Fired Mets Scout: The Atkins Diet Made Me Crazy and Racist!

Bill Singer & Kim Ng; Photos %3D NY Daily News, LA Times

The New York Mets have fired their new "superscout," Bill Singer, for making racially insensitive remarks to Kim Ng, LA Dodgers assistant general manager. The Daily News and LA Times reported that Singer confronted Ng, the highest ranking Asian-American in the MLB, in a hotel bar after general manager meetings. Many deals and meetings are held after the days work and according to witnesses, the LA Times reports the exchange as:

Singer: What are you doing here?
Ng: I'm working.
Singer: What are you doing here?
Ng: I'm working. I'm the Dodger assistant general manager.
Singer: Where are you from?
Ng: I was born in Indiana and grew up in New York.
Singer: Where are you from?
Ng: My family's from China.
Singer: (Nonsensically mock Chinese). What country in China?

Ng declined to comment on the incident, saying that only that there was an incident at the hotel and she had spoken to Duquette. She was also an assistant general manager for the Yankees, and her former boss, current Yankees GM Brian Cashman, had stepped in between Ng and Singer during the exchange. When Mets General Manager Jim Duquette met with Singer, Singer tried to excuse his behavior by saying his "low-carbohydrate diet" combined with alcohol caused him a chemical imbalance. A Mets source says, ""That didn't wash with Jim and it sure as hell won't wash with [Mets owner] Fred [Wilpon]. Plain and simple, there's no excuse for that kind of behavior, and there's no saving this guy." The irony is that Singer supposedly has "ties to the Pacific Rim" - which we take to mean, is good at scouting Japanese players.

The Mets, and especially their fans, famously rallied against Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, who expressed xenophobic and homophobic remarks about New Yorkers:

On ever playing for a New York team: "I would retire first. It's the most hectic, nerve-racking city. Imagine having to take the [Number] 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you're [riding through] Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It's depressing."

On New York City itself: "The biggest thing I don't like about New York are the foreigners. I'm not a very big fan of foreigners. You can walk an entire block in Times Square and not hear anybody speaking English. Asians and Koreans and Vietnamese and Indians and Russians and Spanish people and everything up there. How the hell did they get in this country?"

Moral of the story: Racist expressions are not tolerated, especially not in NY.

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By Jen Chung on November 17, 2003 6:17 AM

Comments [rss]

Ted

I absolutely agree with the Mets getting rid of Singer. Intolerable. Especially noe that they've signed Matsui and will be gaining the international coverage that the Yanks and Mariners get, the Mets made the only acceptable move.

As a Mets fan, I like that they hire players (with a few exceptions) who are cool-headed and effective without being idiot hotshots. The same should apply to their staff. Screw Singer and the non-native horse he rode in on.

West Coaster

Good for the Mets for not tolerating the behavior of this total ass.

Hoofin

Well, I am glad she spells it "Ng" and not "Ing" or she might be confused for the Holland-based interent bank that sponsors the New York City Marathon . . .

tien

same here. i got to the part where it said "she" and was like, "huh?"

doshin

It's okay, I'm Asian and I thought that she was a dude too.

bob the angry flower

i feel like an ass for mistaking kim ng for a guy in the photo. oops.

emjaybee

What cracks me up is that I once quit a job shortly after I had started a low carb diet, and my boss told my co-workers that she thought it was my diet that had made me "act crazy" and tell her where to get off.

Instead of the real reason, which was that she was a horrific bitch. I had been planning on leaving for months before that.

Atkins--It Makes You Act Out Your Aggressive Tendencies!

Frankenstein

More specifically, "Ng" is a name in Cantonese (lots of Ngs in Hong Kong; in Mandarin, it's "Wu"). However, it's more commonly romanized by American Chinese as "Eng" or "Ing" or "Ang" (even though there really isn't a vowel sound in the word), and I thought that Ms. Ng was Vietnamese myself until I read this post...

Jen

There are Chinese people with the last name "Ng" - it's a sound, not a culturally exclusive name. There are Chinese people with the last name "Lee," which is a common Korean and Vietnamese last name as well (and I know some Caucasians with that last name too). My last name, Chung, can be interpreted as Korean as well.

Hoofin

Well, what I would like to know is how it is that a family comes from China and has a surname that looks Vietnamese. (Just curious)

But on a more serious note, you have to wonder where the Mets scout thinks part of his (former) paycheck was coming from. If even 5% of local Mets fans are originally from (or descendents from) the South East Asia community, how does he think they would feel about handing ticket money over to support a character like that?

Frankenstein

What's interesting is that Ng is well on her way to becoming both the first female general manager in the majors and the first asian-american general manger in the majors. In fact, there are some rather vocal Mariners fans who'd like to see the Seattle franchise tap her for the open Seattle GM spot, though that's not likely to happen...