Footsteps to Follow In

 Walking off the field this April after Elmhurst took two from the University of Chicago, Clare let slip a secret—this was where she wanted to play.  Why, I have no idea, though I do find it strangely neat the softball field is a foul ball away from where Enrico Fermi engineered the first self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction in 1942 under the stands of old Stagg Field.  Connect that to softball, and win a prize.

Kim Ng went to the U of C and did play softball, graduating in 1990, a year before Clare was a bun in the oven.  Ng then interned with the White Sox, who soon hired her fulltime.  From there it was assistant-GM jobs with the Yankees and Dodgers, where she worked for ten years.  Along the way Ng has also worked for MLB and interviewed four times for GM vacancies.

I’ve mentioned Ng to Clare on occasion, and it seems to have stuck.  She’s working on a paper about women in sports and will be giving Ng her due.  Maybe one of these former softball players will head a big-league front office, someday.  Maybe.