Jane Leavy

Jane Leavy ( ; born December 26, 1951) is an American sportswriter, biographer, and author who previously worked as a reporter for ''The Washington Post''. Leavy primarily writes about baseball and is best known for her biographies on baseball greats Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth.

Early life

Leavy was born into a Jewish family on December 26, 1951, in Roslyn, New York, to Fay (née Fellenbaum) and Morton Leavy. She has a younger sister named Annette. She attended Roslyn High School, and graduated from Barnard College in 1974 and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1976.

Growing up, Leavy was a New York Yankees fan and her childhood hero was Yankees star centerfielder Mickey Mantle. Her other childhood hero was sportswriter Red Smith of the ''New York Herald Tribune''. Leavy wrote her master's thesis on Smith, having decided to become a sportswriter like him while studying at Barnard; it was later published in ''The Village Voice''.

Career as sportswriter

Before joining ''The Washington Post'', Leavy was a staff writer at ''womenSports'' and ''Self'' magazines. She has written for many publications, including ''The New York Times'', ''The New York Daily News'', ''Newsweek'', ''Sports Illustrated'', and ''The Village Voice''. Like many women sportswriters, particularly at the time, Leavy encountered sexism and harassment while she was working.

Leavy worked at the ''Post'' for nine years, covering sports – mainly baseball, tennis, and the Olympics – politics, and popular culture. She was also the beat reporter for the Baltimore Orioles home games, taking over the role from Thomas Boswell. After becoming a mother, Leavy left ''The Post'' and turned her focus on writing books and essays.

Career as author

''Squeeze Play''

In 1990, Leavy wrote a comic, semi-autobiographical novel called ''Squeeze Play''. Partially based around her own experiences and life, it follows a woman sportswriter who is the beat reporter for the new (fictitious) Washington Senators baseball team. It was described by ''The Washington Post'' as a "bawdy baseball novel" and as "slapstick with the ring of truth". The novel was described by ''Entertainment Weekly'' as "the best novel ever written about baseball".

''A Lefty's Legacy''

Leavy wrote her first best-selling baseball biography on Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax, called ''Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy'' and published in 2002. The biography was significant as it was written with the somewhat reluctant approval of Koufax, who is famously known for being a private person. While he did not sit down for an interview with her, he allowed her to talk to his friends and old teammates and also agreed to verify biographical facts. The book was written around Koufax's perfect game and details the cultural and social changes that occurred over the course of his career.

''The Last Boy''

In 2010, she wrote another best-selling baseball biography called ''The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America's Childhood'' on her childhood hero, Mickey Mantle. It is an extensive chronicle of Mantle's off-field behavior, his battle with alcoholism, his difficult childhood, and how all of that shaped his career. The book was partly based around a 1983 interview she did with the New York Yankees great while he was working at the Claridge Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

Notably, Leavy wrote about Mantle inappropriately feeling up her leg before passing out drunk in her lap during her interview with him when she was a young sportswriter. She later wrote that, in that moment, "my childhood had ended." Leavy berated him the following morning for his behavior. Mantle apologized; later on, he gave her his sweater while he was playing golf which she kept as keepsake.

''The Big Fella''

Her third biography, ''The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created,'' was published in 2018. Unlike previous biographies on Babe Ruth, Leavy's book contains previously unknown details about his childhood. It also lays out how Ruth, with the help of his agent Christy Walsh, created his larger-than-life persona and became the first modern celebrity.

''Make Me Commissioner''

In 2023, Leavy announced on her social media accounts that she was working on her fifth book, due to be published by Grand Central Publishing, which is titled ''Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and I Can Fix It''. The book is about the evolution of Major League Baseball over the years and the problems the sport is facing today. It is due to be released on September 9, 2025.

Awards and recognition

All three of Leavy's biographies were CASEY Award finalists: ''A Lefty's Legacy'' in 2002, ''The Last Boy'' in 2010, and ''The Big Fella'' in 2018.

''The Big Fella'' was a finalist for 'Best Biography' at the National Book Critics Circle Awards from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR). Both ''A Lefty's Legacy'' and ''The Last Boy'' were also Seymour Medal finalists.

On September 21, 2018, soon after the release of ''The Big Fella'', Leavy threw the ceremonial first pitch at Yankee Stadium; she got advice from Sandy Koufax prior to the game who told her to stand close to home plate and not go to the mound.

In 2022, Leavy received the Henry Chadwick Award, which honors "baseball's great researchers", from the Society for American Baseball Research.

Personal life

Leavy primarily lives in Washington, D.C., and Truro, Massachusetts. She has two children, both of whom are adopted: Nick (born 1985) and Emma (born 1988) Isakoff. Leavy was previously married to Peter Isakoff; they have since divorced.

Bibliography

Books

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Other contributions

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References

External links

Articles by Leavy
on Grantland

Jane Leavy
at the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR)
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Leavy, Jane
Living people
1951 births
20th-century American Jews
21st-century American Jews
20th-century American women writers
21st-century American women writers
20th-century American women journalists
20th-century American journalists
21st-century American women journalists
21st-century American journalists
Jews from New York (state)
Jews from Washington, D.C.
American women biographers
American women novelists
American women sportswriters
Baseball writers
Barnard College alumni
Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism alumni
Jewish American journalists
Jewish American sportswriters
People from Roslyn, New York
Roslyn High School alumni
Sportswriters from New York (state)
Sportswriters from Washington, D.C.
The Washington Post journalists