In what must be a move to become more hip, or merely to catch up with the times (and the Times), The Wall Street Journal is no longer using honorifics in its Sports section.

Jason Gay, a columnist for the section, has mixed feelings about the change:

Sports can be a messy, crude business—and the courtesy conferred by a ‘Mr.’ or ‘Ms.’ signaled a baseline of respect that has almost vanished. Calling a chill guy like Tim Lincecum “Mr. Lincecum” was pretty funny, but it also was decent. Remember how everyone used to love how Derek Jeter called then-manager Joe Torre ‘Mr. Torre’ even as he aged from a rookie into a veteran superstar? People loved it because it was gentlemanly.

FishbowlNY agrees with Gay on this. There’s something about how the New York Times and the Journal uses honorifics in their other sections that gives them esteem not found in other places. If the papers are going to keep honorifics in some sections, they should keep them in Sports. People who earn millions playing a game deserve the same respect as those who earn millions selling worthless crap, right?