First, the Dodgers' assistant general manager was confused for pitcher Kazuhisa Ishii's interpreter. Then it was for a fan trying to sneak onto the field during batting practice.
A scout eventually got it right Tuesday at Turner Field, when he walked up and said: "Hello beautiful!"
PHOTO: NY TIMES
Larry Monroe, director of scouting for the Chicago White Sox, practically lifted 157cm Kim Ng off her feet to hug her and kiss her on the cheek.
Ng (pronounced "ang") happens to be a woman. She happens to be of Asian descent. She also happens to be second in command for day-to-day player personnel decisions for the team with the second-highest payroll in the National League.
She negotiated Ishii's US$12.2 million contract. She has three World Series rings from her old job as the assistant general manager of the Yankees. She was about to watch the fruits of her winter conversations with Braves assistant general manager Frank Wren in the early stages of the Gary Sheffield trade discussions.
That's the part she's most proud of. The other is just genetics.
"I don't wake up in the morning and say `I'm a woman; it's going to be a real problem today,'" Ng said. "It's not hard. It's not easy. It's just different than what guys experience."
So George Steinbrenner has kissed her forehead. So some members of the old boys network try not to curse around her. So she makes an effort to stay out of the Dodgers' clubhouse unless it's necessary.
But when it comes to the business, she's impressed for all the right reasons.
"You can tell when people know what they're talking about and when they don't," Wren said. "And she does."
Ng is one of three women assistant general managers in the majors, including the Red Sox's Elaine Steward and Ng's replacement with the Yankees, Jean Afterman. Ng is the one most think is on track to become baseball's first female general manager, if and when there is one.
But like any good baseball person, Ng doesn't like to jinx herself. When asked about her chances, she brought up Don Mattingly, who played 14 seasons for the Yankees without ever making the World Series.
"This game is so humbling," Ng said. "I make no pretenses about who I am or what I'm going to be ... I don't know if I'll ever get there. But people know they can get to where I am."
As a 21-year-old graduate of the University of Chicago, Ng was just looking to find a job that interested her when a former softball coach told her about an internship with the White Sox.
A month into that internship, she sat in a meeting with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf. Up for discussion was a fringe player who was eligible for salary arbitration. Reinsdorf shocked her by asking each intern for an opinion.
She shocked him back. She suggested they were wasting their time, that they should concentrate on more key players.
When she left the room, Reinsdorf said to his director of baseball operations Dan Evans, whos is now the Dodgers general manager: "Now I can see why you like her."
Ng was right. Three months later, she was a full-time employee.
At 26, she became the youngest person and the first woman to present a salary arbitration case. In the process, she defeated agent Scott Boras and saved the White Sox US$650,000 in Alex Fernandez's US$3.25 million case.
"It was a wonderful step, not just for baseball, but for her," Evans said. "It was her coming of age."
Ng has smoked celebratory cigars with Joe Torre. She's played golf with Dodger executives from the men's tees. But she rarely tries to get into matches of wit, unless she's out with her husband Tony and has some friend of a friend try to test her.
But those nights are rare. She's more likely to be at a ballpark, on a cellphone, on her 80-hour-a-week job.
"If I don't do it well, all of this means nothing," Ng said.
When a Turner Field security guard stopped her walking from the stands onto the field Tuesday, she didn't roll her eyes or make snide remarks. She went into the visitors dugout, reached into her bag and produced a badge.
"No matter who you are or what you do, it's a natural reaction for people to look at you and have preconceived notions," Ng said. "I think you have to figure out the best way to deal with it."
Her way?
"To be understanding," she said. "And if you get them into a conversation, make them think about you a little different than when they first came up to you."
When her Yankees contract expired, Ng considered leaving MLB before Dan Evans, who hired her as an intern in Chicago, became general manager of the Dodgers. He called her 10 times. "I didn't hire her because she's the best woman," Evans said. "She was the best candidate. She brings a lot of skills when she comes in a room. Once people get past the point that she's a woman, they see she's got exceptional talent."
Northeastern University's Center for the Study of Sport in Society gave Major League Baseball a D+ in its 2001 report comparing the number of women hired for front office positions with the number of women in the population. But Kevin Matthews, co-director of the study, thinks Ng will make a significant impact. "I'm an optimist," Matthews said. "Whenever people break through stereotypes, it will open people's minds on hiring ... I know she changed some people's minds. Hopefully it'll lead to more change."
* Age: 32.
* Hometown: Ridgewood, New Jersey.
* College: BA in public policy from University of Chicago, where she was an MVP infielder on the fast-pitch softball team.
* Front office experience: Chicago White Sox arbitration intern, 1990; White Sox special projects analyst, 1991; White Sox assistant director of baseball operations, 1995; American League director of waivers and player records, 1997; Yankees assistant general manager, 1998-2001.
* Quotable: "I don't have a crystal ball, but she may well be a GM one day. She's there. She's poised. She's positioned for consideration. Ten or 15 years ago some people would have scoffed at the idea of a women being in the job she has now." -- Braves GM John Schuerholz
When Lika Megreladze was a child, life in her native western Georgian region of Guria revolved around tea. Her mother worked for decades as a scientist at the Soviet Union’s Institute of Tea and Subtropical Crops in the village of Anaseuli, Georgia, perfecting cultivation methods for a Georgian tea industry that supplied the bulk of the vast communist state’s brews. “When I was a child, this was only my mum’s workplace. Only later I realized that it was something big,” she said. Now, the institute lies abandoned. Yellowed papers are strewn around its decaying corridors, and a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
RSS