Jane Leavy (/ˈlɛvi/ LEV-vee; born December 26, 1951) is an American sportswriter, biographer, and author who previously worked as a reporter for The Washington Post.
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.
[5] Leavy worked at the Post for nine years, covering sports – mainly baseball, tennis, and the Olympics – politics, and popular culture.
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.
[10][11] 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.
[12] 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.
[16] The Big Fella was a finalist for 'Best Biography' at the National Book Critics Circle Awards in 2018,[17] and won the Seymour Medal from the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).
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.