Another trailblazing role for AUSL commissioner Kim Ng
Athletes Unlimited Softball League Commissioner Kim Ng, a former Major League Baseball executive, is interviewed at MLB headquarters in Manhattan on Thursday. Credit: AP/Richard Drew
For Major League Baseball’s groundbreaking investment into professional softball this past week, it was only natural that Kim Ng — the first commissioner of the newly branded Athletes Unlimited Softball League — will serve as the bridge between the two separate but parallel diamonds.
Ng got her start in softball, from junior high in Glen Cove through high school in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and eventually as a middle infielder for the University of Chicago. But her destination wound up being baseball in a front-office career that began as a White Sox intern, followed by assistant GM stints with the Yankees and Dodgers, then the historic appointment in 2020 as the Marlins’ general manager, the first woman to hold that position for any of the 30 MLB teams — or the NFL, NBA or NHL, for that matter.
The Marlins being the Marlins, however — arguably the most turbulent, dysfunctional franchise in the majors — Ng stepped down after three seasons, the last resulting in a wild-card playoff berth, by declining her mutual option for a fourth year. Her decision stemmed from differences with ownership about how the department should be run (and the proposal of hiring a president of baseball operations who would supersede her authority).
But now she’s landed in another trailblazing role, this time raising the profile and marketability of a fledgling pro softball league under MLB’s $12 billion tutelage.
“I think they see it as a crossover because the games are so related,” Ng said. “Obviously a different ball, a different pitching form. But I think when you get down to brass tacks, the game is very similar. We want people from the baseball side to be engaged. We want them to understand and see what this looks like.
“And I can tell you that, having now watched the women play, in a very focused way, these are incredible athletes — the mechanics, the form, is just so similar to the men. The crossover is organic. When I was with Major League Baseball, we were looking into this way back then. The right opportunity never presented itself, but here we are.”
Ng standing front-and-center for this newly forged relationship between MLB and the AUSL does bring to mind the opportunity she represented for other women trying to climb the baseball ladder who have yet to reach the shot-caller position she once had in Miami. If Ng successfully made the jump from softball to baseball’s front offices, a groundswell of interest in the AUSL could help others do the same while more women currently strive for the top jobs.
There is a framework in place, as nearly a dozen women have positions at different levels of baseball operations, including the Yankees’ Jean Afterman, a senior vice president/assistant GM who joined the Yankees in 2001 and has handled everything from building the Yankees’ brand overseas to the recruitment of Japanese stars such as Hideki Matsui to helping assemble the year-to-year rosters.
Still, only four women at the moment are officially listed as assistant GMs, and it’s unclear who could be next to follow Ng in being the top decision-maker for a baseball operations department.
“Where I see it, MLB put a lot of great programs into place that drew a lot of women into the game,” Ng said. “There’s been this swell. But I also think with the women that have come in during the last five years, I hope there’s plenty of mentoring going on and that we are trying to push them up the ladder as well. I think everybody’s eyes have been opened to the great talent out there. I’ve thought about programs that cross over, trying to get more softball players into the baseball pipeline, even more than there are now. But there’s still work to do.”
Spend any time around an MLB organization, and women are far more visible in a variety of roles throughout the front office and clubhouse. A growing number have prominent on-field titles such as hitting coaches Rachel Folden (Triple-A Iowa for the Cubs) and Amanda Kamekona (Class A Lynchburg for the Guardians) along with Grace Boyle, a player development analyst for the Athletics. In many cases, a softball background can be advantageous for taking these next steps, as Ng took note of a player from Penn who made a big impression when they worked together on the Marlins.
“She had a great feel for the game,” Ng said. “She understood analytics, she understood instruction and development, and was relatable to [the players]. You talk about the meshing of these two worlds. It’s a completely natural fit.”
Ng’s primary focus is to build the AUSL into what she hopes is a WNBA-like entertainment product, but MLB’s interest in expanding the reach of softball can be a mutually beneficial operation for both sports. It’s worked for Ng, and in the bigger picture, MLB has much to gain from this next generation of budding softball stars, who also could leap to the majors in a number of valuable roles.
“For me, a lot of my career has been about helping women, paving the path for women and trying to mentor women where I could,” Ng said. “So I think this falls right in line with that, to use my platform to create more opportunities.”
Botched in Beantown
The Red Sox will make their first trip to the Bronx next weekend, and for a team that many picked as a preseason favorite to win the AL East title, the first two months of this season could not have played out much worse.
The Sox (28-31) have plenty of issues, sitting in fourth place and already 8 1⁄2 games behind the Yankees. But their biggest screw-up seems to be the mishandling of Rafael Devers, whom they cemented at DH — against his will — at the start of spring training.
It was bad enough that Devers, owner of a $331 million contract, was rudely bounced from his third-base position with the offseason signing of Alex Bregman, but that was only the start of the headache for manager Alex Cora. When first baseman Tristan Casas suffered a season-ending knee injury five weeks in, Devers refused to try that corner of the diamond, engaging in a staredown with Sox management that required owner John Henry to fly to Kansas City in an effort to smooth over the conflict.
Devers never did pick up a first baseman’s mitt, and the drama took another wicked turn this past week when Bregman suffered a severe quadriceps muscle strain that is likely to cost him more than a month on the injured list.
Logic would dictate that Devers take over at third base, his former position, right?
Well, not quite. The Sox, apparently out of spite at this point, plan to keep Devers at DH and use Marcelo Mayer — their top shortstop prospect — at third base. Nick Sogard and Abraham Toro will split first base, though highly touted rookie Kristian Campbell is expected to make his experimental debut there Sunday in Atlanta.
When asked about Devers’ future at either third base or first, Cora seemed to be a no on the former and noncommittal about the latter. “We’re still talking about the situation, man,” Cora told reporters Wednesday. In the meantime, Devers has returned to raking at DH, shaking off an 0-for-19 start (15 strikeouts) to hit .315 with 12 homers, 49 RBIs and a 1.005 OPS in his last 53 games.
Should be an entertaining visit to the Bronx, especially seeing where Devers could be playing by then.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
