Are We Winning? Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball

by Will Leitch

A hilarious tribute to baseball and to the fathers and sons who share the love of the game. Are We Winning is built around a trip to Wrigley Field to watch the St. Louis Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs--the "lovable losers" to most fans but the hated enemy to the Leitch men. Along for the ride are both Will's father, the gregarious but not--exactly demonstrative Midwestern titan who, despite being a die--hard Cards fan and living his whole life just 200 miles south of Chicago, had never been to Wrigley Field before this game, and Will's college friend, a lifelong Cubs fan. The Cardinals have recently fallen out of the pennant race, and the Cubs, as it turns out, are attempting to clinch the division on this Saturday afternoon in September. The pitchers are Ted Lilly for the Cubs and Joel Pineiro for the Cardinals. It's just a regular game. Play ball. The book unfolds in half-inning increments where Will gives one-of-a-kind insight on the past, present, and future of the game--from Pujols' unrivaled greatness to the myth that steroids have ruined baseball. Along the way, he shares memories of his father and growing up in the small town of Mattoon, including the year his dad coached his Little League team and nicknamed a scrawny kid "Bulldog," and an unlikely postgame episode involving a biker bar and Mr. Holland's Opus . And there is beer. Lots and lots of beer. Are We Winning is a book about the indelible bond that links fathers and sons. For the Leitch men it's baseball that holds them together--not that either of them would ever be so weak as to admit it. No matter how far apart they are or what's going on in their lives, they'll always be able to talk about baseball. It's the story of being a fan, a story about fathers, sons, and legacies. And one perfect game.

Genres: Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction, Biography, Humor, Comedy

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Will Leitch lives in Athens, Georgia with his family and is the author of seven books, including the novels Lloyd McNeil's Last Ride, How Lucky and The Time Has Come. He writes regularly for New York, MLB.com, The New York Times and the Washington Post. He is the founder of the late website Deadspin. He also writes a free weekly newsletter that you might enjoy at williamfleitch.substack.com.

Reviews

[Ivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A really good, well-written book by a man who clearly loves baseball and his father. The narrative is structured inning-by-inning around a Cardinals-Cubs game during the 2003 playoff chase and is interlaced with the author's memories, musings, and stories by other baseball fans.

It reminded me of the pure joy and heartbreak being a Dodgers fan can be and made me think of my own father who took me to my first game at Dodger Stadium, my little brother who I fed countless groundballs to until he just got it right, and what it will be like to enjoy THE GREATEST SPORT IN THE WORLD when I have my own children.

It's a good book for any baseball fan, regardless of team allegiance. You don't have to be a Cardinals fan or a Cubs fan to enjoy it. But it doesn't hurt.

Here are a couple of quotes I loved:

"Baseball is a sacred gift, handed to us by the cosmos in ninety-foot intervals, and those who are able to play it at the highest level have been granted the ultimate blessing, a key to the eternal kingdom."

"One of the irrational pleasures of watching baseball is to delude yourself into thinking that it's an accessible game, that it's one you could play."

[Josh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not sure what the other reviews are talking about here - this is a book about baseball and fathers, and how baseball can foster and shape a relationship. It's not about the Cardinals, they just get the majority of the ink here, but a baseball fan will be able to see their own fandom, no matter the team, reflected in Will's. My dad and I have always bonded over baseball, and I'm not alone in this. Any baseball fan who has a father (which is probably a good percentage) will enjoy this book. Leitch's snarky hipsterness doesn't come through here at all, it's earnest and, at times, even touching. Great book.

[Dylan Whitehead · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this even though it wasn’t everything I was hoping for. A seemingly timeless tale of baseball and the shared history it brings to fathers and sons. My dad is reading this book at the same time as me and it’s funny how we appreciate all the same chapters.

While reading this, I couldn’t stop thinking about how different the world of baseball is today (just over a decade later). The rules have changed slightly and most of the stars of the game have changed, yet any chapter could be exchanged with an updated headline and the same message would be clear: baseball teams are no more than the fans that support them.

