DJ Sees Hal McCoy As Last Of Dying Breed

Wednesday was Hal McCoy night at Great American Ballpark. Houston Astros infielder Aaron Boone was invited to take part in the pre-game ceremony honoring the Dayton Daily News Reds beat writer, who is retiring at the end of this season.

It was 6 years ago that Aaron, when told by Hal that he was quitting because a stroke had impaired his vision, strenuously insisted that McCoy tough it out. He did and the baseball reading public is the better for it.

Hal probably isn't retiring because he is tired of the job. You don't do something for 37 years and walk away just like that. Truth be told, the Dayton Daily News has decided it won't cover the Reds on a daily basis after this season.

This is the same Dayton Daily News that employed two other Reds beat writers, Si Burick and Ritter Collett, who are also enshrined in the Baseball Hall of Fame writer's wing. Suddenly though, they perceive that Dayton residents don't want to read about the Reds or other baseball teams.

It is symptomatic of what is happening nationally in the newspaper industry and by extension in broadcasting. Newspapers thought their future was on the Internet and indeed people flocked to it as much for its convenience as for the cost; virtually nothing when compared with a newspaper subscription.

Throw in the erosion of classified advertising to the Internet and the death knell was audible above the diminished whirr of printing presses everywhere.

There will be no more Hal McCoys because there will be no more beat writers covering teams or issues or events.

And if readers are content to chew on a daily dose of whatever is being dished up on the Internet, well good luck.

Anyone with a laptop can be construed to be a columnist. But where is the experience, where is the context, who are their contacts? Well they're “virtual.”

And don't think for a second that there will be a ceaseless supply of free information on the web. As soon as purveyors feel they have readers, or participants sufficiently 'hooked' on their product or service, there will be a 'small or token or nominal charge imposed as of'...whenever.

You can count on it. Much in the same way a generation of readers could count on the talent and context and contacts of one Hal McCoy.