Make Me Commissioner

“Leavy captures the frustrations of fans everywhere in this charming, resourceful plea to reinvigorate a sport that “forgot how to be fun.” … Irreverent analysis and fresh ideas from a baseball writer dismayed by the state of the modern game.“–Kirkus Reviews“The opportunity to read Leavy’s prose about baseball is a gift to an audience already enthralled by her previous masterpieces: Sandy Koufax, The Last Boy, and The Big Fella, bestsellers all. The personal touch makes this one different but no less impactful, infused by a love affair with the game that began from her youngest years in her New York City backyard. … The story of baseball is in the people that make the numbers, not in the numbers alone. Leavy gets it, and [Make Me Commissioner] is a home run. If you love baseball, don’t miss it.”–The Boston Globe“A hysterical–yet practical!–take on saving America’s pastime. Make her commissioner!”–Gish Jen, author of The Resisters and Bad Bad Girl“Jane Leavy loves baseball. I love Leavy writing about baseball. On the heels of her definitive bios of all-time greats–Koufax, Mantle, and Ruth–Leavy is back to remind us why baseball is the best game and lovingly sculpts solutions to fix the national pastime.”–Dan Shaughnessy, author of The Curse of the Bambino and Francona“Reading this feels like sitting–in great, reasonably priced seats–next to your smartest, funniest, loudest friend for an entire game.”–Alex Edelman, award-winning comedian and writer“Jane Leavy may not be MLB’s next commissioner, but readers will come away wishing she would be.”–Booklist“This book is a dream come true–a road trip through the world of baseball with one of the game’s most convivial commentators and finest writers. But please don’t make Jane Leavy commissioner; let her keep writing. Baseball needs her. And baseball fans need to read this book–to quarrel over it, to laugh with it, and to let it remind us why we will always love the game.” –Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life and Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig“As a big-league storyteller, Jane Leavy has all the tools: wise-ass sense of humor, eye for detail, knack for dialogue, a major address book of large personalities–and she knows what she’s talking about. The story she makes so lively, about what has gone wrong with what used to be our national pastime, just may be a story about our nation, too.”–Robert Pinsky, three-time United States Poet Laureate“No one makes me laugh and think and nod my head yes more than Jane Leavy when she is writing about baseball, the sport we both love. Fat chance they’ll ever let her become commissioner, but her combination of joy, humor, intelligence, deep historical knowledge, and common sense about how to save the game is precisely what it needs.”–David Maraniss, author of Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero

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, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy, and the comic novel Squeeze Play, which Entertainment Weekly called “the best novel ever written about baseball.” She 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. She has written for many publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, and The Los Angeles Times, and was anthologized in The Great American Sports Page: A Century of Classic Columns.