[Gary Anderson]

Framed around a single 2008 Cardinals-Cubs game at Wrigley Field, Are We Winning? romps across a Cardinals fan’s entire life, especially the moments involving his father. Author Will Leitch is a sportswriter, and his father is a blue-collar worker. They are rabid Cardinals fans and Cubs-haters who attend the game with Will’s friend Mike, a Cubs fan. As a Cubs fan myself, I don’t usually see much anti-Cubs rhetoric, but here I loved reading the spiteful, hilarious comments about the Cubs, Cubs fans, Wrigley Field, and anything Cubby-related. As the book moves through the game, Leitch ruminates on the changes and constants at work in fatherhood and major-league baseball. Each chapter begins with a poignant father-and-son baseball moment garnered from Leitch’s readers. For a book that takes place in a specific time, it ages well, and I recommend it for all Cubs fans, Cardinals fans, and anyone who likes a smart, witty baseball book.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Baseball is three hours of Shakespeare sixteen times a day....."

Yes. Yes, it is.

[Brad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sadly for all us Cardinal fans, the answer to this question right now is, decidedly, “No.” Still, Will Leitch’s book by the same title gave me a lot of laughs and brought back a lot of great memories from growing up a Cardinal fan. In “Are We Winning: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball,” Leitch details a trip to Wrigley Field for a series between his beloved Redbirds and the despised Cubs. He’s joined on the trip by his father (who, like so many of us, was responsible for Will’s dedication to the Cards) and his friend, Mike, who is a Cubs fan. Each chapter describes an inning of the game, with a running commentary on life intertwined throughout. Leitch writes the book to his yet-to-be-born (also yet-to-be-conceived) son, and, assuming said son will be reading it in many years, he provides some fun pointers at the end of each chapter on life as we know it. For example, this was my personal favorite: “The MultiNational United Corporation that owns all the banks, universities, and half of Congress was once known as “Twitter.” The book is full of moments, like that one, that made me laugh out loud.

And, at times, it makes you think. Leitch has the great habit of taking a scorebook around with him to every game he attends, so he has a record of all kinds of happy memories, and he always notes who is there with him. If I had done this (and I think my Dad tried to get me to), I’d have a scorecard from Mark Whiten’s four-home-run game, one from Pujols’ first game in Cincinnati, when the stadium announcer mispronounced his name and then he obliterated a baseball over the batter’s eye in dead center, and scores more, all reminders of moments I’ve shared with my Dad or my best friends or my wife or my two sons.

In addition to all this, which made the book a lot of fun to read, there is a quote that so perfectly summarizes my life as a baseball fan, it was like Leitch got into my head and took it right out:

True baseball fans do not cheer for their teams to win; they cheer for them not to lose. Victory does not come with joy, it comes with relief. Losing causes only pain. When I sat in Busch for Game 5 of the 2006 World Series, I was not counting down outs. I was not preparing to celebrate a title. I was terrified that this was all going to veer wrong, that, once again, all the time and effort and emotion I had put into this team, this lovely, precious, elusive team, would be for naught. I would watch them blow out. And, like all fans, I feared deep down that it would be my fault. That if I hadn’t gone to the game, they would have won. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s irrational. But nothing about being a baseball fan is rational. The goal is not to watch your team dominate. The goal is to escape without being embarrassed. Baseball is not a sport for dominators. Baseball is a sport for survivors.
All told, I really enjoyed this book. I ended up at PNC Park the other night, and Leitch himself was just two sections away. Had I known this serendipitous moment would take place, I surely would’ve taken my copy of the book and asked him to sign it for my Dad, to whom I’m going to give the book now that I’m done with it. It’s the least I can do for all he’s given me.

(I want to say a special thanks to Christine Ragasa over at Hyperion, who graciously sent me a copy of the book to review.)

