12/03/24
November 15, 2003
An ugly racial incident affects a rising front office star.: At baseball's winter meetings, Kim Ng, the Dodgers' assistant GM (and the general manager I wanted the Mariners to hire when they had an opening this offseason), was verbally harassed by Mets scout Bill Singer. The Mets have apologized. It's unclear whether Singer will keep his job.
Ng, an Asian American woman who formerly worked under Brian Cashman with the Yankees, is extremely well-thought of in baseball: she was named one of SI's most influential minorities in sports and one of ESPN Magazine's "IX to Watch." Some, including Braves GM John Schuerholz, think she could be MLB's first female GM. [More inside]
Got to stamp this crap behavior out--Singer needs to go and find other work.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:36 PM on November 15, 2003
He should be fired for the racist shit, but the Mets seem to be balking on that. How about this then, Duquette: Fire a pissant scout that can't hold his booze for talking to another teams VP and Assistant GM like that. This makes him, you, and your organization look bad. Being that you are Dan Duquette AND the NY Mets, that's no trivial feat.
posted by pivo at 03:09 AM on November 16, 2003
I heard on the radio here this morning that Singer has been fired. And with good cause. Pivo: It's Jim Duquette, not Dan.
posted by 86 at 07:51 AM on November 16, 2003
I'm sure the Mets decided to fire this guy, hired only last week, from the moment they found out about this incident -- but they had to pretend to be evaluating the matter long enough to keep their lawyers happy. They should have kept him on and reassigned him to scout players in Asia.
posted by rcade at 07:59 AM on November 16, 2003
That was going to be my point, rcade - with the number of Asian players now coming to the States, how could you have this guy be a superscout? I hope he's been canned, and much love to Ng, who apparently didn't react to Singer's bullshit.
posted by wfrazerjr at 10:15 AM on November 16, 2003
rcade, Singer was going to be assigned to scout players in Asia. Amazing.
posted by 86 at 08:09 PM on November 16, 2003
Nope. Clearly in today's PR-soaked world, Duquette has to fire himself, with his last piece of business being to hire Ng in his place. Then he has to live in Asia for a decade, marry a nice girl from Xianging and have ONE baby - to prove the Mets are pro-Asian. .. And Singer has to get a sitcom deal on Fox. I see a mid-season replacement vehicle with Brooke Shields as a white trash ex-wife. Blue Collar guy follows his job building washing machine washers to the company's new manufacturing plant in Taiwan. Hilarity ensues. Call it 'Gooking out with Bill Singer'. Sorry, that's poor taste, but I'm not being serious. I think these things generally sort themselves out these days - obviously the person Singer hurt most in all this was Singer.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 12:27 PM on November 17, 2003
Update: Singer's excuse is that "he had been on a low-carbohydrate diet, which caused him to suffer a chemical imbalance in conjunction with consuming alcohol".
At least he's taking responsibility.
posted by jeffmshaw at 01:41 PM on November 17, 2003
"....sorry hon, I suffered a chemical imbalance. puff, puff, give. puff, puff, give. ok, now I get it."
posted by garfield at 02:08 PM on November 17, 2003
I'm on a low carb diet and alcohol has never made me behave like an a-hole, that just comes naturally. Ba dum bum!
posted by billsaysthis at 03:45 PM on November 17, 2003
so is the low-carb diet excuse the new twinkie defense?
posted by goddam at 03:53 PM on November 17, 2003
who knew dietary concerns could be such an excuse gold mine?
posted by garfield at 04:19 PM on November 17, 2003
posted by forksclovetofu at 05:34 PM on November 18, 2003
Any incident like this is frightening. What I found particularly upsetting was how Singer (who the NY Daily News calls "apparently drunken" during the incident) behaved: questioning Ng's presence at the meetings, repeatedly trying to pick a fight in the face of Ng's soft answers to his provocations and, of course, his racist behavior. Should he be fired? I certainly think so, since this type of hostile treatment is poisonous, especially when directed at a well-respected figure like Ng. What do you think?