September 7, 2025 • 9 mins
The award-winning sportswriter talks about her new book "Make me Commissioner: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It".
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger
Talking the Dodgers and Orioles getting set for first pitch
and we're joining right now. By one of the best
authors in America. She just got endorsed by the Wall
Street Journal to be the next Commissioner of Baseball. You've
read her biographies on Sandy Kofax and Mickey Mannl. She
(00:23):
has a brand new book out, Make Me Commissioner. I
Know What's wrong with Baseball and how to fix it.
The one and only Jane Levy joins us. Jane, thank
you so much for the time and what an endorsement.
Are you the next commissioner?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know Rob's got some time left on his deal. Yeah,
I didn't decide to. I didn't decide to put myself
forward until he announced that he was going to step
down in twenty nine, at which point I said, why
not me?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Is that where the genesis of the idea for the
book came?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
No, actually it came from mister Kofa and mister Torri.
I was having breakfast with him at the famed Oda
Saga in twenty nineteen at Marianna Rivera's induction, and they
were having this private chat, and I wasn't being a reporter,
so I didn't have anything to record with or write with.
(01:18):
But they had this like little private chat, you know,
picture to catcher about what was going on in baseball
the way the pictures were throwing it and which forced
the betters to do this and back and forth in
bathroom force, and they had it solved and described, analyzed
and solved in thirty seconds. Right And I'm sitting there
going shit, I wish I could write that down or
remember it as Joe goes Joe goes hard to watch
(01:44):
and Sandy goes, I don't watch. That was the genesis
when Sandy Kofax says, I've had enough of it. A
lot of friends have told me they've had enough of it,
you know, Okay, they don't have to love it the
way I do or you do. But when Sandy Kofix
says that, you got to listen, and you'll recall that.
(02:08):
In the off season, I think it was after twenty one,
the headlines were dire, Baseball's dying, Baseball's broken, Baseball should
be federalized, and that added to the impetus for this.
So when they finally announced the new rules, I had
to throw out two full years of writing and reporting,
(02:31):
and I decided I would spend twenty twenty three following
my nose to whatever part of the baseball world it
wanted to take me. And so I went to kids games,
I went to college games. I went to Carrie, North
Carolina for the USA Complex. I went to drive line.
I went to conferences on sports analytics, one of which
(02:54):
one of the panels that I thought was really interesting
was how to make a fan. That it struck me
as indicative of the present and damningly so that you
need to have a conference to decide how to make
a fan. And you know what they decided, You got
(03:14):
to go to a live event with somebody you like.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yes, I was just talking to somebody about that the
other day. A baseball game. You better go with somebody
that you like to spend two and a half to
three hours with, because if you don't like them, you're
not going to have a great time at the ballgame.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And hopefully, if it's your first game, somebody who knows
what's going on and can point out some of the
glories of the game that are not the ones that
you see every night. You know, in the highlight reels,
because things happen other than home runs and strikeouts and
one hundred mile an hour pitches. Not that you would
know it from the coverage today. I mean it shows
(03:54):
somebody the choreography and the you know, the ballet at
the you know, in a pivot between doing two field
infielders on a double play. That's something you know that
you can learn to love in an instant.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Jane Levy is our guest and she has a brand
new book out, Make Me Commissioner. I Know What's wrong
with Baseball on how to fix it. Jane, you talk
to a lot of different great baseball people, Sandy Koefax,
Joe Tory, Dave Roberts, Dusty Baker, among others when you
write this book, and we understand the premise, but did
(04:32):
you find out how great the sport is? Because I
still believe this is such a great game, or I
wouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Well, you and me both, I say in the very
beginning of it. I'm the person that's still in love
with the game. I'm the person that wants to save it.
I'm the person who still sees its beauties and its
glories and it makes me insane. To see what's happened
(05:01):
to it. It needs it's a public trust, you know,
and uh, and it needs people to say, wait a minute,
there's a way to sell this game other than home
runs and one hundred mile an hour pitches, which, as
you will though you know, are are costly both in
terms of what it does to people's elbows and shoulders,
(05:25):
but it's also costly to the to the fan base
because you can't root for a guy if he's always
on the injured list, you know. And and what happens
is you fall in love with a team and it collapses.
You fall in love with a pitcher and he tears
his ucl and it's hard. The old stories that baseball
(05:46):
used to tell that were made it special to go
out to the ballpark. They're a kind of relationship that
we used to call matchups. You know. Would you go
out to the ballpark to see Kershawn and Bumgardner? I would,
And they met up eleven times in a decade, and
that was special. Who was going to get who? And
(06:08):
that doesn't exist anymore because analytics has precluded it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Analytics has has a place in the game. But I'm
sure some of the guys you talked to believe that
analytics has a place, but shouldn't be the end all
be all.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Oh yeah, I mean, and I feel exactly the same way.