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

In his acknowledgements, Will Leitch asks "why do people write books?" The question comes as something of a slap in the face for those trying to extract a purpose to this memoir about Leitch's visit to Wrigley Field for the 2008 Cubs' division-clinching win over the beloved St Louis Cardinals.

In this sprawling memoir, we have a few ruminative sections that address the father-son dynamic in light-hearted ways. The bulk of the book seems to be whatever is on the author's mind and relevant to baseball. There is a summary of what made Ryan Ludwick such a valuable asset to a mostly forgettable 2008 Cardinals team. There is a section of summaries of the games Will has attended since carrying his own scorekeeping card. There is a brief rant about steroids which he seems to admit would be better left out of the book. There are many scenes that I found shockingly familiar, especially his attendance at the 2006 NLCS Game Six, followed by a Cardinals gathering at Dewey's Flatiron where I am now pretty sure I met Will. Yeah, a lot of minutiae that most of my goodreads friends might not find so useful unless they are Cardinals fans. I will be sending copies to many of my StL friends and it is a good candidate to be the book I buy most frequently this year, but that said, I don't see much sales potential here.

Why would normal people read a book like this one?

[Ryan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book about fathers & sons, family, best friends. Anyone who is a Cardinals or Cubs fan (I am neither), or an alumnus of the Univ. of Illinois (which I am) will love this book.

[Nathan M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm going to start by admitting that I have owned this book for at least 6 years, and just kept putting it off until now. That said, i really enjoyed it. I'm the biggest Cubs fan I know, and it was interesting and entertaining to read a Cubs related story from the perspective of a major Cardinals fan.

Leitch's book is half autobiography and half inning-by-inning breakdown of the penultimate game between the Cardinals and the Cubs in 2008, at Wrigley Field, on the day the Cubs clinched the NL Central for the second year in a row, and the first time in 100 years. Reading Will's misery over the success of my team, combined with it happening against his team, thrilled me to no end. Plus it was insightful into what fans of other teams are like, and their own lives surrounding their own fandom.

It was also a nice trip down memory lane, recalling the fantastic 2008 season the Cubs had, with me having flashbacks to the EIGHT games I attended that season, and how that season was the first season in ages - most definitely in my life time - that the Cubs made it feel like something magical was finally happening.

Of course, anyone with even a remote knowledge of sports knows the Cubs ended up falling flat on their face that postseason, getting SWEPT by the Dodgers in the first round of the playoffs for the second year in a row...and then utterly collapsed for damn near a decade after. 2008 was the last bit of light shining upon our baseball field until 2014, but it was nice to read anecdotes about the season, the roster and the super important game Will attended with his dad and best friend and remember back to what almost was.

Will did such a good job writing that, by the end of the book, I started to feel a twang of respect for Will and other Cardinal fans and even the Cardinals team...

I'm kidding.
Screw the Cardinals.
Forever.

Excellent book, though.

[Michael Steele · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two sportswriters whose work I read closely and, coincidentally, whose newsletters inspired mine. One of them is Will Leitch, the author of Are We Winning? which blends together stories about his life and his father with the Cubs-Cardinals game they watched together. Having written to Will with questions about fatherhood and big choices, this was illuminating: this was written ten years before what he wrote to me when he was my current age, making some aspects eerily prescient and others heart-wrenching—but the entire book is a gut punch that reminds me how much I miss baseball and being able to talk about it. That I would read this book, written loosely to his future son, now having spent the last two years reading Will’s newsletter and learning about his adventures as a husband and father and still, of course, son made it more meaningful, and certainly reading it mid-pandemic brought a powerful escapism as it felt like sitting with the Leitchs and watching a game at Wrigley (Will even kept score). There are elements in this book that I found offensive or crass and, I imagine, Will might today as well, but that didn’t obscure the power of what Will was saying which is basically “I love baseball and my dad and that connection makes sense.” I’m glad to have read the final three innings of Are We Winning? on Fathers’ Day.

