Kim Ng made history today, becoming the first woman to be named general manager of a major American sports franchise. Ng will be the next Miami Marlins general manager, the team announced on Twitter.
Making history by bringing a lifetime of excellence, Kim Ng steps to the helm as GM. #JuntosMiami pic.twitter.com/UrYESbjTHe
— Miami Marlins (@Marlins) November 13, 2020
She also becomes the league’s first Asian-American general manager.
Ng is certainly more than deserving. Only 51, she has decades of MLB experience, having started in the White Sox front office in 1991 before becoming an assistant director of baseball operations there in 1995. After that, she spent years working in the offices of the American League, before working for the Yankees as the youngest Assistant General Manager in baseball in 1998.
That’s the kind of career path that, had she been coming up in the last decade, would certainly signal a general manager or president of baseball operations position by the time she was in her early 30s. Obviously that didn’t happen; Ng ended up moving to the Dodgers in 2001 and stayed with them for a decade before joining MLB’s league office in 2011, where she’s been the league’s senior VP of baseball operations.
The Marlins aren’t the first team to interview Ng, either; she’d previously been a candidate for the Dodgers, Mariners, Padres, Angels, and Giants. Now, finally, after an entire professional life spent working in and around baseball operations and management, Ng has been given the reins to a franchise.
Credit to the Marlins, too, for being willing to make this move. Not every organization would be willing to do it, for a variety of (bullshit) reasons, but this is a legitimately awesome thing, and one of the best things they’ve done as a franchise in a long time. Good for the Marlins, good for baseball, and most of all good for Ng. She’s deserved this opportunity for a long time, and this is very well-earned.
[Photo: Marlins on Twitter/USA Today]