They're fascinating. You know, I understand why the information is
so valuable and in many cases irrefutable, But as Joe
Torre said to me, you know, they're trying to make
an imperfect game perfect, and I resent that all an
(06:44):
equation can do is tell you a probability nine times
out of ten Roger Davis is not going to hit
a home run in the Game seven of the World
Series when he had twelve all year. But you can't
you can't game out what's going to happen that tenth time,
because there's what players now refer to as the human element,
(07:09):
as if we're a subset of analytics, rather than analytics
being a subset of us. You know how somebody will
respond to that kind of pressure. You don't know if
the wind is going to blow. You don't know if
Network Television is going to suddenly decide the Dodgers have
to play in the sunshine at Chavez Ravine and poor
(07:31):
Willie Davis is going to drop three balls. There are
all sorts of things that numbers cannot account for, and
that's the part of the analytics that bothers me. Aj
Ellis said, the most beautiful thing. He was upset with
Kershaw not being able to finish his perfect game because
(07:51):
in part he deserves, he thought, to have a chance
to finish it, and because it would be entertaining. The
entertainment potion has been subverted by making everything decided by probabilities.
Wouldn't it have been better the next day? And I
said this to Dave Roberts, wouldn't it have been a
(08:13):
better thing for baseball to come out the next morning
and see a headline that said, Clayton Kershaw, who's done
absolutely everything else in baseball that a pitcher you know,
can do and should want to do, through a perfect
game in his first outing of the season after being
injured in the you know, in twenty twenty one. Yeah,
(08:35):
God damn, I'd go out to the ballpark to see that,
wouldn't you. But instead the headline is he came out
after seven innings.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I was there, and I felt the same way as
aj Ellis, and I let Kershaw know about it, and uh, yeah,
that was a great chance to pitch a perfect game
with snow starting to fall in the seventh inning. Jane.
I can't wait to read this book. Jane. Everything you
do is wonderful. We all enjoy the Sandy Kofax and
(09:05):
Mickey Mantle biographies, among others, and go out and get
Make Me a Commissioner by Jane Levy. Jane, thank you
so much for joining us. Can't wait to see you
in Los Angeles at a ballpark near you.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I'll be there, babe. Thanks so much. Dave
And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger
Talking the Dodgers and Orioles getting set for first pitch
and we're joining right now. By one of the best
authors in America. She just got endorsed by the Wall
Street Journal to be the next Commissioner of Baseball. You've
read her biographies on Sandy Kofax and Mickey Mannl. She
(00:23):
has a brand new book out, Make Me Commissioner. I
Know What's wrong with Baseball and how to fix it.
The one and only Jane Levy joins us. Jane, thank
you so much for the time and what an endorsement.
Are you the next commissioner?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know Rob's got some time left on his deal. Yeah,
I didn't decide to. I didn't decide to put myself
forward until he announced that he was going to step
down in twenty nine, at which point I said, why
not me?
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Is that where the genesis of the idea for the
book came?
Speaker 2 (00:57):
No, actually it came from mister Kofa and mister Torri.
I was having breakfast with him at the famed Oda
Saga in twenty nineteen at Marianna Rivera's induction, and they
were having this private chat, and I wasn't being a reporter,
so I didn't have anything to record with or write with.
(01:18):
But they had this like little private chat, you know,
picture to catcher about what was going on in baseball
the way the pictures were throwing it and which forced
the betters to do this and back and forth in
bathroom force, and they had it solved and described, analyzed
and solved in thirty seconds. Right And I'm sitting there
going shit, I wish I could write that down or
remember it as Joe goes Joe goes hard to watch
(01:44):
and Sandy goes, I don't watch. That was the genesis
when Sandy Kofax says, I've had enough of it. A
lot of friends have told me they've had enough of it,
you know, Okay, they don't have to love it the
way I do or you do. But when Sandy Kofix
says that, you got to listen, and you'll recall that.
(02:08):
In the off season, I think it was after twenty one,
the headlines were dire, Baseball's dying, Baseball's broken, Baseball should
be federalized, and that added to the impetus for this.
So when they finally announced the new rules, I had
to throw out two full years of writing and reporting,
(02:31):
and I decided I would spend twenty twenty three following
my nose to whatever part of the baseball world it
wanted to take me. And so I went to kids games,
I went to college games. I went to Carrie, North
Carolina for the USA Complex. I went to drive line.
