Take Them Out of the Ball Game

 The New York Times has announced today that it will disband its Sports Department, handing coverage over to The Athletic, a sports website that it purchased last year. This does not mean that the sports pages will go away, rather that the current sportswriters will be moved to other assignments. I tend to think of sports writing as its own specialty, though I believe the George Vecsey covered Appalachia for the Times before moving to sports. I do find the notion a little odd, and can think of other sections that the Times could outsource or dispense with at least as easily.