Sports

Hiring MLB’s first female GM groundbreaking move by Miami Marlins

Published

4 years ago

November 13, 2020

November 13, 2020 will be remembered as a great day in baseball and sports history.

It is a day that has made me proud to be part of this amazing game after the Miami Marlins made a groundbreaking move when they hired Kim Ng to fill their general manager’s position on Friday.

Ng is the first woman ever to be hired as a general manager in baseball. A woman has never served as a general manager in the NFL, NBA or NHL, so Major League Baseball is the first among the four major North American professional sports leagues to have one of its teams name a female as its GM.

This is progress. It is long overdue, but it is progress. It is special.

Baseball has been a pioneer over the years in a number of ways. Jackie Robinson broke the colour barrier in 1947 and the effects of that were felt throughout society. It opened the door not only in baseball but in other areas of culture around the world. After 9/11, it was baseball that aided the healing process in New York and across the United States.

It is not a surprise to anyone who knows Kim Ng that she is the first MLB female general manager. Her resume is worthy of the position. She has been prepared and qualified to serve in such a role for more than a decade. This was finally the time. It’s the right team, people, environment and organization.

Ng started as an intern in the Chicago White Sox organization in 1991. It has been a long, slow road for her to get to this moment. The 51-year-old has more than paid her dues. She is an expert negotiator and made a name for herself in presenting arbitration cases for the White Sox.

She also worked for the New York Yankees and became the youngest assistant general manager at the time and again was put in charge of contract negotiations. In fact, she negotiated Derek Jeter’s 10-year deal for the Yankees in 2001. She learned under general manager Brian Cashman in New York and was part of player personnel decisions, free agent negotiations and decisions in player development and scouting.

I got to know Kim well during her time with the Yankees. It became clear to me very quickly that she is always the smartest person in every conversation. There were times when Yankees owner George Steinbrenner wouldn’t let Cashman attend the general managers’ meetings or winter meetings. Ng would go in his place.

In my role as general manager of the New York Mets, I would sit next to Cashman or Ng because we sat in alphabetical order at the general managers’ meetings. As I got to know Ng better, I found her to be intelligent and someone who has good common sense. She is a very good listener which is one of the things that makes her an excellent negotiator. Often, she would remain quiet in meetings but when she did finally speak everyone would listen. Her opinion mattered even as an assistant general manager. She is professional, classy and very hard working.

For the small-market Marlins, the ability to negotiate contracts is an important attribute. They don’t usually get involved in mega-free-agent deals but they do have to make prudent deals with many arbitration-eligible players. Ng has demonstrated the skill of settling deals before hearings but, more importantly, if she does go to trial she has an ability to present the club’s case and not offend the players. That is not easy to do. She has a real feel for how to treat and interact with people.

Since 2011, Ng has worked in the Commissioner’s Office which has broadened her exposure to international baseball and transactions for every club. She was biding her time until the big job came along, yet she kept learning and developing.

A tip of the cap to the Marlins and their CEO Derek Jeter for making this monumental decision. Kim Ng didn’t get the job because she is a woman. She is a highly qualified executive who just happens to be a woman. Jeter recognized that back when he was playing with the Yankees and he never forgot.

General managers used to be former players who chewed on cigars, drank scotch into the wee hours of the morning, telling each other the same stories over and over. There has been a transition over the last 20-plus years in the role. Contracts got bigger and the stakes became higher. Owners wanted more academic-types making the important decisions. That opened the door for a new breed of executive.

But the door was only open for men, until today.

Source:tsn

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Sports

DeMar DeRozan scores 27 points to lead the Kings past the Raptors 122-107

Published

4 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — DeMar DeRozan scored 27 points in a record-setting performance and the Sacramento Kings beat the Toronto Raptors 122-107 on Wednesday night.

Domantas Sabonis added 17 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds for his third triple-double of the season for Sacramento. He shot 6 for 6 from the field and 5 for 5 at the free-throw line.

Keegan Murray chipped in with 22 points and 12 rebounds, and De’Aaron Fox scored 21.

The 35-year-old DeRozan has scored at least 20 points in each of his first eight games with the Kings, breaking a franchise mark established by Chris Webber when he reached 20 in his first seven games with Sacramento in 1999.

DeRozan spent the past three seasons with the Chicago Bulls. The six-time All-Star also has played for Toronto and San Antonio during his 16-year NBA career.

RJ Barrett had 23 points to lead the Raptors. Davion Mitchell scored 20 in his first game in Sacramento since being traded to Toronto last summer.

Takeaways

Raptors: Toronto led for most of the first three quarters before wilting in the fourth. The Raptors were outscored 33-14 in the final period.

Kings: Fox played strong defense but struggled again shooting from the floor as he is dealing with a finger injury. Fox went 5 for 17 and just 2 of 8 on 3-pointers. He is 5 for 25 from beyond the arc in his last three games.

Key moment

The Kings trailed 95-89 early in the fourth before going on a 9-0 run that gave them the lead for good. DeRozan started the spurt with a jumper, and Malik Monk scored the final seven points.

