By TEDDY ALLEN/ Designated Writers

It is gone now, a newsprint DoDo Bird, another casualty of time and technology.

But it was alive once. And it made a big difference for me.

The Sporting News is now Sporting News, an all digital publication that covers all major sports. And good for them.

But back in the day, in the 1960s of my youth, it was “The Bible of Baseball,” a welcomed weekly visitor to the mailbox on Rt. 1, Lake View, South Carolina.

Established in the 1880s in St. Louis, The Sporting News was maybe 80 pages thick when I met it. I just knew I read it cover to cover.

It was tabloid-sized and whatever you needed to know, the “deep background,” was in it. This is hard for youngsters to believe but the Baltimore Orioles, my team — this was pre-Atlanta Braves so the Orioles were geographically my closest team — were the winningest team in baseball at the time. From 1960-1990, no franchise won more games than the O’s.

You could look it up.

The Sporting News kept you up to date on every team. The Orioles’ notes were titled “BIRD DROPPINGS,” I believe, and they were presented to you like that, in boldface. All the big league teams had clever notes lede-ins.

It was a glorious time. Information was precious, and this publication gave you what you needed. I was a cover-to-cover man, as was most of my generation.

No telling what I would give for one more day of my 8-year-old legs almost touching the floor, sitting at my old kitchen table and grinding The Sporting News while my momma cooked supper.

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By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

Somebody has to say something before this gets too far out of control. I saw it once. Then again. And again. Now I’m just scared to watch for fear of seeing it again.

That’s what I get for watching college baseball before eight teams arrive in Omaha, but I can’t believe what I’m seeing when it comes to baseball pants. If you can call them that.

For years, there have been many ways to wear them, but there are also many to not wear them. Above the knee is at the top of the list. Yes, above the the knee.

Everywhere I look at various regional sites this weekend, these fashion faux pas kept showing up. They look like NFL kickers, which is equally ridiculous.

In baseball history, the all-time most obscene was the elastic-under-the-show look, which was just plain senseless. The argument for wearing the pant bottoms just below the knee — see below — was to either (1) give the optical illusion to try to raise the strike zone (then why do pitchers do it?) or (2) look like some team from the 1890s.

There are three ways baseball pants should be worn:

(1) Being cuffed (that’s VERY important) at mid-calf. This is the clear No. 1 and it’s a long way to No. 2. Those who are truly old school will insist on stirrups, but as civilization has evolved, so has the wearing of stirrups. However, for those who do, it is important to note that there is a front side and a back side to stirrups, no matter what you might think.

(2) Around the ankle. Of course, this basically makes socks superfluous, since you can’t see them. Like a debit card at a car rental agency, it’s acceptable, just not preferred.

(3) Just below the knee. Important note here — you must be fast to wear it this way. If Albert Pujols shows up with this look, they should add another year of waiting to get into the Hall of Fame.

That’s it … that’s the list.

Someone needs to make the hot pants look go away. Yesterday.