… and a bunch of other bloggers.

Last night, at a bar in Chinatown (NYC) some of the most well-known sports bloggers showed up and greeted their fans.  SML and his crew were there, with the goal of capturing pictures, talking to Will Leitch, and maybe getting him to come out to karaoke (there’s a bar nearby that’s good for karaoke).  After the jump are blurry pictures, drunk opinions and the real reason Deadspin seems slow today….

The first two speakers up were Dan Shanoff and Henry Abbott (of TrueHoops and now ESPN). We got there in time to hear them speak.

We are really going to try to avoid the cheap obvious jokes here.  But it really was unsurprisingly geeky.  In fact, in a room full of people who write about sports all day we think that the most athletic people in the room were in my crew – the Race Car driver and the Marathon Man.  Plus we had Sex Worker Rights Gal with us (note: not actually a sex worker), so we were definitely in the elite at this event.  And SML is a Hispanic, and though very light, he is probably the possessor of the most soul among the crowd.

Dan Shanoff was a good speaker; he read a funny story about his first time on TV:

Henry Abbott was not so good a speaker, but SML is a big fan of his writing, so we won’t say anything bad about him. Instead we will comment on the dude* to the left; he looked so familiar to us, but we couldn’t place it. Check it out for yourselves:

Then we finally figured out who he remind us of: Sylar from Heroes. After that we kept expecting evey famous bloggers head to be chopped open….

After a small break, the next two speakers were Captain Caveman, followed by the god of sports bloggers everywhere, Will Leitch. The Captain went up on-stage with a mixed drink, and read a good piece (one we believe that he did for McSweeney’s) about Will Smith re-doing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air theme as a serious actor. It was a bit of a one-note joke, but he told it surprisingly well and the crowd ate it up.

He finished off with a few small pieces on the Iraqi War and 9-11. SML is admittedly not a big Captain fan, but we have to give him props: one, he was the best dressed dude in the building. We respect Style. Two, we were unable to talk to him as he spent most of the night chatting to a very attractive female who also happens to comment on Deadspin.  

The Marathon Man insists I mention that he thinks Captain is a douchebag, based upon previous meetings back in the day (before the Caveman got big); I’m gonna say that I didn’t talk to him, so I won’t call him a douche, but most guys who dress well (including SML) tend to be fuckstains, so it wouldn’t be a surprise.

Then came Will Leitch, of Deadspin Fame:

He read from his upcoming book (due out in the Fall, make sure you cop a copy).  Here’s another blurry picture of Sylar wondering when he should start cutting heads off:

We then took our first picture of drunk Will.  We love that he was polite and smiling, and as soon as the camera was focused on him he made the Will face… unfortunately the photo didn’t come out clear. 

Finally, the last duo of writers were the Fear and Loathing in Shea guys, and the Dugout trio:

The Dugout trio cracked us up, mostly because they were the only speakers who did not have formally prepared materials, relying instead on scraps of paper that had some notes:

The Dugout also deserves props because they looked like they were going to drink until the bar closed.

Here is SML’s poor attempt to capture the perma leather jacket that Will Leitch always wears:

Seriously, has Will worn anything else besides this since 1989?

Way later in the evening, after most had taken off, we brought Will a PBR, and he sat down with us and talked for a bit.  He was a little a lot drunk, which we enjoyed.  We are big fans, because despite his success he still shows love to everyone.

Of course he was too drunk to even finish his PBR, and he took off quickly after uttering a line which we remain confused about: SML thinks he said “I’m getting lame” right before leaving, but The Race Car Driver insists he heard “I’m getting laid”.

“I’m getting laid” just sounds like a much better exit line, so we’re gonna go with that. In fact it may replace “Lemme know” as our favorite catchphrase of the moment.

Either way, he was unable to finish his PRB, leaving the Marathon Man no choice but to Karl Malone it.

We managed to get one last shot of Will before he stumbled off into the night:

He didn’t make it to karaoke that night, though he told us that he loved that place and had a birthday party there about 4-5 years back (confession: yeah, we also did, 4-5 years ago). We did make it to karaoke, though, and man did we suck (we blame the flaming green shots):

But it ended well, with everyone taking off in different directions, all saying the same thing: “I’m getting laid”.

*Apologies to random white guy; we hope you aren’t offended by being compared to Sylar. Most ladies we have talked to think Sylar looks good, so don’t take it as a diss.