With baseball season coming to a close this week, everyone is eagerly waiting and watching to see if their team will indeed clinch a playoff spot. There’s one person who really holds the MLB together though and that is Kim Ng who is currently the senior vice president of baseball operations in the MLB. Ng is an important presence not only in the world of baseball but in the world of sports in general.
Ng’s whole career has been spent around baseball. Ng has worked for multiple teams including the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees, Los Angeles Dodgers, and has worked in the office of the American League and now currently works for the MLB. However, her biggest aspiration has yet to come true which is becoming the GM for a baseball team. That is not to say that Ng hasn’t tried to make her dream a reality, but after trying three times and getting rejected each time, her dream seemed like a fantasy. With multiple GM openings throughout baseball, it looks like Ng could have another chance sooner rather than later. She would become a pioneer in baseball, finally showing that a woman can handle a job men have been doing for decades.
Then what’s holding Ng back from getting hired? According to former Reds’ GM Jim Bowden, Ng not being hired is not because she’s a woman, but due to her abilities, “From what I’ve heard, evaluation of talent may not be her strength. That may hold her back…” While Bowden might be right, that’s an interesting explanation not to hire someone as qualified as her. Bowden’s logic on her just seems a little flat, especially since one of the positions she holds has to do with scouting. Certainly the teams who interviewed her then are regretting not picking her up, especially the Mariners and Padres.
If Ng gets hired as a GM, she will not only be the first woman to hold the position but become the first Asian American GM. She would become a trailblazer for both her gender and her race which opens two very important doors in the baseball world. A female GM is unheard of but if the NFL who is arguably one of the most male-dominated fields can have a female coach and a female referee, then the MLB can handle a woman becoming a GM. In terms of her race, Ng would become the first Asian American to hold the GM position which could open the door for not only women but men too. Hiring Ng would make sense in so many ways and really help to strengthen diversity in the sports world.
While Ng is content to wait until the right opportunity finds her, it should honestly be the other way around. Teams should be begging Ng to be their GM instead of her waiting for them to come to her. The day she becomes a GM, the world of baseball will forever be changed, but until then, Kim Ng will continue to wait and slowly but surely all her hard work will pay off in the end.
