Trips to South Bend will be a little different

I've mentioned some of the Midwest League broadcasters who have moved on over the years. That's radio and that happens.

However, there has next to no turnover in MWL beat writers. There will be some in South Bend next year.

Woody Miller isn't writing for the South Bend Tribune.

Forrest "Woody" Miller has been covering basketball for the Tribune for as long as anyone can remember, including McGraw, who has been the head coach at the University for over 20 years. He is also the longtime Notre Dame baseball and South Bend Silver Hawks reporter for the Tribune.

It's not hard to wrack up that kind of resume when you've been with the same paper for more than 50 years.

But the real shame in this change is that Woody was let go as one of the 56 employees cut loose from the Tribune because of the growing economic crisis. This is not to say the paper could have refrained from firing anyone, but by letting Woody go, they let go a piece of Tribune - and Notre Dame - history.

Woody was inducted into the Indiana Sportswriters and Sportscasters Association Hall of Fame in 2004, and started working with the paper in 1955. He has covered Irish baseball since then, including the team's two trips to the College World Series (1957 and 2002).

Woody was there when Digger and the men's basketball team knocked off No. 1 UCLA. He was there at the program's Final Four in 1978 in St. Louis. He went back to St. Louis in 2001 to cover McGraw's team's win over Purdue for the NCAA Championship.

Yep. It will be different in the Cove press box next year.