Before trailblazer Kim Ng had a resume brimming with unprecedented achievements – including becoming the first woman hired as general manager for a major North American men’s sports team – she was a Yankees fan playing stickball in the streets of Queens with her father, using cars and manholes to signify bases.

Growing up, her favorite Yankees were Thurman Munson and Lou Piniella, while her women’s sports heroes included tennis players Billie Jean King and Martina Navratilova. When it came to bat and ball sports, there weren’t exactly women stars for her to look up to.

Now, two years into Ng’s tenure at the helm of the Athletes Unlimted Softball League, young girls don’t just have professional players they can see themselves in: they have a commissioner, too.

ATHLETES UNLIMITED SOFTBALL LEAGUE

“They’re just so lit up by the idea of being able to see their role models on the field,” Ng said on a recent episode of The Athlete Effect podcast, hosted by Bonnie Bernstein. “So for me, I think it’s seeing the future, and understanding that I’m helping to make some of their dreams come true – [playing] a small part in it – by establishing this league and creating the foundation. But it’s realizing that you’re helping for someone to dream a little bit bigger than what they previously could have.”

Ng’s baseball career began when the White Sox arrived at the University of Chicago’s campus looking for an intern. As a senior at UChicago, Ng played on the Maroons’ softball team and served as president of the Women’s Athletics Association while writing a thesis on Title IX. She joined the White Sox as a research assistant in 1990.

“It entailed everything,” Ng said of the role. “One of my first projects was reading scouting reports and trying to find prospects to select in the Rule 5 Draft. … It was just like, ‘Here, go find some prospects,’ and it was sink or swim, you know. I swam.”

Ng began working for the American League in 1997, leading her to interact with Yankees general manager Brian Cashman. The next year, Ng got a call from Cashman asking her to be New York’s assistant GM. It was a historic opportunity, but a daunting one.

“You would think I’d be elated and overjoyed, but I also knew this was a big step up for me,” Ng explained. “So I was just disappointed that I didn’t have an opportunity to be an assistant general manager before I got to the Yankees, because I just wanted to kill it for them.

“It was the largest stage you could ever put somebody on. I mean, the New York Yankees, this is one of the most storied franchises in the history of sports. I was not that confident at that time, because I had never done this job before.”

At 29 years old, she became the youngest assistant GM in the sport. She later served as vice president and assistant GM with the Dodgers, and MLB's senior vice president of baseball operations. In all three roles, she got the opportunity to work with Hall of Famer Joe Torre, one of her mentors.

“I think Joe really values character and integrity, discipline, hard work. I think those are some of his core fundamentals, and I think – I hope – that’s what Joe saw in me,” Ng reflected. “He’s described as a player’s manager, and I never really quite understood what that meant until I actually worked for Joe. … He left you alone until you needed him, and then when you needed him, he was there every step of the way.”

While breaking boundaries, Ng was constantly forced to battle bias and preconceptions about her limitations – whether being the only girl on childhood stickball teams or the only woman in a meeting of front-office executives. She credited her athletic roots for helping develop a resilient mentality focused on succeeding in the face of fear.

“I’ve had a chip on my shoulder a lot of my life,” she told Bernstein. “You are always trying to prove people wrong. You’re being judged just by looks, and you know when you walk into a room full of guys that you are not necessarily taken very seriously until you direct attention and command the room as a leader would.”

After interviewing for a number of GM openings over the years – “too many to count,” as she put it – Ng finally landed the role with the Marlins after the 2020 season. She recalled the Zoom with Derek Jeter, the organization’s CEO at the time, in which she pitched her vision.

“We saw things, I thought, through the same lens,” Ng said. “The philosophy, the Yankee way, knowing what success looked like, knowing how hard it was to achieve. 

“It was really funny, because I launch into this whole thing. … I get five, seven minutes in, and in his very Derek way, he said, ‘Hey, hey, whoa.’ He goes, ‘I just want to know if you want to be my general manager.’”

During Ng’s third season as GM in 2023, Miami secured its first winning record in a full season since ’09 and clinched its first postseason berth in a full season since ’03.

After Ng and the Marlins parted ways following the ’23 season, she searched for a “passion project.” She found it in the form of Athletes Unlimited’s burgeoning softball league, joining as a senior advisor in 2024 and being named commissioner the following year.

MLB partnered with the AUSL before its inaugural season in 2025, providing what Ng called “a huge injection” for the league and the softball landscape. The AUSL recently completed its second season, with the Utah Talons defeating the Chicago Bandits to become back-to-back champions.

Ng now mentors a new generation of leaders, looking to shepherd the league and the sport further into the national spotlight. She pointed to rising attendance and viewing numbers for the Women's College World Series, as well as growing engagement with women’s sports overall, noting that the AUSL’s schedule strategically kicks off immediately following the conclusion of the collegiate calendar.

“Almost every day of the season, you can see a softball game,” Ng said. “We just want all those fans to know that we are here, hopefully for years and years to come.”