* The things we keep: The National

Twenty years ago, next January 31, The National Sports Daily made its debut.

In the pre-Internet days, the mission statement of this publication was to provide readers with as much information as quickly and well-written as possible, taking a swipe at the weekly Sporting News (less so Sports Illustrated). Those lending their name to the fledgling enterprise included Frank Deford, who served as editor in chief; columnists Mike Lupica and Scott Ostler; and other top notch writers such as Charles Pierce, John Feinstein, and Peter Pascarelli, and many more.

The first editorial laid out the paper’s goals: “…at THE NATIONAL, what we think matters is not only that we’ll pour all the right things into the vessel, but that we’ll also come up with the right taste.”

The first issue featured a profile of Patrick Ewing, as well as two “National Exclusive” reports: “Florida’s Emmitt Smith will turn pro early” and “Strawberry to Mets: ‘Its time to move on'”. Regular features include game reports on hockey, pro and college basketball, and other sports, as well as a “gossip page,” which compared with today’s YMZ-sters, is sweetly naive.

The editorial concluded, “Our purpose is to tell you everything you could possibly want to know about sports. We’ll be a good read. But, also, if we do our job for you, the taste will linger.”

Sadly, it didn’t linger long enough; the enterprise folded in June 1991.

Bud Shaw, who served as the National‘s Chicago bureau chief (there were also offices in New York and Los Angeles), wrote a fine nostalgic entry for the MentalFloss.com blog.

I still have the debut issue, which featured a young Patrick Ewing on the cover. And I believe I have the last, too. In between there were great stories, but what did it for me, during baseball season, were the reports on baseball. Rather than mere box scores, the National published — for the Mets and Yankees — what amounted to simple scorecards. It was almost like being at the game.