Walking In Wuhan

If you really like sports, there is only one true Web site worth checking out -- Deadspin. It's run by Will Leitch, who is hilarious in the way Bill Simmons probably would be if he weren't betrothed to ESPN. Leitch wrote a series of essays and new content that recently hit stores called, "God Save the Fan: How preening sportscasters, athletes who speak in the third person and the occasional convicted quarterback have taken the fun out of sports (and how we can get it back)." As previously mentioned, I'm always a bit dubious about sports books, but I found myself stifling chuckles on BART -- lest I standout from the people who already rock back and forth talking to themselves.


Leitch splits the book into four sections: players, owners, media and fans -- breaking down how each has affected sports. Each essay reads similar to Leitch's blog, with just the right amount of edginess and commentary -- like how Chuck Klosterman would read if he wrote strictly about sports and wasn't so pretentions.

The most interesting parts to me dealt with the media and how Deadspin came to be at the center of the sports -- Chris Berman's 'You're with me, Leather' pick-up line, which has become a non-sequitur on blogs around the Internet. He also recounted stories of an ESPN football analyst taking pictures of his junk and passing them along to interns and the reason Woody Paige is back at the Denver Post. If nothing else, this book provides a different look at the sports culture missing in the usual fawning sports book.