good article in the kc star on women in baseball and one of my heroes:

There are 30 general manager jobs in baseball, and everyone from owners to GMs to agents expects one of them to go to a woman in the near future. No woman has run the on-field operations of a major-league baseball team. Same goes for the NFL, NBA and NHL. Though professional sports have long struggled with minority hiring among top executives, the gender barrier is an Iron Curtain just starting to dissipate.

“It was exciting, and it was fun to think, ‘Hey, this is my decision,’ ” Ng said. “But you also realize that it’s your reputation on the line. Your butt on the line. Some people take it as a challenge. Others shy away from it. I thought it was great.

“I’d like to think as women we’re getting closer. If it will happen — I really don’t know.”

Because she’s the consensus choice to be the first GM, perhaps Ng is being modest. Women have done most everything else in baseball. Marge Schott owned the Reds. Jamie McCourt is the Dodgers’ president. Pam Postema umpired at Class AAA. Ila Borders pitched in the independent leagues. There are a handful of female GMs in the minor leagues.

And after the GM meetings, there was almost one in the big leagues. McCourt and her husband, team owner Frank, interviewed Ng for the GM position, the first time a woman had been courted for such. Some questioned the Dodgers’ wisdom. Others lauded their thinking. The job went to Giants assistant GM Ned Colletti.

Good decision? Time will tell. By then, though, Ng might be running another team.

“Take away the name Kim Ng and go ahead and take a look at her résumé,” Royals general manager Allard Baird said. “Just go off those qualifications. Then once you know her personality, you know she’d do a very good job.

“If you know baseball well enough, you can run a team.”

There’s the rub. What today entails baseball knowledge? Tobacco spit on the shoes or an abacus in the head?

“Traditionally, the general manager was an ex-ballplayer,” said Jean Afterman, the Yankees’ assistant GM and Ng’s lone peer in that role. “Now baseball is going through this change. The traditional general manager now is a young guy from an Ivy League school. There’s always evolution in baseball.”

And what that evolution has wrought is an opportunity for women.