Would someone please find Tony George for me?

Hello, operator. Is this Indianapolis Motor Speedway? I need to speak with Tony George about the fact that Bill York was fired last year. If you don't know York, you just need to understand that York has been to IMS what the Yankees have been to New York.
And he was sent packing by IMS right before the running of the Indianapolis 500. It was the goofiest move ever and so help me, every member of the auto racing fraternity has got to be shaking his or her head.

I dunno why York was canned, but I have a feeling that some 30-year-old thinks he or she can replace him. I know York is 75, but he has been running press centers since reporters used manual typewriters and a cell was what we watched in a microscope. Geez, back when Bill York started, reporters had to dictate stories because email and laptops weren’t even on the horizon yet.

Operator, what Tony George needs to understand is that reporters don’t usually stand up for media center guys primarily because there are more important topics nowadays. But I’m telling you, people like Robin Miller of Speed TV and Michael Knight of the Spin Doctor blog put everything aside to start questioning why Bill York was sent into the unemployment line.

I live in Las Vegas and the news of York’s firing was here in no time. Honestly, Bush’s invasion of Iraq didn’t carry the weight of IMS’s firing of Bill York. In fact, going into Iraq made more sense than firing Bill York, for God’s sakes.

Look, the Indy 500 is not far away and God knows there are thousands of media folks looking toward the event. But the fact is that IMS just imploded the media center when it handed a pink slip to gentlemanly Bill York. If you know media types like I do, they’ll drive you nuts the Monday after the event with a flood of complaints so bad you’ll swear Tony Stewart isn’t the only one who knows how to drop the F bomb.

Tell Tony (George, that is) that York isn’t short of business since he also heads up the media center for the Colts and the Pacers. It’s not like the guy is going to end up in a soup line and besides, Conseco Field House folks named its Pacers media center after York. It’s just too bad that IMS doesn’t understand that it just kicked aside a living legend.

Then, too, York has worked press rooms all over the country, ya know. There ain’t a track operator in the nation who hasn’t thought about calling York for help about now.

Operator, I admit I’m not as worried about York as I am Tony George, whose latest decision has got us all wondering if we’re gonna be back communicating with tin cans and a real long string.

Look, I gotta tell you something from a personal standpoint. See, I used to have epilepsy until the docs at Scripps in La Jolla removed a sizeable chunk of my brain to halt the disorder in 1994. Prior to the surgery, traumatic events would kick in a seizure – and the firing of Bill York would have sent me into a grand mal of grand proportions.

Sure, I’ll wait. I know Tony has a busy schedule and I’m just a freelance writer. But the fact remains that a giant part of the history of Indy was just erased by someone who simply doesn’t understand.