The Chicago Daily News was the first newspaper that Mike Royko worked for, and the one he loved the most. But the Daily News was an afternoon newspaper, and by the late 1970s there were not as many people commuting to night-shift jobs (the main readers of afternoon newspapers) to keep the paper afloat. The paper was forced to close its doors on March 3, 1978. Mike took on the task of writing the eulogy for the paper, to be printed on the front page of the final edition.
When I was a kid, the worst of all days was the last day of summer vacation, and we were in the schoolyard playing softball, and the sun was down and it was getting dark. But I didn't want it to get dark. I didn't want the game to end. It was to good, too much fun. I wanted it to stay light forever, so we could keep on playing forever, so the game would go on and on. That's how I feel now. C'mon, c'mon. Let's play one more inning. One more at bat. One more pitch. Just one? Stick around, guys. We can't break up this team. It's too much fun.
But the sun always went down. And now it's almost dark again.
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