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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Monday, February 18, 2008 3:23 PM CST
Leitch brings third book to Mattoon

By AMBER WILLIAMS, Staff Writer
awilliams@jg-tc.com

MATTOON — Will Leitch sometimes still thinks about the career goal he had set for himself as a student of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

Despite the success of his Deadspin sports blog, Leitch, 32, said he isn’t positive of the direction he wants to take his writing career and still entertains the notion of following in the footsteps of U of I alumnus Roger Ebert and becoming a film critic.

Part of the reason Leitch was interested in attending the U of I was its connection to Ebert, a nationally known film critic with his own television show at the time. When he was a teenager, Leitch would write film reviews for the Mattoon Journal Gazette, typing them up at home and then faxing them over to the newspaper since it was before e-mail became the prevalent means of transmitting information.

Leitch said he vaguely recalled being paid $15 a week for those movie reviews, which was a little more than he paid to see the movies themselves, but it was well worth it to him.

While attending the University of Illinois, where he was the editor of the student newspaper the Daily Illini, Leitch said he came to realize that he just really loved writing. It didn’t even matter if it was film reviews — he loved writing and knew that whatever job he did, it would have to include writing.

“I think generally I just knew I wanted to write,” Leitch said Saturday before a book signing at the Cross County Mall in Mattoon. “I just needed to nail down my voice.”

Leitch was apparently able to find his writer’s voice, as he is now promoting his third book with a fourth on the way and has written for such publications as the New York Times and New York magazine, not to mention his day job as the founding editor of the blog Deadspin.

Deadspin is Leitch’s irreverent daily look at the world of sports, which he said he approaches lightheartedly. For his daily posts on Deadspin, Leitch said he wants to talk about sports the way sports fans do in e-mails to their friends, rather than the more business side of sports written about by professional sports writers.

Although some sports writers may write about sports with the seriousness of nuclear secrets, Leitch said he thinks of athletes as paid entertainers.

“I think sports is easy to be funny about,” Leitch said. “I don’t take anything too seriously.”

Deadspin is a part of the Gawker Media group, which said on its Web site that Deadspin has garnered more than 200 million views in the last two years.

Leitch had never intended to do a sports site, but Gawker Media approached him after the success of his Black Table Web site about doing a sports gambling Web site. Opposed to gambling in sports, Leitch pitched Gawker his own idea for a sports blog and they let him run with it.

“It really did take off in a lot of ways,” Leitch said.

Leitch was in Mattoon last week on one of the last legs of his book tour for “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),” published by HarperCollins.

Along with a book signing in Mattoon, Leitch did readings of his book in St. Louis and Champaign. As his book tour has gone along, Leitch said he has been pleasantly surprised by the number of people who have turned out for book readings, noting that about 40 came to one on Valentine’s Day.

Leitch said he is excited to have so many people interested in his writing, especially since he remembers readings for his early books when only two people would come and those would be the same people who traveled to the reading with him.

New York City is now Leitch’s home, but when deciding on the book tour stops, he knew it had to include a trip home to Mattoon. Leitch tries to come back to Mattoon at least four times a year to see his family and “get replenished.”

“It is nice to have a home base,” Leitch said. “It is nice to know there is somewhere I can go.”

Contact Amber Williams at awilliams@jg-tc.com or 238-6858.

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HeinekenMan wrote on Feb 18, 2008 9:39 AM:

" Leitch's Web site isn't just successful. It's highly regarded. He probably didn't want to blow his own horn. But I believe I just saw a few days ago that Deadspin was one of the top 50 Web sites as ranked by Time Magazine. Perhaps that was for 2007 or even 2006. I don't recall. His site's been mentioned in a host of major newspapers and magazines. Most of the country's top sportswriters visit the site on a regular basis. They all know Leitch by name. It must be great for Leitch's self-esteem. After all, his Mattoon baseball career did nothing but establish that he runs like a little girl. "

vakyin wrote on Feb 18, 2008 2:00 PM:

" Those who can't play sports, write about it! The latest book is very funny... "

HeinekenMan wrote on Feb 18, 2008 9:26 PM:

" I haven't picked up the new book yet. I'm glad it's funny. He's at his best when he employs humor. Catch was a good read, too. For my money, though, I prefer it when the joke's on him. The self-deprecating style of his first book—the compilation of Life As A Loser columns—is why I started following him. That hang-over under the studio lights on the Win Ben Stein's Money set was some of the greatest stuff I've ever seen. It made me want him to win, to get over that hump that has so many of us taking one step forward only to stumble backward twice as far. And, of course, he has won. Mattoon should be extremely proud. This isn't some guy who wrote a boring book on local history. Leitch is making a name for himself. "

pj1983 wrote on Feb 19, 2008 7:06 AM:

" It's funny how when promoting a signing someone will say one thing but afterwards, say other things.............."We are back in New York City for about 36 hours before hitting the East Coast swing, and we must confess that our stop in Mattoon, pictures of which can be found here, wasn't much like our other appearances. First off, it was in the lobby of a mall; we were right next to a woman selling sheep sweaters and model train sets. This eliminated the need for a reading; Mattoonians would have thought we were from some Christian youth group, we suspect, had we just started talking out loud.

Anyway, we think we're the first reading in Mattoon since the last time we read there. But our eighth grade advanced english teacher showed up, which succeeded in making us feel so, so old.

But yes: Goodbye, Midwest, and thanks, Mattoon! Next stop : Boston."
"

HeinekenMan wrote on Feb 19, 2008 9:38 AM:

" PJ, I'm not sure I understand your point. It's no secret that Leitch focuses some of his humor on Mattoon. He also focuses it on himself. Doesn't mean he hates himself, and it doesn't mean he hates Mattoon. It just means Mattoon is a ripe field for humor. If you can't appreciate that, then you might be taking things a little too seriously. "

miltmart wrote on Feb 19, 2008 11:58 AM:

" I haven't had the pleasure of reading any of this young man's work but plan on checking out the website and his books. Mattoon should be proud! "

pj1983 wrote on Feb 19, 2008 5:36 PM:

" my point is that people should be proud of where they are from and not set it up to be made fun of. you should read some of the comments made by the people on his page. "

Old Grumpy wrote on Feb 20, 2008 11:09 AM:

" I have read his newest book and I am very proud he is not afraid to say he is from Mattoon. The book is great and I like his writing style. If someone takes offense over his comments about Mattoon than maybe they should move to Charleston. People from Mattoon need to have THICK skin. At least he is not making fun of the MHS Cheerleaders (yet). "

The Question wrote on Feb 20, 2008 11:22 AM:

" "my point is that people should be proud of where they are from and not set it up to be made fun of."
---
Why? What if the place they are from is a lousy hole? Should they lie about it? And why then should they sacrifice their integrity to protect the reputation of a place they dislike?
Who was it who said his hometown was a place of "broad lawns and narrow minds?" He was pretty good writer, wasn't he? "

CLICK TO ENLARGE

Kevin Kilhoffer/Staff Photographer -- Author Will Leitch, left, talks with Gary Maninfior of Mattoon during a book signing at the Cross County Mall in Mattoon on Saturday.