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Wed Dec 12, 2012 6:53 am
The Sporting News (print edition) passed away this week at the age of 126. Cause of death was officially listed as "the internet", but close relatives believe the actual cause of death was senility and old age. TSN, as he was known by his friends, was born in St. Louis Missouri in 1886 to Alfred Spink, but raised by his brother Charles. By the early 1900s it had become the primary source of baseball information for rural America, which lacked access to major league baseball and coverage by big-city newspapers. Under the tutelage of Taylor Spink, TSN established a comfortable life for himself, staking out a claim as the "Bible of Baseball". After Taylor died in 1962, his son Johnson took over as caretaker for the weekly newspaper until it was sold to Times Mirror in 1977. Without the support of the Spink family, his health began to fail as he approached his 100th birthday in the early 1980s, and various quick-fix cures were attempted to resuscitate the old man against various infectious diseases, which included ESPN and USA Today. Even an expansion from baseball-only into other sports with growing popularity such as football and basketball failed to revive him, and his health began to fail. Near-death, he was moved to a health care facility in Charlotte NC to finish out the remainder of his life. Friends commented that he seemed to be malnourished and was often found wandering aimlessly around the grounds. He ceased publishing a weekly magazine in 2011, and last week finally succumbed to the effects of advanced age brought on by various self-inflicted wounds over the years. While many remember with cherished memories the joy TSN brought them in the golden age of baseball while he was still young and vibrant, those days are long gone, and the funeral yesterday was attended by only a handful of close friends and distant relatives.
Rest in Peace.
Rest in Peace.