Back to reading “Make Me Commissioner” by Jane Leavy (@ballgirl.bsky.social) after about four weeks off to read a new release and a four-book series (I was traveling for Thanksgiving so I focused on Kindle books for lighter packing). #BookSky #AmReading
Where to find me for #SABR Day chapter celebrations. Details and links at janeleavy.com, but the time to sign up is *now*
More from my journey to rediscover the soul of baseball (and my next job pitch) in my latest book, "Make Me Commissioner"
janeleavy.com/commissioner/
(10) How it's done. How it looked when only 28,000 fans showed up to celebrate. No championship is official until post-season merch is donned and goes on sale. The era of good feeling was brief. The O’s lost in the first round in 2023-24 and fell apart in 2025.
(9) I was at the ballpark when it opened, for Cal's record-breaking game, and the night the Orioles won the 2023 American League Division, their first post-visit appearance since 2014, sitting in the TV booth with HOFer Jim Palmer and Ben McDonald.
(8) Eutaw Street, where Babe Ruth's father once kept a saloon, became a promenade open 24/7, the first so called "outfield experience" and the retro boom in ballpark design, which was not what Janet Marie Smith and Larry Lucchino had in mind.
(6) The decision to build the Orioles’ new home downtown and to set it against the B & O warehouse changed the way baseball is seen and how it is viewed, ending the reign of concrete multi-purpose donut ballparks.
(7) How it looked in 1916.
(5) That night he had two hits, two RBI, both with two strikes on him. More importantly, the ball went where he wanted it to go.
(4) He was having trouble with his “load,” as players like to say, figuring out where and when in the swing to move forward, shifting his weight from back to front.
(3)There’s no getting away from analytics which dictated as soon as he turned pro that he had to change his swing. When he struggles, he goes back to what he first learned.
(2) We watched his struggling third baseman, Alex Bregman, take extra batting practice. “He’s tinkering,” Dusty said. “He’ll get it.”
CAMDEN YARDS - 2023 // I met Dusty Baker in the visiting dugout in Camden Yards two days after they celebrated their 2023 World Championship at the White House. “He looked presidential as fuck,” said hitting coach Jason Kanzler.
As a cradle baseball fan I loved talking with the great sportswriter @ballgirl.bsky.social about her new book for @salon.com. Make her commissioner @mlb.com!
www.salon.com/2025/11/03/j...
Sandy Koufax, by Jane Leavy
Goodwill find today: I borrowed @ballgirl.bsky.social’s amazing book on Sandy Koufax years ago from @mikepetriello.bsky.social and loved it, thrilled to have my own copy. Can’t wait to read it again.
let me know what you think!
Come see about me. In conversation with Yogi's granddaughter Lindsay Berra. It will be fun.
Kids under 12 admitted for free. H/t @ballgirl.bsky.social
And you wrote a great piece about it...
#AmReading “Make Me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It,” by Jane Leavy (@ballgirl.bsky.social) #BookSky
bookshop.org/p/books/make...
If it's good enough for the Politics & Prose holiday catalogue...
Me + Linda Robertson of the Miami Herald at the Miami Book Fairon November 22. Meet us there! Details here: www.miamibookfair.com/event/take-m...
Thank you Jason for this lovely interview.
My mother loved your Koufax book
i love that!
I've reached the top of the queue, and your book is "in transit" to my library branch. I've been refreshing my holds page all weekend. I can't wait to read it.
if you feel moved to do so please post a review on amazon or goodreads. they mean more than you know.
in the wake of that epic world series, i whole heartedly recommend reading jane’s new book to understand what made that series so great
