The Boston Globe Used To Have A Sports Section

Contrary to popular opinion, we love newspapers. We once waited up outside our dorm for our first ever published article, a review of Woody Allen's Manhattan Murder Mystery. (When the delivery guy showed up, we pretty much attacked him. It was 5:30 a.m., and we were somewhat deranged.) Of course, this makes us a relic; our 14-year-old cousins find newspapers amusing, like an eight-track, or a laserdisc player. (If they knew what either of those were, that is.)

Anyway, in the world of newspapers, few sections are more respected than The Boston Globe's sports section. Back in the heyday, they featured Peter Gammons, Will McDonough, Bob Ryan, that whole crew; not only did they change the way papers covered sports, they predated the Web's triumph of short-tidbits-of-important-information over long-winded-blather-over-Kevin-McHale's-"heart." And now, perhaps fittingly, the section is being gutted by the Web. We mentioned yesterday that Gordon Edes was leaving the paper, and now Scott's Shots reports that Peter May, the paper's senior basketball writer, is accepting the paper's buyout in the middle of the Celtics' playoff run.

Bill Simmons has written how, frustrated by the glacial pace of promotion at newspapers, he decided to go out on his own rather than wait for, you know, the old people to die. And now the paper would probably kill to have Simmons on staff ... not that they could afford him if it had the opportunity. Stupid Web, ruining everything.

Mays' Days Dwindle At Globe [Scott's Shots]