Jane Leavy reflects on fraught encounters with Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin in The New Yorker:
Last month, forty years after the Southern District court of New York ordered the Yankees to open their clubhouse to female reporters, the baseball writer Jane Leavy climbed into a black S.U.V. and headed toward Yankee Stadium to throw out the first pitch. Leavy, who is sixty-six, with a blond bob, wore red lipstick, gray sneakers, and a Yankees jacket. “We’re going to pretend for just a few minutes that I’m not a Yankee fan, and I haven’t been dreaming of this my whole life,†she said. “When I was a little girl—this is no shit—I would practice walking in from the bullpen with my jacket dangled over my shoulder just so.â€
To prepare, she’d called up Sandy Koufax, the subject of her 2002 book, subtitled “A Lefty’s Legacy,†and asked for pitching advice. He was succinct: stand close. “Ralph Lauren threw out the first pitch last night,†Leavy said, as the car inched up the West Side Highway. “There was a story in the Post on how David Cone was coaching him. I’m, like, Big fuckin’ deal. I got Koufax.â€
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