Shattered Glass

When Clare was a toddler scooting around the kitchen, Kim Ng was a twenty-something working for the White Sox in positions up to and including assistant director of baseball operations. So, it was entirely fitting that my daughter should be the one to inform me yesterday that the now 51-year old Ng had been hired by the Marlins as their new general manager. Ng is the first female GM of any of the Big-Four pro sports in the U.S.—MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL. Cool. The one irony of the hiring that I see is that the old-boys’ network may have had a little to do with it. The Marlins’ CEO is Derek Jeter, who knew Ng from her time with the Yankees as an assistant GM. Well, I’m a big believer in the dialectic. Mix A with B, or in this case DJ with Ng, and you may end up with something totally unexpected. Ng said all the expected things about bringing “championship baseball to Miami.” What I want to know is this: Will she work to bring women into the dugout and onto the field? We’ll see.