[Dave Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been reading Will Leitch, in one form or another, my entire working life - going on 13 years now. This book feels kind of like an inflection point between the Deadspin era and his current mode of output: Heartfelt and earnest in roughly equal balance with snarky. Obviously, a thorough account of a single baseball will kind of carbon-date a book, and looking back on a 2008 Cubs-Cardinals game - and the rivalry in general - on the other side of the Cubs' World Series Championship in 2016 feels a bit distorted. Also, I think the intensity of nearly any sports-based rivalry is a bit lost on me, as someone who has moved around a lot, changed loyalties at times and, perhaps most importantly, didn't have his parents' chosen teams forced upon him. (And thank goodness for that.) In any case, I'm grateful to have food for thought of any kind on sports, rivalries, family and friendship at this time, and I'd honestly, sincerely like for Will to write another book on any and all of the above.

[B.J. Marshall · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable book about the joy of baseball. It would be interesting to read a newer Leitch book about the Cubs winning the World Series in 2016 and the impact it had on him as a Cardinal's fan. I suspect I can find some information about it if I try, but why spend effort on a Cardinals' fan?

Some of the chapter header stories are also really touching.

And of course some of the complaining about sabermetrics - which I agree with - is outdated at this point. We've lost the WAR and baseball has been ruined. A pitch clock? Three hitter minimum? Automatic runners in extra innings? I feel like a lot of these changes are like the Fox puck for NHL games in the mid-90s: annoying to real fans and not bringing in any new ones.

If you need me I'll be sitting around waiting for something to happen in a 21st Century baseball game full of hideously boring "pure outcomes."

[Larry Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Might have given it four stars (3.5 for sure) but I found it to grow less interesting/more ponderous as it went on.

It foretells my issue with it by the sub-title: Fathers and Sons in the New Golden Age of Baseball. I count four topics there, and I would have enjoyed it more had there been a compelling primary subject. A Cardinals’ fan being at the game with his father where the Cubs’ clinch a playoff spot for a second year, even for a baseball fan, wasn’t enough.

But it was well written and had humor and interesting diversions, often about the Cardinals or various baseball media (the best part of the book, but too small a portion.)

I was prepared to enjoy it. It was okay. And it was a quick read.

[Derek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quintessential post-Deadspin Leitch: funny, touching, wonky and still a little overly-opinionated. The baseball stuff is really fun, especially for Cubs and Cardinals fans - the chapter on Steve Bartman is worth the read alone - but Leitch also nails what it's like to be in your early 30s and reckoning with cementing your place in the world and starting a family. I deeply look forward to revisiting it in a year, five years, 20 years.

[Tony Dobson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this. On the cover this is a sports book, but inside it is really a story of family intertwined with sports. To blend a lifetime of family tales alongside a baseball games in the way Will Leitch has is a beautiful thing, highly recommended.

[Dan Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read - especially as a Cardinals fan whose family followed the team through radio broadcasts, and whose best sports experience was watching Game 6 in 2011. The Cardinals love is strong in this book.

The book is not just fan-gushing - there's a lot of family and friends, and a lot of drinking. My wife, who grew up near Buffalo and never loved a baseball team growing up, enjoyed the book quite a bit, too, so it is not just for Cardinals fans!

[Zach Koenig · Rating 5 out of 5]

Over the course of my life, I have read few sports books that truly capture the essence of being a baseball fan. Bill Simmons and Stephen King both crafted masterful books based on the 2004 Red Sox, but other than that the pickings get slim. Fortunately, Mr. Leitch just "gets" what it's like to have a passion for a baseball team.

"Are We Winning?" is a sentimental tale written from a father to and newborn son, explaining to him (in case the verbal opportunity never arises) why the St. Louis Cardinals and baseball in general are so important to them. While the book seems to start off as a simple tale about Leitch going to a ballgame with his father and best friend, it eventually turns into a genuine commentary on familial relationships and how sports plays a role in them.

