Last night I went to see Will Leitch, the editor of Deadspin, at a… not quite a reading, more of a chat about his book, God Save the Fan. It was fun, and he did seem like a pretty cool guy. He is who we thought he was.
I didn’t get a picture because my camera ran out of batteries. While he was signing books, he did ask one person: “So is Prince Fielder becoming a vegetarian really that big of a deal?” A couple of people kind of looked around at each other. Uh, let’s not get into it. My book was pre-signed, so he was like, “Oh. Well, I’ll just draw, like, some little hearts around it. This is going to come back to bite me.” He wrote, “Look! An old archaic signing!” with an arrow.
Then we went to the Milwaukee Ale House for drinks, and playing there was the Andrew Gelles Band, a Maxie’s favorite.
Every Saturday, Maxie’s has a food special in honor of the band playing that night, and the Andy Gelles Band often gets the “AGB Rocks” oyster special, which is sort of a spin on Oysters Rockefeller. I’ve always wanted to see “Oysters Roc-A-Fella Records” on a menu… Maybe when Jay-Z opens a 40/40 club in N.O.L.A.
I didn’t talk with Leitch as much as I would like, but other people had specific questions they wanted to ask him about the Internet and sports and stuff he’s put on the site, and I basically just wanted to be like… “So, you went to a Big Ten school, and then to New York to work in media and eight years later you’re pretty successful… I would also… like to have that… happen to me someday… So, like, where do you hang out? Do you have a car?”
I spent most of the time talking with this guy David, who was pretty cool and said he writes this blog, Busch League Banter, with his buddy. Today, on Friday, they wrote about going to Miller Park to watch the annual Milwaukee Fire Department vs. Milwaukee Police Department game. To use Posh’s scoring system, +1 for the story, +1 for drinking PBR in the a.m., +5 for ripping on Wes Helms, guys. But also, –5 for not including this Departed reference, maybe excluded because their buddy was MFD:
Colin Sullivan: “Fucking firefighters are bunch of homos… They are! … Fuck you, fuckin’ queers. Firemen gettin’ pussy for the first time in the history of fire, or pussy. Hey go save a kitten in a tree, you fucking homos.”
I talked with this guy and his friend most of the time, and periodically we’d look over periodically to see if Leitch was still there. He was, and it was fun to watch him bop around and talk to all the people there. At once point we looked over and he was at the bar about to do a huge shot with all these people, and looked over at us and made the “Here we go again” face. If I didn’t have to work Friday I probably would have used drinking to get some more face-time. Actually, I would have played that card anyway, but I was pulled over twice Thursday for expired tags. MF the DMV. I did notice he switched from beers to a clear-booze-and-tonic, and he left pretty drunk. Hello, Wisconsin!
Leitch said he’s going to be going to the game tonight and tomorrow, and he was meeting his parents, who were driving their motorcycles up from Mattoon, Ill. I’ve got a busy weekend coming up and going to the Sunday game I have tickets for is even in question, what with all the festivities for Mother’s Day.
Bill Hall, don’t forget your pink bat.
Viva Cerveceros 