Into Thin Air

Over at Grantland, Bryan Curtis laments the demise of the "Sports of the Times" column in the paper of record:

"This is what really baffles me," said Frank Deford, the Sports Illustrated writer and Real Sports correspondent. "You turn to the editorial page and how many columnists do they have? Even if one of their columnists is away, they get another column. If it's so important to have political columns, why don't they have sports columns?"

"Little by little," said Gay Talese, who wrote for the Times "Sports" section in the '50s, "it was as if the paper didn't want to have a sports column, but didn't want to break the tradition of having one."

"The fact that it has quietly disappeared from the face of the earth is disturbing to me," said Sandy Padwe, a former editor in the section.

"It seems almost … insensitive to eliminate 'Sports of the Times,'" said Ira Berkow, who wrote the column until 2005.

[Photo Credit: Barton Silverman]