Like I said in the opener, this book is both poignant and entertaining because author Leitch is able to perfectly articulate the emotions needed to make the whole undertaking work. All baseball fans have these types of stories and experiences, but it takes a skilled wordsmith to put them in a format that others will be interested in. Leitch does this superbly.

All in all, I read this book in a matter of days, as I just couldn't put it down once I realized I was reading an emotional (yet humorous) tribute to baseball's place in our lives. I would undoubtedly pick up another Leitch contribution in the future.

[Deron · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this at first, there’s some dud jokes and a super casual writing style, but by the end I really enjoyed it. I admire and envy generational super fans of baseball like Leitch and his dad’s relationship with the St. Louis Cardinals. Another fun baseball book that has some great and unpretentious observations about men, fathers, and sons.

[Kevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm going to review this book in list form. The author didn't really seem to put that much effort into the book, so why should I in my review?
- Leitch overuses the whole capitalize ordinary words to make an Important Point technique.
- It's reasonable to expect some errors in a first printing, but this one looked like they just ran a spellchecker and let it go.
- It's almost cute how Leitch tries to convince us of the importance and potency of the Cardinals-Cubs rivalry while criticizing the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry as being too vicious.
- There is some serious filler in this book. A full chapter is taken up by synopses/boxscores of games Leitch has attended. He tries to justify this by saying that these games are or were somehow important. This is true on a personal level for the storyline, but some seem to be included just to take up space. Leitch even acknowledges that the chapter should probably be skipped in his summation. Another chapter includes Leitch's admission that he is referring to Sporting News as "the" Sporting News strictly to fill up space.
- There are parts of this book that are interesting and touching. This does not make up for the fact that most of this book appeared to be written simply to satisfy a book contract.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I flat-out loved this book. Will Leitch grew up in Mattoon, which about 30 minutes south of Champaign. He's a Cardinal fan (the fool), but is as devoted to his team as I am to the Cubs. He attended the University of Illinois, as did I, although in different decades (I'm older). And he and his dad bonded over baseball, just like I did with my dad.

I also liked the structure of the book, which unfolds by half-innings of the 2008 Cubs' division-clinching win over the Cardinals. Each chapter opens with sights and sounds of the game in progress, then move into ruminations about fathers and sons, Albert Pujols, steroids, growing up in small town Central Illinois, and writing sports for the Daily Illini. It's laugh-out-loud funny in spots and made me cry at least once. The only chapter I skimmed was Leitch's journey through his collection of scorecards.

My boss lent me this book, but I plan to buy my own copy so I can reread it often, especially in the middle of winter when baseball season seems very far away.

[M. R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well done; this is a humorous and well-done examination of relationships -- father and son, fan and team, Cards fan and Cubs fan -- through the lens of the grandeur of the game of baseball.

Because of the format of the book - each Chapter is a half-inning, so there are eighteen chapters - some chapters seem more forced, stretching some topics to reach eighteen. In some of these, he seems more than happy to take unpopular positions (players using steroids aren't that evil, advanced stats don't make the game better) that may just be "devil's advocate" filler to reach eighteen innings/chapters. He relies on the idea that "Baseball isn't perfect but it's better as it is," which seems odd given the author's role in helping move sports media from old-school beat reporting to modern media's emphasis on blogging and giving more people more of a say.

But all in all, a very good read for baseball fans, dads and especially both.

[Saxon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will Leitch, founder of the gossip/humor sports blog Deadspin, writes a personal story that all takes place during a single Cubs versus Cardinals game. Really, though, its about his father-son relationships, growing old, America, beer, the effect of the digital age and a whole lot of baseball. It's also one of the funniest books I have read in a long time.

Parts of this book could really appeal to the average reader. Parts, though. The other parts, would be totally boring or go over their head unless they were a diehard baseball fan. Which I am. So, I loved it.

