A home no more

It was announced yesterday where Furman Bisher is calling it a day. I suppose it shouldn't be too much of a surprise to hear a 90-year old doing such things, but Bisher is a little different. He was (is) the dean of southern sports journalism and was on the job longer than I've been alive. Actually, his career started before my father was born; my father is 67.

I'd wager Bisher has seen just about every major sporting event that has happened in the past 50 years and an untold number that simply occurred and time forgot. An interesting life to be sure. Perhaps as a result, he was also one of the finest columnists, on any subject, I've ever read.
These days whenever one of the old dogs of journalism hangs it up, it's common for the young turks to lament the passing of an era. Often such lamentations are unoriginal and trite. Faux sentimentality used to code the underlying message: "Time passed him by."

With Bisher though, it is doubtful his like will be seen again. Sports reporting today is more about flash, "wit" and the cult of personality than anything to do with an event. The game is a mere backdrop. Snark has replaced insight. Being clever is held in higher regard than being good or, God forbid, the facts. And the less said the better about the notion, sadly increasing, of modern sports reporters deciding they're de facto political commentators, peppering their columns and stories with unneccesary partisan asides.

In short, the idea that the reporter is there to report and not actually part of the story is as outdated as some probably think Bisher is. Since sports are such an integral part of our culture, I suppose it's only fitting that sports reporting is as shallow and meaningless these days as anything else we subsist on. Thank you, ESPN.

But there was a time when journalist actually knew how to relay events. To put them in their proper context--contrary to popular belief, not every strike out or touchdown is a significant moment in the life of a sports fan. To put us in that moment without self-aggrandizement. No, sports really aren't that important compared to death and taxes. However, they do help make all the unpleasantness in between a little more bearable. In that regard, Furman Bisher helped more than most. Selah