Column: A goodbye, for now, to Tony Baranek. Fortunately, he will still write stories worth putting on the fridge.

For the past several months, Tony Baranek and I have been joking around with each other that the longest farewell tour since Elton John is finally coming to an end.

I’m calling it a farewell instead of a retirement because Tony isn’t really retiring. While he’s stepping away from the grind of being a full-time sports writer, he’s not leaving us entirely.

And that’s the best thing about all of this.

It’s stunning to me that I started out as a freelancer in 1986 at the Daily Southtown, which was then known as the Southtown Economist, and Tony was already 12 years into his career.

Add it all up, and Tony has worked 50 years for newspapers, including 47 for the Southtown. He has spent the majority of his time writing about high school sports, local colleges and auto racing. And for the past 11 years, I’ve been fortunate enough to be his boss.

They say life goes full circle, and our working relationship is Exhibit A. I graduated from Shepard High School in May 1986 and started as a freelancer that August. I was only 17, about to turn 18, and looking back, boy, was I green. Thankfully, I was hired by Tony Baranek, who was the preps editor, and John Hector, who was the sports editor.

Now, I’m Tony’s boss and John is my boss. We can’t get away from each other.

I ended up interning for two full years at the Southtown, covering 1988 to 1990, and I couldn’t have been more fortunate to work with Tony, Mike Deacon, Chuck Ingwersen and Dean Magnavite. And Tony set the standard for how to cover high school sports.

Coaches talk all the time about how hard it is to find a player with talent and heart. Tony brings both of those qualities to his coverage. His passion and purpose always stand out.

Tony loves high school sports. He loves covering the community. He takes pride in the communities he covers and cares about the people. I can’t emphasize that enough.

Today, most writers come out of college wanting to cover professional or big-time college sports. You can tell, a high school assignment is a letdown to them. I learned right away from Tony to never have that attitude and to treat “our schools” with kindness and class.

That meant first class, all the way, every day.

It didn’t mean looking the other way, either. We report on the tough stuff. Tony had one of those stories this fall on the girls volleyball beat, but you handle it the right way.

If you’re thinking by this point that I learned a lot working under Tony, I’m not the only one. It’s another thing that sets Tony apart from others. He takes care of the young reporters.

Myself. I mentioned Mike Deacon. Steve Millar. Tim O’Brien. We all played Strat-O-Matic baseball at Tony’s house. I know they all do fantasy leagues now, but it’s not the same.

It was just one of those ways Tony made you feel comfortable and a part of his team. We’re in a difficult, competitive industry, but Tony continually maintains his humanity and grace.

Another aspect where Tony was ahead of his time — being a champion for girls sports. When girls were being discriminated against, denied equal access to gym time and opportunities to compete, Tony was there to further the cause and has remained a staunch supporter.

Most important, though, Tony is a terrific storyteller. It’s why so many of us get into this business — to tell great stories. And that’s where Tony would make his biggest mark.

When he won a Beck award earlier this year, I gave a speech introducing him, and I said Lowe’s and Menards in the south suburbs are now producing refrigerators with a Tony Baranek story already clipped on the front. I was only half kidding about that too.

Some writers want to dig up dirt and make a name for themselves. Tony always wants to write the type of stories that families put up on the fridge. It guides his every word.

Tony also adjusted extremely well to how the industry has evolved over the past decade. The internet. Twitter, then X. Transformational deadlines. It’s changed how we do things.

We’ve gone from reporting scores and results, with reams of play-by-play, to having to tell human-interest stories — the type of unique stories that nobody else can replicate or match. We’ve gone from the Joe Friday “just the facts” approach to being pure storytellers.

With Tony, it has been like putting a fish into water and saying, “Swim, please.”

Many times, within minutes of putting a story online, Tony will text me and say how much he loves the headline I wrote. Well, it’s easy when the story is great. He does the hard part.

And the best part is Tony isn’t going away. He’s taking a nice break here till 2024, then will return to write an occasional column before also freelancing at games in the spring.

I know most people would think, why wouldn’t Tony just walk away and really retire after 50 years of doing this? It’s the same reason why Elton John is still playing the piano.

He has too many good stories left to tell.

Bill Scheibe is the sports editor of the Chicago Tribune’s suburban publications, including the Daily Southtown.