The Blue Jays are mourning Larry Millson, one of Canada's most respected baseball writers. The club announced his passing in a statement.

For more than 30 years, Millson covered the Blue Jays on the beat. The club said he chronicled many of the most memorable moments in franchise history.

The Jays credited him with "insight, professionalism, and an enduring passion for the game." Those are words any reporter would want attached to a career.

Think about what three decades on a beat actually means. Spring trainings, road trips, getaway days, rain delays and late-night deadlines, season after season.

How many players, managers and front-office regimes pass through a press box over that kind of stretch? Millson watched them come and go.

And he didn't vanish when he stepped away from full-time coverage. He remained a familiar and welcome presence in the Rogers Centre press box.

The Rogers Centre press box loses a familiar voice

He kept sharing his love of baseball through his writing, his stories and the friendships he built throughout the game, according to the club.

That last part matters. Game stories get archived, but the stories told between innings are how a press box hands down its history.

A veteran beat writer is a bit like the old oak at the edge of a ballpark parking lot. Nobody notices it every day, but the place looks wrong once it's gone.

Every franchise needs a writer like that, someone whose memory stretches across generations of the roster. Toronto had one for decades.

In a country where this team carries the whole baseball conversation, his byline was part of how fans followed the Jays through good years and lean ones.

The Blue Jays extended heartfelt condolences to his family, friends and former colleagues. The club said his contributions to baseball journalism and the Canadian baseball community "will be remembered."

The press box will fill up again next spring, as it always does. Somebody will tell a story about Larry, and somebody newer will wish they'd heard it from him first.