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Tales from the book tour, part two

It must be a difficult time for Bill Simmons, better known to his ESPN.com readership as The Sports Guy or, according to Slate magazine, as America’s greatest sportswriter. (This is a title Slate also bestowed on Sports Illustrated‘s Gary Smith two years ago.) Simmons’ beloved Boston Red Sox are currently getting pounded by the Chicago White Sox in the playoffs, but his book about the Red Sox, Now I Can Die in Peace has made The New York Times bestsellers list. And in the middle of this trying week, he has been on a book tour. On his blog, named “More Cowbell” for the Christopher Walken line from a now-legendary Saturday Night Live sketch, Simmons questions the usefulness of the tour: “I am of the opinion that, other than the signings, none of this crap matters — if people are going to buy the book, they’re going to buy the book. But the book industry feels the exact opposite about the process, and who knows? Maybe they’re right.”

Meanwhile, with 500,000 unique visitors to his ESPN.com columns per month, Simmons has become, in the words of the Slate headline writers, a “phenomenon.” Writes Bryan Curtis: “The Sports Guy … is a subversion of the traditional sports column. Charles Fountain, who teaches a sportswriting course at Northeastern University, points out that this is not unlike the way in which The Daily Show With Jon Stewart subverts the traditional nightly news broadcast. Like Stewart, Simmons has a childlike obsession with pop culture. Simmons’ is the only sports column in which athletes sit comfortably alongside Survivor, The O.C., and Chuck Klosterman.”

Related links:
Click here for Bill Simmons’ blog, More Cowbell
Click here for the Slate article on Simmons

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