Who Told Scott Ostler He Was Allowed To Retire?

It's been a bit of a tough go for newspaper readers in the San Francisco Bay Area this past week, not that it necessarily matters to the outside world. Two longtime staples of the sporting palaver industry, Dave Newhouse, most notably of the Oakland Tribune , and Carl Steward of the Bay Area News Group (everything in the East Bay that isn't Oakland, essentially) both passed within a few days of each other. They were regulars on people's porches and laptops and in press boxes across the various area codes for many years, as well as admired colleagues and worthwhile companions. They were worth every drink and meal your author ever had with either of them, even if all we were doing was repenting for envying their work behind their backs. But death being non-negotiable and all, we can only be saddened by their transition to Level Two, because that's the way this game ends for all of us, holding tight to our aces and tens while the reaper sits with quad nines.

There is, however, the other matter of the retirement of longtime Los Angeles Times and San Francisco Chronicle columnist Scott Ostler, the announcement of which is being greeted with entirely the wrong sentiment by his colleagues and readers. In other words, none of his admirers get it. At all.

Now Ostler has been at this dodge for most of his adult life, which, given that he just passed his double natural birthday is more than half a century. He has been much lauded in that time, winning the California Sportswriter of the Year award 13 times, or once every four years, give or take; being only 13 behind him in that category, we can only assume this is a good thing, provided there was also cash involved. In short, the guy started out with game, has had game the whole time along, and has game now.