I went to conferences on sports analytics, one of which
(02:54):
one of the panels that I thought was really interesting
was how to make a fan. That it struck me
as indicative of the present and damningly so that you
need to have a conference to decide how to make
a fan. And you know what they decided, You got
(03:14):
to go to a live event with somebody you like.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
Yes, I was just talking to somebody about that the
other day. A baseball game. You better go with somebody
that you like to spend two and a half to
three hours with, because if you don't like them, you're
not going to have a great time at the ballgame.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And hopefully, if it's your first game, somebody who knows
what's going on and can point out some of the
glories of the game that are not the ones that
you see every night. You know, in the highlight reels,
because things happen other than home runs and strikeouts and
one hundred mile an hour pitches. Not that you would
know it from the coverage today. I mean it shows
(03:54):
somebody the choreography and the you know, the ballet at
the you know, in a pivot between doing two field
infielders on a double play. That's something you know that
you can learn to love in an instant.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
Jane Levy is our guest and she has a brand
new book out, Make Me Commissioner. I Know What's wrong
with Baseball on how to fix it. Jane, you talk
to a lot of different great baseball people, Sandy Koefax,
Joe Tory, Dave Roberts, Dusty Baker, among others when you
write this book, and we understand the premise, but did
(04:32):
you find out how great the sport is? Because I
still believe this is such a great game, or I
wouldn't be doing this.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Well, you and me both, I say in the very
beginning of it. I'm the person that's still in love
with the game. I'm the person that wants to save it.
I'm the person who still sees its beauties and its
glories and it makes me insane. To see what's happened
(05:01):
to it. It needs it's a public trust, you know,
and uh, and it needs people to say, wait a minute,
there's a way to sell this game other than home
runs and one hundred mile an hour pitches, which, as
you will though you know, are are costly both in
terms of what it does to people's elbows and shoulders,
(05:25):
but it's also costly to the to the fan base
because you can't root for a guy if he's always
on the injured list, you know. And and what happens
is you fall in love with a team and it collapses.
You fall in love with a pitcher and he tears
his ucl and it's hard. The old stories that baseball
(05:46):
used to tell that were made it special to go
out to the ballpark. They're a kind of relationship that
we used to call matchups. You know. Would you go
out to the ballpark to see Kershawn and Bumgardner? I would,
And they met up eleven times in a decade, and
that was special. Who was going to get who? And
(06:08):
that doesn't exist anymore because analytics has precluded it.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
Analytics has has a place in the game. But I'm
sure some of the guys you talked to believe that
analytics has a place, but shouldn't be the end all
be all.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Oh yeah, I mean, and I feel exactly the same way.
They're fascinating. You know, I understand why the information is
so valuable and in many cases irrefutable, But as Joe
Torre said to me, you know, they're trying to make
an imperfect game perfect, and I resent that all an
(06:44):
equation can do is tell you a probability nine times
out of ten Roger Davis is not going to hit
a home run in the Game seven of the World
Series when he had twelve all year. But you can't
you can't game out what's going to happen that tenth time,
because there's what players now refer to as the human element,
(07:09):
as if we're a subset of analytics, rather than analytics
being a subset of us. You know how somebody will
respond to that kind of pressure. You don't know if
the wind is going to blow. You don't know if
Network Television is going to suddenly decide the Dodgers have
to play in the sunshine at Chavez Ravine and poor
(07:31):
Willie Davis is going to drop three balls. There are
all sorts of things that numbers cannot account for, and
that's the part of the analytics that bothers me. Aj
Ellis said, the most beautiful thing. He was upset with
Kershaw not being able to finish his perfect game because
(07:51):
in part he deserves, he thought, to have a chance
to finish it, and because it would be entertaining. The
entertainment potion has been subverted by making everything decided by probabilities.
Wouldn't it have been better the next day? And I
said this to Dave Roberts, wouldn't it have been a
(08:13):
better thing for baseball to come out the next morning
and see a headline that said, Clayton Kershaw, who's done
absolutely everything else in baseball that a pitcher you know,
can do and should want to do, through a perfect
game in his first outing of the season after being
injured in the you know, in twenty twenty one. Yeah,
(08:35):
God damn, I'd go out to the ballpark to see that,
wouldn't you. But instead the headline is he came out
after seven innings.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I was there, and I felt the same way as
aj Ellis, and I let Kershaw know about it, and uh, yeah,
that was a great chance to pitch a perfect game
with snow starting to fall in the seventh inning. Jane.
I can't wait to read this book. Jane. Everything you
do is wonderful. We all enjoy the Sandy Kofax and
(09:05):
Mickey Mantle biographies, among others, and go out and get
Make Me a Commissioner by Jane Levy. Jane, thank you
so much for joining us. Can't wait to see you
in Los Angeles at a ballpark near you.
Speaker 2 (09:18):
I'll be there, babe. Thanks so much. Dave
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