Darren Cohen

Source: Ghiroli: As we rightfully laud the next generation of women in baseball, let’s remember those who paved the way

Don’t get me wrong. Those women are talented and deserving. There’s a lot of recent progress in the sport to feel good about, especially in regards to hiring practices. Qualified women can now be hired right into a front office or coaching role and, recently, they have been. There will be a double-digit number of women in on-field roles (across all levels) in 2022, and growing numbers in front offices, broadcast booths, scouting and player development. The league and its 30 teams should be proud of that.

But shouldn’t we also be spotlighting the women who were in the game before it was so accepted? The ones who didn’t get the chance to move up, who maybe stayed in the only position they could get at the time, and who watched countless men pass them over? Maybe the sport wasn’t ready for a female GM before the Marlins hired Kim Ng in November 2020, but that doesn’t mean she was the first woman interested or potentially qualified for the role. It took Derek Jeter, who stepped down in February as the Marlins chief executive, to give Ng a chance after she already had more than 30 years in the game.

Love this piece in The Athletic. It’s very important to understand how hard the road to our current place has been, and how far we still have to go.