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Jane Leavy: Make Me Commissioner of MLB

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Jane Leavy: Make Me Commissioner of MLB

Introduction to Jane Leavy. 1:04 min. Interview: Raymond Elman.  Post-Production: Lee Skye.  Recorded via Zoom.  11/6/2025, Miami-Washington.

 

Editor’s Note:  We previously published an ArtSpeak video conversation with Jane Leavy in 2018:  https://artspeak.fiu.edu/video-categories/jane-leavy/.  Ms. Leavy will be speaking at the Miami Book Fair 2025 at 11:00 AM on 11/22/25.

 

JANE LEAVY is the author of the New York Times bestsellers “The Big Fella: Babe Ruth and the World He Created,” “The Last Boy: Mickey Mantle and the End of America’s Childhood” and “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy,” and the comic novel “Squeeze Play,” which Entertainment Weekly called  “the best novel ever written about baseball.”

Her most recent book is “Make Me Commissioner: I Know What’s Wrong With Baseball and How to Fix It” (2025).

Leavy was a staff writer at the Washington Post from 1979 to 1988, first in the sports section, then writing for the style section. She covered baseball, tennis, and the Olympics for the paper. She also wrote features for the style section about sports, politics, and pop culture,

— https://janeleavy.com/

 

The videos below were recorded via Zoom, are organized by Success Factor, and run between 30 seconds and 23 minutes. Click on any video. You must be connected to the Internet to view the videos.

 

CRITICAL THINKING:   4:27 min.

Everybody says that your biographies of Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle, and Babe Ruth are the best. What compelled you to write a book about fixing baseball in 2025?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE:   6:31 min.

I used to be an avid sports fan, a daily reader of the Boston Globe’s sports section. After moving year-round to Miami in 2012, I can’t name a single player on any Boston team.

 

CRITICAL THINKING:   7:10 min.

Certainly the analytical insights of Bill James, exemplified in the book and film “Money Ball,” brought interesting twists to how the game is played.

 

UNDERSTANDS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS:   1:21 min.

Since women are the smartest gender of our species, why aren’t there more women in leadership roles in baseball?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:   13:04 min.

How did baseball become the canary in the analytical coal mine?

 

CREATES A UNIQUE PERSONAL BRAND:     5:59 min.

Did you consider writing another baseball biography?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    11:53 min.

What are some of the mistakes that baseball made over the past 50 years?

 

INSIGHT & INSPIRATION:     1:50 min.

Koufax and Mantle were polar opposites. In order to dedicate yourself to years of research and writing required by a top-notch biography, do you have to like the subjects?

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    22:42 min.

If you become commissioner of baseball, what are some of your top action items?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE:    4:19 min.

What is the trade-off between modern conveniences and the charm of old ballparks?

 

UNDERSTANDS THE AUDIENCE’S PERSPECTIVE:    2:42 min

When I was a kid, I loved keeping score at baseball games.

 

CRITICAL THINKING:    4:02 min.

What are your thoughts about the use of instant replay in Major League Baseball?