I'd like to see if Leitch could tone down the sports-talk a bit, though, and write a book that would really appeal to the masses. I think he could write something really great. Sort of a sports-type of Chick Klosterman, but better.

[Matt Simmons · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly enjoyable book about an ultimately meaningless baseball game. But that game, a September 2008 Cubs/Cardinals game, provides opportunities for Leitch to talk about the game itself, its place in American culture, and, most especially, its place on connecting fathers and sons. If you're a man who values his father, who is a father and wonders what kind of father he's going to be like, what it means to be a father, hell, anything about father-and-son relationships--well, this is stuff you've thought about before. Connect it with baseball, the sport that somehow speaks more to such relationships than any other in our society, and you've got a really moving, powerful, and wise book.

You know those conversations you had with your buddies over beer when you were 25 about your dads? That's what this book feels like. Just wonderful.

[Sherrie · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a baseball fan who shared the sport with my dad, I absolutely loved this book. (Even though I am a daughter and not a son!) It didn't hurt that one of my most-liked people from Deadspin is the author. The Leitch family team is the Cardinals, but it could be any family, any team, anywhere. The book goes beyond baseball, though, into family dynamics and history, and this is what really makes this effort zing. There were plenty of laughs, a couple of times I teared up, and several situations I recognized instantly. (Except for the beer--even though a fellow Mid-Westerner, my dad was a teetotaler.) I would recommend it for anyone, really, but it's a must-read if you have a parent--or a child--that has baseball in their life.

[James Cobo · Rating 4 out of 5]

fantastic treatise on why baseball is important

I can't watch baseball; every time I try I find myself discovering new plateaus of boredom. This book is the exact opposite; I didn't just read it, I attacked it vigorously, intently, enthusiastically - and boy did it pay dividends. If you must have a taste first, seek out Leitch's piece on Steve Bartman (available elsewhere on the web for free); if that doesn't inspire you to read more, then don't buy this book. I, however, read that piece, bought this book, read the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] out of it, and I am greatly enriched as a result.

[J.W. Nicklaus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another book I got to review for the New York Journal of Books. A terrific father-and-son 'memoir' of growing up in a relationship with your dad where the only true flee-flowing conversations are about your love for the game of baseball. This isn't just a stats or reenactment of the golden age of baseball, it's a real gem about the inner workings of familial ties and things that keep us bound together. My full review can be found here.

[Christy · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many positives, and yet so many negatives. If you like baseball and like making fun of the Cubs you will enjoy this book. If you like the Cubs I wouldn't recommend reading this, unless you have a very good sense of humor about the team and your fandom. While this was an enjoyable read, it lost serious points for chapters that are too long, information that detracted from the book rather than added to it, too much discussion of things in the past, and too many descriptions of his father's beer belly.

[Tim Lapetino · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is as much about fathers and suns as it is about baseball. Set against the backdrop of the 2008 baseball season, Cardinals fan and author Will Leitch journeys to Wrigley Field with his dad, on the eve of the Cubs clinching the Central Division title. It's funny, poignant, and a passionate case for why the game of baseball is amazing, and why it draws men of different generations together in a way that no other sports can. I highly recommend it.

[Bill Herron · Rating 2 out of 5]

You know I can't really say I liked it. The book was less about fathers and sons and more about the authors life. It's not that the author was uninteresting, it's just that I felt the book failed to deliver on it's one promise. I also didn't find the book very funny despite what many of the other reviewers on the site had to say about it.

The only people that I would recommend this book to are St. Louis Cardinal fans who want to relive the Cubs winning the division in 2008.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Baseball. Dad. Dad's and Baseball. A great look a America's Pastime and how it shapes our relationship with our dads. Will Leitch weaves stories of his growing up, to attending games with his family. Now an adult himself he's able to look back and observe just how much his beloved St. Louis Cardinals have meant to him and looks forward to his (and his friends) opportunities to share that love with their own children.