As the hardreading staff noted the other day, the Boston Globe Sports section no longer features the Tank McNamara comic strip.
In its place, the stately local broadsheet runs something like this:
Distressed, we contacted Globe editor Joe Sullivan and Bill Hinds, the pen behind Tank McNamara, to ask what happened.
And both of them graciously replied.
Joe Sullivan:
Our goal was to provide a comprehensive weekly calendar for sports fans and to find the correct landing spot for it. We decided it should be one the scoreboard page and we felt that it would be more valuable to our readers than to continue to run Tank.
Joe Sullivan
Sports Editor/Boston Globe
Bill Hinds related much the same story, but a bit more plaintively.
I’m told that they need the space for other things. They may have cut back on pages. The editor says they like Tank, and he likes me personally, but it was just a matter of math. Breaks my heart. Boston was one of my big clients. Hopefully someone will write a letter.
Consider us that someone.
Regardless, here’s what we’re missing today:
Tanks for the memories, Bill.
P.S. We’ll especially miss Tank’s Sports Jerk of the Year awards.
The 2014 nominees:
And the 2014 big loser – er, winner.
Richly deserved.
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 
What about the carnage in the Herald comic pages? You could see the handwriting on the wall for The Knight Life when the cartoonist took strong anti-cop positions after Ferguson. But what did Lio do to piss off the Howie Carr Fan Club? He’s been dumped for the long-dead Charles Schultz and 45-year-old Peanuts strips!
[…] But now splendid commenter Mark weighs in with his own lament. […]
Have they done away with game radio listings? Just TV now? Radio never gets its due in the two papers… not counting a certain eponymous internet stream.
All true, Sam.
my husband is really bummed the Globe dropped Tank. He has other suggestions if they need space!!
But is it G-rated?
weekly sports calendar? the celtics are done, the bruins are done, the revs play what,1 game a week? we don’t need a calendar, we need Tank McNamara! Bring him back pleeease.
I’m with you, Claire.
Bring back Tank!! It seems every time the Globe tells us about a change or “improvement” in the paper something good disappears: daily weather in other places; currency exchange rates; some of the TV schedule; and the latest: daily editorial cartoons. It’s no wonder fewer people subscribe to daily newspapers. Substituting a schedule for a great Tank cartoon is not acceptable.
Totally agree, Erin. Even though (full disclosure) I still do subscribe to the print edition.
Wouldn’t you think the Globe would say something, regretting dropping Tank? I guess not. They just must not care what we, the readers, think.