London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Monday, Sep 01, 2025

A woman in charge, and it's about time

A woman in charge, and it's about time

On the day she officially became a trailblazer in Major League Baseball, Kim Ng remembered the little girl who played stickball on the streets of Queens.
At the time her gender wasn’t nearly as big of an issue as knowing the layout of the field.

``First base would be the red car on the right, second base was the manhole,’’ she said. ``Those were great memories.’’

The layout has changed some for Ng, who sat next to home plate Monday at Marlins Park for the virtual press conference that coronated her historic appointment as the new general manager of the Miami Marlins. Behind her was an immaculate field, with nary a red car or manhole in sight.

In front of her is a job that for way too many years has been off-limits to anyone but a man.

That it took so long for Ng to get a job running one of MLB’s 30 teams was, sadly enough, no surprise. Baseball evolves slowly, and the idea that a woman could actually be in charge of a team was inconceivable to past generations.

Maybe the best thing about Ng’s appointment by the Derek Jeter and the Marlins is that a lot of other girls like the one who played stickball in Queens can have their own dreams, too.

``Girls can see it,’’ Ng said. ``There’s an adage you can’t be it if you can’t see it. I guess I would suggest to them now, now you can see it.’’

Indeed, Ng had the rare ability to see what her future was - and believe there was a path to the top even when others saw it as impossible. She went from playing stickball in Queens to playing softball in college. A career in baseball beckoned, even if it was in the front office and not on the field.

The problem was, baseball wasn’t quite ready. It took three decades for Ng to reach the top, and the biggest reason behind that had nothing to do with her ability to do the job.

She was hired as an intern by the Chicago White Sox and worked her way up over the years. But even after stints with the Yankees and as an assistant general manager for the Dodgers, no team was willing to hand Ng the reins.

At least five times over the last 15 years she was interviewed for jobs running teams. Some, she thought, never had any intention of hiring her in the first place.

“After so many times you feel delated and feel like maybe it’s not going to happen,’’ she said. ``Even if it hadn’t happened, I was never going to see my career as a failure.”

Sitting on a stool next to home plate in Miami, Ng spent the better part of an hour Monday trying to explain what it all meant. She embraced the idea that this was bigger than her getting the Marlins job, while celebrating at the same time her lifetime dream being realized a day before her 52nd birthday.

She’s got a lot of work ahead of her, even though the Marlins qualified for this year’s expanded playoffs for the first time since 2003. Ng will be expected to deliver a winner in Miami, a task made difficult by the fact the Marlins are perennially among the lowest spenders in baseball.

But this is a woman who was unafraid to give her opinion even as an intern with the White Sox. This is a woman who went up against super agent Scott Boras before she turned 30, winning an arbitration case she presented against pitcher Alex Fernandez.

This is a woman who knows baseball - and knows how to get things done.

``I was never hired to just nod my head,’’ she said. ``My biggest advice is voice your opinion.’’

The opinion among most in baseball is that the Marlins have a winner in Ng. Judging from the ease with which she handled her opening press conference they also have someone willing to be the face of the franchise should Jeter want to stay in the background.

Eventually she will be judged on how many games the Marlins win and whether they can make the playoffs on a regular basis. That’s something that comes with the territory of anyone who holds the title of general manager, a job that doesn’t come with a large amount of job security.

Ng is OK with that, just like she’s OK with being the role model for those coming after her. She embraces the role of pioneer and is unafraid of the challenges ahead.

Just the kind of general manager the Marlins need. Exactly the kind of role model girls everywhere deserve.

``Anything is possible, that’s my message to your little girl,’’ she said when asked yet again what she would say about her appointment to young girls. ``Just work your butt off and keep your nose to the grindstone.''
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
WhatsApp is rolling out a feature that looks a lot like Telegram.
Investigations Reveal Rise in ‘Sex-for-Rent’ Listings Across Canada Exploiting Vulnerable Tenants
Chinese and Indian Leaders Pursue Amity Amid Global Shifts
European Union Plans for Ukraine Deployment
ECB Warns Against Inflation Complacency
Concerns Over North Cyprus Casino Development
Shipping Companies Look Beyond Chinese Finance
Rural Exodus Fueling European Wildfires
China Hosts Major Security Meeting
Chinese Police Successfully Recover Family's Savings from Livestream Purchases
Germany Marks a Decade Since Migrant Wave with Divisions, Success Stories, and Political Shifts
Liverpool Defeat Arsenal 1–0 with Szoboszlai Free-Kick to Stay Top of Premier League
Prince Harry and King Charles to Meet in First Reunion After 20 Months
Chinese Stock Market Rally Fueled by Domestic Investors
Israeli Airstrike in Yemen Kills Houthi Prime Minister
Ukrainian Nationalist Politician Andriy Parubiy Assassinated in Lviv
Corporate America Cuts Middle Management as Bosses Take On Triple the Workload
Parents Sue OpenAI After Teen’s Death, Alleging ChatGPT Encouraged Suicide
Amazon Faces Lawsuit Over 'Buy' Label on Digital Streaming Content
Federal Reserve Independence Questioned Amid Trump’s Push to Reshape Central Bank
British Politics Faces Tumultuous Autumn After Summer of Rebellions and Rising Farage Momentum
US Appeals Court Rules Against Most Trump-Era Tariffs
UK Sought Broad Access to Apple Users’ Data, Court Filing Reveals
UK Bank Shares Dive Over Potential Tax on Sector
Germany’s Auto Industry Sheds 51,500 Jobs in First Half of 2025 Amid Deepening Crisis
Bruce Willis Relocated Due to Advanced Dementia
French and Korean Nuclear Majors Clash As EU Launches Foreign Subsidy Probe
EU Stands Firm on Digital Rules as Trump Warns of Retaliation
Getting Ready for the 3rd Time in Its History, Germany Approves Voluntary Military Service for Teenagers
Argentine President Javier Milei Evacuated After Stones Thrown During Campaign Event
Denmark Confronts U.S. Diplomat Over Covert Trump-Linked Influence in Greenland
Starmer Should Back Away from ECHR, Says Jack Straw
Trump Demands RICO Charges Against George Soros and Son for Funding Violent Protests
Taylor Swift Announces Engagement to NFL Star Travis Kelce
France May Need IMF Bailout, Warns Finance Minister
Chinese AI Chipmaker Cambricon Posts Record Profit as Beijing Pushes Pivot from Nvidia
After the Shock of Defeat, Iranians Yearn for Change
Ukraine Finally Allows Young Men Aged Eighteen to Twenty-Two to Leave the Country
The Porn Remains, Privacy Disappears: How Britain Broke the Internet in Ten Days
YouTube Altered Content by Artificial Intelligence – Without Permission
Welcome to The Definition of Insanity: Germany Edition
Just a reminder, this is Michael Jackson's daughter, Paris.
Spotify’s Strange Move: The Feature Nobody Asked For – Returns
Manhunt in Australia: Armed Anti-Government Suspect Kills Police Officers Sent to Arrest Him
China Launches World’s Most Powerful Neutrino Detector
How Beijing-Linked Networks Shape Elections in New York City
Ukrainian Refugee Iryna Zarutska Fled War To US, Stabbed To Death
Elon Musk Sues Apple and OpenAI Over Alleged App Store Monopoly
2 Australian Police Shot Dead In Encounter In Rural Victoria State
Vietnam Evacuates Hundreds of Thousands as Typhoon Kajiki Strikes; China’s Sanya Shuts Down
×