Will the Last Columnist Please Turn Off the Lights?

Imagine our surprise this morning when we opened up the Chronicle's sports section only to see farewell columns by the Sporting Green mainstays Tom Fitzgerald and Glenn Dickey. Not only that, but right next to each other. Fitzgerald has been writing "Open Season," a roundup of funny quotes, stories and jokes, since 1989, and Dickey has been writing his column since 1971. Both say they are being "reassigned" to writing "sports features" and other stories, although being "reassigned" at the Chronicle often means disappearing for long periods of time only to reappear once a month with a column relegated to the back pages (see Stephanie Salter, Ruth Rosen, and Laurel Wellman -- Rosen and Salter have been so reassigned they're not even listed on SFGate anymore). While Dickey gave no hint of how he feels, Fitzgerald gave a hint of bitterness over the move, writing that the purpose of his last column "isn't to debate the decision." Dickey just mentions that "management has reassigned me to general-assignment sports reporting." Considering that Dickey is pretty much an institution as a columnist, that's a pretty big deal. "Open Season" was always worth a chortle or guffaw (we know people who desperately tried to get their jokes into the column) and while we sometimes didn't agree with things Dickey wrote or knew what the hell was up with his beard, he always made us think. This may not seem like a big deal to those who don't read Sporting Green but considering that for a long time whenever anyone said "the Chronicle really sucks" we could always say "yeah, but the Sports section is pretty good." Now we're not sure we can even say that anymore.