Kim Ng surveys her team during her one history making year as Marlins GM. | Sam Navarro-USA TODAY Sports

Thanks to a transcendent Final Four, this past week has felt like a significant milestone in the history of women’s sports.

While the South Carolina Gamecocks and Iowa Hawkeyes were busy showing that women’s basketball has arrived, over in baseball country, the Miami Marlins were showing that karma has come calling for a team that has done one of MLB’s most powerful women wrong.

Last year, the Marlins did an extremely un-Marlins thing and made the good kind of history when they promoted Kim Ng to become the first female general manager in any men’s major North American pro team sport.

All she did with the opportunity was lead the Marlins to their first full-season playoff appearance since 2003. Ng hired NL Manager of the Year Skip Schumaker, acquired batting champion Luis Arráez, and completed a flurry of trade deadline deals that netted the Fish a wild card.

It was the first time in two decades that the Marlins made national headlines that didn’t involve an eyesore statue.

What’s rarer than a female GM? A Marlins playoff celebration.
Credit: Charles LeClaire-USA TODAY Sports

So how did Miami thank Ng for her trailblazing brilliance? They informed her that they were planning to hire a president of baseball operations who would oversee her in 2024. After a successful first year in the job, Miami decided that what Ng needed most was to answer to “some dude.”

Apparently we all missed the offseason news that the Marlins were sold to Dabney Coleman’s character from “9 to 5.”

Ng responded to this indignity by telling the Marlins to pound sand and walking away. In doing so, she became like every Marlins fan.

Once they drove away the most likable and competent person in their organization, the Marlins spent the offseason doing what they do best: absolutely nothing. Which has since proven to be the highlight of their 2024 thus far.

One week into the season, 20-year-old pitching prospect Eury Pérez was lost for the year to Tommy John surgery. The Marlins also went winless over their first homestand and lost their first nine games in a row.

Then this week, word leaked out that the team voided Schumaker’s club option for next year “as a show of good faith” after he voiced his objections to the team’s treatment of Ng.

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Which could make this the most Marlins move of all time: showing their manager good faith by enabling him to leave them earlier.

In her one year on the job, Ng took a team ranked 24th in payroll and made them respectable. For those efforts, Miami showed her the door. Now she waits for her phone to ring as the current Marlins spend every night reminding the rest of baseball what an impressive job she did running that abomination of a franchise.

It’s not the biggest victory for women’s sports this week. But it’s a nice reminder that in this instance of a woman done wrong by a powerful man in baseball, karma is being played by Dolly Parton.

Magic Mike pants

Because I have a functioning set of eyes, I’ve written about my disdain for Nike’s new MLB uniforms. Repeatedly.

But this week, I found a highlight where Tigers outfielder Riley Greene slid into home plate during a rally in Pittsburgh and revealed a surprise feature of the new unis…

Magic Mike pants.

I take it all back. The new uniforms are perfect.

MLB Thirst Trap of the Week

It’s been a rough 2024 for Braves ace Spencer Strider, who left a start last week with elbow discomfort and was later placed on the injured list with a damaged UCL. Rumors abound that his recent visit to an elbow specialist could lead to Tommy John surgery.

If that comes to pass, it’ll be a devastating loss for Atlanta. But based on Strider’s chiseled physique and the above-mentioned uniform clip, I have a solution to salvage his season:

Make Strider a pinch runner. And ask him to slide as often as possible.

While the news is about Strider’s arm, my guess is that’s probably not what’s drawing your eye here.
Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

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