Kostya Kennedy

Kostya Kennedy (born 1967) is an award-winning American sportswriter. He is the author of 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (2011)--named “the best baseball book to appear in many a season,” by Roger Kahn. And Pete Rose: An American Dilemma (2014), described this way by the novelist Richard Ford: “Like the best writing about sport--Liebling, Angell--it qualifies as stirring literature.” For both books, Kennedy earned the Casey Award for Best Baseball Book of the Year. Each was a New York Times Bestseller.
The Rose book and other pieces and appearances by Kennedy, including a 2014 New York Times Op-Ed piece, have played a significant role in the renewed discussion about Rose’s eligibility for the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Kennedy is currently a contributing editor at Sports Illustrated, where he has reported, written and edited, most recently as an assistant managing editor, since 1994. He is an expert on baseball and hockey and was the magazine’s first regular NHL columnist. He has written columns and articles for SI.com since its inception. Before joining SI, he was a staff writer at Newsday and contributed to The New York Times and The New Yorker.
Originally from Great Neck, New York, Kennedy graduated with a BA in Philosophy from SUNY Stony Brook in 1990 and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1992, where he was awarded the distinctive Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship.
Kennedy was instrumental in founding and developing several features at Sports Illustrated including “SI Players” and “SI Adventure” and he served as the top editor of the Sports Illustrated Presents franchise, overseeing special print and digital issues devoted to the commemoration of milestones in sports.
A frequent contributor and commentator on sports talk radio as well as on television for MSNBC and other networks, Kennedy has appeared on “Late Night with Seth Meyers”, “Charlie Rose”, “Morning Joe” and other news entertainment programs. He often has public speaking engagements focusing on issues and ethics in sports.
As of 2015 Kennedy holds a visiting professorship at New York University’s Tisch Institute for Sports Management, Media and Business. He has previously taught journalism at NYU and Columbia University.
Kostya Kennedy is at work on his third book, set to be released by Sports Illustrated Books in 2016.

Books and awards

• Pete Rose: An American Dilemma (2014)
  • --Winner of the Casey Award for Best Baseball Book
  • --Named one of Fortune Magazine’s Favorite Books of 2014
• 56: Joe DiMaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports (2011)
  • -- Winner of the Casey Award for Best Baseball Book
  • --Runner-up PEN/ESPN Award for Literary Sports Writing
  • --Named Best Biography at the San Francisco Book Festival

Editor

• Sports Illustrated’s Super Bowl Gold: 50 Years of the Big Game (2015)
• Sports Illustrated Swimsuit: 50 Years of Beautiful (2013)
• Sports Illustrated’s The Hockey Book (2010)