can’t be chal-
lenged; Brian Cashman, who hired Ng when
he first became the Yankees’ GM in 1998,
predicted that Ng “will provide the Marlins
with vast experience and institutional
knowledge along with a calm demeanor and
an amazing ability to connect with others.”
And the impact of this hire naturally goes
beyond just the Marlins.
“It is a tremendous achievement to be the
first female GM in Major League Baseball,and I hope young girls (and boys) take no-
tice of this and further understand that
there are no limits to their dreams,” Yankees
senior vice president and assistant GM Jean
Afterman, who succeeded Ng in 2001, said
in a statement.
Said Evans, a longtime baseball executive
who worked as the Dodgers’ GM from 2001
through 2004: “For a female vice president
[Kamala Harris] to be elected who happens
to be a person of color, to break that barrier,
and then in the same time frame to have a
spot that shatters its own barrier, it’s a won-
derful statement about the way the world is
today.”
Ng stuck with it. Evans’ daughter, now 30,
as well as her younger sister, 27, having
known Ng for all their lives, are among the
countless folks just as thankful as their dad.
[email protected]Ken Davidoff
PAID HER DUES: Hired by the Marlins on Friday to be their new
general manager, Kim Ng started her career in baseball with the
White Sox in the early 1990s and served as assistant GM of the Yan-
kees from 1998-2001 alongside Brian Cashman and Joe Torre.