Hall of Fame Beat Writer Hal McCoy Forced Into Retirement

Long-time Cincinnati Reds beat writer Hal McCoy announced Thursday night on his blog that his newspaper, the Dayton Daily News, would be cutting the Reds beat from their coverage. As a result, he would be forced into a retirement that, in his words, isn't "early" but also "isn't something [he wants] to do."

McCoy is a Hall of Famer, receiving the 2002 J. G. Taylor Spink Award, and continued on the beat despite being legally blind in both eyes.

It's a sad enough story that a Hall of Fame writer is retiring, especially when he implies that he's been pushed out by his own paper, but it's sadder still to read the Daily News' official release on the subject. Their official story indicates that he retired on his own volition, including several quotes from McCoy that don't indicate at all that he feels he was pushed out by the pape. The final line of the story reads, "The newspaper has had a long tradition of covering the Reds and will reassess it in light of McCoy's retirement."

So if you're keeping track at home, the Dayton Daily News has chosen to trim their budget by cutting the beat covered by one of the most respected men in the business, then turned around and told the public that it was his decision to retire and, because he's decided to retire, they're thinking about cutting the beat from the paper. Unfortunately for the Daily News, the Hall of Famer had one more trick up his sleeve and wrote a blog post detailing the entire story, exposing the paper for what they'd really done.

The worst part of this is that the story today should be about McCoy. The story of how he suffered a stroke in both optic nerves, which left him legally blind, and still stayed on the beat after some encouragement from Aaron Boone, is even more inspiring and impressive than his 37-year career.

The two writers at FanHouse who knew McCoy best both had nothing but positive things to say about him this morning. Ed Price calls him: "A great man ... Classy and universally respected ... One of the last few lifelong newspaper beat men," while Jeff Fletcher says, "What Aaron Boone did for him tells you all you need about how well respected he was. I doubt a player would even notice if most of the rest of us got out of the business."

It's a sad day for baseball, both because one of the all-time great writers is retiring and because the newspaper that was lucky enough to have him for his entire career can't be bothered to show him the respect he deserves. That's not just a slap in McCoy's face, it's a slap in the face of every reader that's enjoyed him over his distinguished career.