ESPN thinks its viewers are stupid. The Olympics claw at your inner
sap. Barbaro, after all, was just a horse. So says Will Leitch,
founding editor of Deadspin.com, whose God Save the Fan is your new
manifesto.
Arch and unrepentant, Leitch is the mouthpiece for
all the frustrated fans who just want their games back from big money,
bloated egos, and blathering sportscasters. Always a fan first and a
journalist second, Leitch considers the perfection of fantasy leagues,
the meaninglessness of the steroids debate, and the aching permanence
of loyalty to just one team. He'll tell you why, long before that
dogfighting mess, Michael Vick's undercover STD clinic name was Ron
Mexico; why athletes persist in publicly praising God; and what the
beer companies really think about you. Share Leitch's dread as he
spends twenty—four hours watching ESPN. Sit and have a beer with John
Rocker and his surprising girlfriend. Be inspired by Rick Ankiel's
phoenixlike rise, and fall.
2008 Cubs Preview
I think there's at least one other guy who hopes Will's book fails miserably..
I'm actually a big Will Leitch fan. I'm not so big a fan of Gawker Media, and Deadspin, but I do like Will Leitch.
And I will be picking up a copy of his book. Plus I snagged an invite to his "book release party" on Thursday, with a cash bar. Good lord, I sometimes forget how cheap the publishing industry is!
Live blog from the book release party???
Not a live blog, but maybe a recap post.
And yeah, interesting thing about GC from Can't Stop The Bleeding: he hates Will Leitch, though I don't know the reason for the personal beef. Initially, when Deadspin was first getting started, he criticized Gawker Media's move to knock out the big blog linking guys at the time (CSTB, The Sports Frog, etc). Made sense. But over time GC has just railed against Will Leitch as a person, and not railed some much against the website or Gawker Media. It seems, to me, a pretty lame way to take your beef out on the site, by picking on the guy. Unless, of course, he has a legit beef with Will Leitch the person... then I retract my comment....
Thanks for the link. Yeah, SML, I hate that about blog feuds; I never know if there's anything there legitimate or not. For example, KSK's always feuding with The Big Lead, but I have no idea if KSK's just being idiots or if TBL really did something. So we stay out of it and just look confused. Oh well.
Shooter from the book release party.
It's been a long time since we've had a Shooter on the site, we need one badly. So, what about your new connection with Deadspin, Extra P? Congrats!
"over time GC has just railed against Will Leitch as a person, and not railed some much against the website or Gawker Media. It seems, to me, a pretty lame way to take your beef out on the site, by picking on the guy."
aside from occasionally defending Will against accusations of having a crap haircut (that's just dirty pool, folks) the overwhelming majority of posts concerning Will at CSTB have been directly related to his writing, ethics and most recently, confusing choices for halloween costumes.
There's no personal beef whatsoever. At least there wasn't until Will suggested in The Black Table that he'd slept with a former girlfriend of mine. I politely responded by linking to a photograph of his former fiancee and proposed a vile act New York's homeless population could perform with it.
I appreciate your deep thoughts on this matter, and I'm sure Mike Lupica would agree it's awfully mean to hold public figures accountable for their public actions.