Key stat

Sabonis had the eighth game in the NBA since at least 1982-83 with a triple-double while missing no shots from the field or foul line. The previous player to do it was Josh Giddey for Oklahoma City against Portland on Jan. 11.

Up next

Raptors: At the Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday night, the third stop on a five-game trip.

Kings: Host the Clippers on Friday night.

___

AP NBA:

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Whitecaps take confidence, humility into decisive playoff matchup vs. LAFC

Published

4 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

VANCOUVER – The Vancouver Whitecaps are one win away from moving on to the next round of the Major League Soccer playoffs.

To get there, however, the Whitecaps will need to pull off the improbable by defeating the powerhouse Los Angeles FC for a second straight game.

Vancouver blanked the visitors 3-0 on Sunday to level their best-of-three first-round playoff series at a game apiece. As the matchup shifts back to California for a decisive Game 3 on Friday, the Whitecaps are looking for a repeat performance, said striker Brian White.

“We take the good and the bad from last game, learn from what we could have done better and go to LAFC with confidence and, obviously, with a whole lot of respect,” he said.

“We know that we can go there and give them a very good fight and hopefully come away with a win.”

The winner of Friday’s game will face the No. 4-seed Seattle Sounders in a one-game Western Conference semifinal on Nov. 23 or 24.

The ‘Caps finished the regular season eighth in the west with a 13-13-8 record and have since surprised many with their post-season play.

First, Vancouver trounced its regional rivals, the Portland Timbers, 5-0 in a wild-card game. Then, the squad dropped a tightly contested 2-1 decision to the top-seeded L.A. before posting a decisive home victory on Sunday.

Vancouver has scored seven goals this post-season, second only to the L.A. Galaxy (nine). Vancouver also leads the league in expected goals (6.84) through the playoffs.

No one outside of the club expected the Whitecaps to win when the Vancouver-L. A. series began, said defender Ranko Veselinovic.

“We’ve shown to ourselves that we can compete with them,” he said.

Now in his fifth season with the ‘Caps, Veselinovic said Friday’s game will be the biggest he’s played for the team.

“We haven’t had much success in the playoffs so, definitely, this is the one that can put our season on another level,” he said.

This is the second year in a row the Whitecaps have faced LAFC in the first round of the playoffs and last year, Vancouver was ousted in two straight games.

The team isn’t thinking about revenge as it prepares for Game 3, White said.

“More importantly than (beating LAFC), we want to get to the next round,” he said. “LAFC’s a very good team. We’ve come up against them a number of times in different competitions and they always seem to get the better of us. So it’d be huge for us to get the better of them this time.”

Earning a win last weekend required slowing L.A.’s transition game and limiting offensive opportunities for the team’s big stars, including Denis Bouanga.

Those factors will be important again on Friday, said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini, who warned that his team could face a different style of game.

“I think the most important thing is going to be to match their intensity at the beginning of the game,” he said. “Because I think they’re going to come at us a million miles per hour.”

The ‘Caps will once again look to captain Ryan Gauld for some offensive firepower. The Scottish attacking midfielder leads MLS in playoff goals with five and has scored in all three of Vancouver’s post-season appearances this year.

Gearing up for another do-or-die matchup is exciting, Gauld said.

“Knowing it’s a winner-takes-all kind of game, being in that kind of environment is nice,” he said. “It’s when you see the best in players.”

LAFC faces the bulk of the pressure heading into the matchup, Sartini said, given the club’s appearances in the last two MLS Cup finals and its 2022 championship title.

“They’re supposed to win and we are not,” the coach said. “But it’s beautiful to have a little bit of pressure on us, too.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.

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PWHL unveils game jerseys with new team names, logos

Published

4 hours ago

November 7, 2024

Anne Joseph

TORONTO – The Professional Women’s Hockey League has revealed the jersey designs for its six newly named teams.

Each PWHL team operated under its city name, with players wearing jerseys featuring the league’s logo in its inaugural season before names and logos were announced last month.

The Toronto Sceptres, Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge, Boston Fleet, Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens will start the PWHL’s second season on Nov. 30 with jerseys designed to reflect each team’s identity and to be sold to the public as replicas.

Led by PWHL vice-president of brand and marketing Kanan Bhatt-Shah, the league consulted Creative Agency Flower Shop to design the jerseys manufactured by Bauer, the PWHL said Thursday in a statement.

“Players and fans alike have been waiting for this moment and we couldn’t be happier with the six unique looks each team will don moving forward,” said PWHL senior vice president of business operations Amy Scheer.

“These jerseys mark the latest evolution in our league’s history, and we can’t wait to see them showcased both on the ice and in the stands.”

Training camps open Tuesday with teams allowed to carry 32 players.

Each team’s 23-player roster, plus three reserves, will be announced Nov. 27.

Each team will play 30 regular-season games, which is six more than the first season.

Minnesota won the first Walter Cup on May 29 by beating Boston three games to two in the championship series.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.

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