Leavy, Jane

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Leavy, Jane

PERSONAL:

Married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Washington, DC.

CAREER:

New York Daily News, New York, NY, sports reporter, c. 1970s-1980s; Washington Post, Washington, DC, sports writer.

WRITINGS:

Squeeze Play (novel), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1990.

Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy (biography), HarperCollins (New York, NY), 2002.

SIDELIGHTS:

Sports and feature writer Jane Leavy is the author of the comic novel Squeeze Play. Like Leavy, the novel's heroine, A.B. (Ariadne Bloom) Berkowitz, is a sports journalist, and in the novel she is covering the then-mythical expansion team the Washington Senators. The book is presented in the form of A.B.'s journal, as she writes about the challenges of being a woman sports writer, including ballplayers who try variously to gross her out or seduce her. A.B.'s troubles are compounded by the fact that her editor wants scoops no matter how she gets them, plus her boyfriend is cheating on her. "Squeeze Play is loosely inspired by my experiences in the locker room," Leavy told Al Dente in an interview on the Bronx Banter Web site. Leavy went on to note: "Now in Squeeze Play, the character in question, A.B. Berkowitz, has a different experience than mine. She is much more hassled and much, much more horrified. Her experience is far more difficult than my own was. That's why I say it's loosely autobiographical."

Squeeze Play received praise from many critics. David Hiltbrand, for one, stated in People that "this is not just a diamond fantasy but a real novel, with digres- sions into journalism, politics and religion." Several reviewers warned that the novel contains potentially offensive language and scenes but that they are all presented in a humorous vein. In a review in Publishers Weekly, for example, Sybil Steinberg commented that "this tale … will delight readers willing to accept a healthy dose of vulgarity with their humor."

Leavy's next book, Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, is a biography of the famous Los Angeles Dodgers Hall-of-Fame pitcher. Although Koufax has remained largely reclusive since his retirement from baseball in the 1960s when he was thirty due to arm troubles, the pitcher agreed to tangentially cooperate with Leavy for her biography. He did, however, refuse to have any interviews with him personally go "on the record." In her Bronx Banter interview with Dente, Leavy explained that "this is a book about him as a ballplayer, and about the time in which he lived and how he dominated it." The author added: "It was never intended to be an exposé."

Once again, Leavy struck a chord with the critics. The "book affords a lucid examination of arguably major league baseball's all-time greatest southpaw pitcher," wrote R.C. Cottrell in the Library Journal. Several reviewers also observed that the book is more than a mere baseball biography. For example, Daniel Okrent, writing in Time, commented that the author "has hit it out of the park" with her biography, pointing out that the book is "a consideration of how we create our heroes, and how this hero's self-perception distinguishes him from nearly every other great athlete in living memory." Referring to the book as a "marvellous sociocultural biography," Catholic New Times contributor Ted Schmidt declared it "fascinating."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Biography, spring, 2003, Allen Barra, review of Sandy Koufax: A Lefty's Legacy, p. 367.

Book, September-October, 2002, Adam Langer, "Pitcher in the Rye," p. 18.

Booklist, September 1, 2002, Wes Lukowsky, review of Sandy Koufax, p. 41; September 1, 2003, Bill Ott, "Top 12 Sports Nonfiction," p. 41.

Catholic New Times, May 18, 2003, Ted Schmidt, review of Sandy Koufax, p. 18.

Coach and Athletic Director, January, 2003, Herman L. Masin, review of Sandy Koufax, p. 10.

Commentary, October, 2002, J. Bottum, "Achilles on the Mound," p. 74.

Economist, October 19, 2002, review of Sandy Koufax.

Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2002, review of Sandy Koufax, p. 1284.

Library Journal, September 15, 2002, R.C. Cottrell, a review of Sandy Koufax, p. 68; March 15, 2003, Cliff Glaviano, review of Sandy Koufax, p. 133; April 15, 2004, Cliff Glaviano, review of Squeeze Play, p. 147.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, May 27, 1990, Keith Tuber, "I Don't Care If We Never Get Back," pp. 1, 7.

New York Times Book Review, April 22, 1990, Merrill Perlman, review of Squeeze Play, p. 24; October 13, 2002, Allen Barra, "Artful Dodger, Damn Yankee: Sandy Koufax Was a Role Model, Mickey Mantle, an Anti-Role Model," p. 18.

People, May 14, 1990, David Hiltbrand, review of Squeeze Play, p. 32.

Publishers Weekly, February 16, 1990, Sybil Steinberg, review of Squeeze Play, p. 68; August 19, 2002, review of Sandy Koufax, p. 79.

Time, September 30, 2002, Daniel Okrent, "A Prince of a Pitcher," p. 92.

Women's Review of Books, July, 1990, Mariah Burton Nelson, "Striking Out," p. 36.