The Miami Marlins hired Kim Ng to be their general manager and in doing so, became the first team to have a woman run their operations in North American sports history. To be frank, it is such an uplifting and amazing development, especially given the fact that the year is still 2020.
Not only does this mean that women can finally begin to have their more-than-deserved spot among national sports leagues across America, but it means that sports have begun to throw away the traditional and—not to mince words—sexist, narrow-minded and ignorant viewpoints that have been part of American sports for over a century.
Yes, there have been women involved with sports teams across America for decades now, as Ng has been a part of an MLB organization for over 30 years, starting with the Chicago White Sox in 1990. Yet, the fact that we have to dig so hard to find them and what they did should speak volumes as to the limited nature of their roles.
Five years ago, the hiring of the first female referee in NFL history, Sarah Thomas, was a monumental change. Today, the WNBA is more prominent than ever, and women like tennis champion Serena Williams continue to dominate along with several other powerful female athletes. Beyond all of that is the hiring of Ng though, as she is by far the biggest sign that men and women can work together in sports.
While this hardly sounds like a huge development, for women who grew up loving teams like the New York Yankees or the San Francisco 49ers this is a concrete sign that they can and will continue to have an impact in national sports that have been all about men for so long.
Kim Ng has been deserving of this role for years. She has been overqualified for the role of general manager ever since her initial foray as an assistant general manager with the Yankees in 1998. Yet, she was often only part of interviewing processes or involved with team decisions because the MLB and its teams wanted to appear more progressive.
Ng had been an assistant GM several times over, as she was the assistant to Brian Cashman of the Yankees from 1998 to 2001 and later became the assistant general manager and vice president of the Dodgers from 2001 to 2011.
While she was able to make a measured impact on these teams, she had had to work twice as hard as the men around her just to earn the same role that they did as she was repeatedly passed over in interview after interview.
Ng made this clear in saying, “there were times where I felt like the interview wasn’t maybe on the up-and-up.”
This is a bit of an understatement considering she was passed over five separate times by MLB teams. Not only is this an indictment of the sexism in national sports leagues, but an indictment of the racism as well.
Ng is only the second Asian-American to ever hold a major executive position in the MLB, along with Farhan Zaidi who is the president of Baseball Operations for the San Francisco Giants. There are currently few Asian players or employees in any American sports leagues, which is obvious when watching the NFL or the NBA where the only recognizable names for most sports fans is just one player, Jeremy Lin, who had a brief period of fame in the NBA.
This racism is nothing new to Ng who had to face insults to both her race and her gender throughout her extended stay as an MLB employee. In one instance, she was asked by an MLB scout, Bill Singer, where she was from, only to be mocked after in an insulting imitation of a stereotypical Chinese accent.
Despite all of this, Ng has persevered, and it feels amazing to know that people of all genders and races can be given their fair shot in American professional sports. Kim Ng is a warrior and will forever be an icon because of her strength to push past the swaths of ignorant people that would love to see her quit.