In Sportwriting's Golden Age, Bisher Was Nobility.

I am a sportswriter—or at least I hope so. Whatever it means, whatever assumption comes with it, that is what I hope I am allowed to call myself.

Truth be told, I've always wanted to write sports from the time I was old enough to read and type.

My father was easily my first influence, but any good student has many teachers, and the man above was one.

His name is Furman Bisher, and no, I never knew him personally. But if you grew up treating the Atlanta sports pages like a Dickens novel, you didn't have to know Furman, because he found you.

First on the pages of the Atlanta Constitution, and then- and now- the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (I'm just barely old enough to remember the switch), Bisher did what only the very best in our business can- he told you stories in a way that sounded like he was talking only to you.

Whether it was a piece about our beloved Braves, or a report from his beloved Masters, or just one of his generally beloved "I'm thankful" Thanksgiving columns- an Atlanta tradition- Bisher was never anything less than first class.

He's retiring now, at the young age of 91.

The man who's interviewed Shoeless Joe Jackson, the man to whom they say Jack Nicklaus would defer, pounded out his last piece for the AJC on Monday, and now he's done.

He wrote it, fittingly, on his old Royal typewriter, a durable little machine that once belonged to Ralph McGill. 

There's a moment in the movie (it's also a book) "For Love of the Game," when Gary Wheeler, the fictional owner of the Detroit Tigers is talking to the story's hero, veteran pitcher Billy Chapel.

"You're like the old boys, Billy, they were golden. They had that special pride," Wheeler says.

Bisher is one of them: golden, among the noblest of his peers and a credit to a profession that was once as endearing as it is now, unfortunately, distrusted.

Perhaps, you say, there isn't a place for the Furman Bishers in this new, fast-paced, multimedia driven world. But frankly, Bisher's blog would probably disagree with you.

It's tag line is "Bisher Unleashed," as if he ever needed leashing in the first place.

Again, I hope you don't take this all to sound like I know the man. I wish I did. He's a giant in this industry of ours, one who has "walked with kings" as Mitch Albom once wrote. Albom was talking about Dick Schaap, but Bisher would have fit the same bill.

Regularity is an underrated quantity in this business. That is to say there's not nearly enough of it anymore.

But for more than 59 years, when we opened the paper, Furman was there. Tomorrow, he won't be, and the thought of that truth leaves an awfully empty feeling.

So thank you, Furman Bisher, for nearly 60 wonderful years. To steal a great man's trademark- Selah.