In August of last year the news story broken by Bottom Line was pretty stunning.

Kent Babb, who had just been elevated in June to the prestigious second sports columnist position at the Kansas City Star, was leaving the McClatchy-owned newspaper for a new position with the Washington Post.

At the time the Star announced it was doing a nationwide search for a replacement for Babb to join Sam Mellinger as the paper’s second columnist.

Sports Editor Jeff Rosen told Bottom Line that there was no doubt Babb would be replaced (Link).

“Yes. We see this as a critical area of need,” Rosen said at the time. “Sam’s (sports columnist Sam Mellinger) is doing a wonderful job, but there’s ample ground to cover in our region, and it’s not fair to him, or our readers — or our aim to drive sports conversation in this town — to ask him to go it alone much longer.”

That was six months ago. Since then the Star has gone through more cutbacks, employee furloughs and a new paywall.

And Rosen no longer will comment on whether another columnist is even in the cards anymore. That is not a positive sign that a replacement is on the horizon.

“The Star doesn’t fill jobs anymore, sad as it is,” a source told Bottom Line. “I think people are still hopeful that it’ll be filled, but I think it’s like I’m hopeful my dog will dig up a big bag full of money in the backyard.”

A second source said a few months ago the Star brought in a veteran columnist from St. Louis for an interview, but it now seems as if nothing has happened on that front.

At one time the Star had arguably the strongest one-two sportswriting duo in the nation with veteran columnists Joe Posnanski and Jason Whitlock. Posnanski departed in 2009, and Whitlock left a year later after 16 years with the paper.

Both of them have gone on to success in other media outlets leaving Mellinger, a Kansas graduate, to carry the entire columnist load.

While most media insiders feel Mellinger has done an adequate job, the feeling is two columnists with different perspectives on sports issues—like JoPo and Whitlock—bring an added dimension to sports coverage.

It now looks as if that might never become a reality at the Star.