Kim Ng - The Hero

BASEBALL - MLB - GENERAL MANAGER, MIAMI MARLINS

ARCHETYPE: THE HERO

Day 26/135

Athletic Accomplishments

Kim Ng’s personal athletic career ended after playing college softball for the University of Chicago, where she was the team leader and named MVP infielder. But her role in professional sports was just getting started.

As the general manager of the Miami Marlins, Ng is the highest ranking female baseball executive EVER, and the first woman to be named GM of a team in Big Four leagues (NFL, NBA, MLB, NHL). She’s also the first person of East Asian descent to be named GM in the MLB.

Ng has worked in the MLB for 30 years, starting as an intern for the Chicago White Sox before being named assistant director of baseball operations for the team—the youngest person to hold that post.

She then became Assistant GM for the New York Yankees, where she won 3 World Series in 1998, 1999, and 2000 before heading to the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2011, she was hired as the senior VP of baseball operations.

Character Archetype: The Hero

Today is Opening Day in the MLB, and we finally get to see Kim Ng take her rightful place as general manager of the Miami Marlins. Ng is the first woman to become GM of a Big Four men’s pro league, but it wasn’t without a LOT of grinding, disappointment, and perseverance along the way.

Ng has worked in the MLB for 30 years. She’s interviewed for upwards of 10 GM roles and been passed over, despite Joe Torre and others who have worked with her or held GM positions publicly endorsing her, saying she is by far the best available candidate: personable, relatable, smart, resilient, experienced. What more could you want in a GM? But here’s the thing with the boys’ club: it’s really tough to get in if you’re not one of them.

But Ng didn’t stop trying. And finally, her persistence paid off, in a breakthrough moment for women in sports.

Ng has often been the only woman in the room, or any room. She’s had to prove herself day in and day out, and face ridiculous questions like, “why are you here?” from guys like former Mets pitcher Bill Singer who had the doubly stupid idea to mock her with an Asian accent. Hey racists! Ng grew up in Indiana.

Why is she here? Because she’s earned it the hard way.