Sean B. Fitzgerald It doesn’t go something like this, it goes exactly like this.

Pointless

Pre-preseason baseball is an interesting time. Nothing has happened. Players are just reporting to their teams. The baseball media doesn't really know what to do with itself. They kind of mosey around the workouts, asking asinine questions about the upcoming season to guys who probably won't see Opening Day, and just generally being a nuisance. To pass the time, they make up stories. Not necessarily fabricating fake truths, but just making something that is very small and insignificant into something enormous.

Take for example, the "story" that would have been on the back page of today's NY Post had Carmelo Anthony not signed with the Knicks. The "story" of how Hank Steinbrenner, the co-chairman of the New York Yankees, said that the 2010 Yankees weren't concentrated enough on the season because they were too busy "building mansions" and celebrating the previous year's World Series Championship.

What to do with this quote? Any normal person would have just tossed it aside. Hank Steinbrenner seems to come out from the cloud of smoke that surrounds him every so often to yell, cause a minor controversy, then go back to the OTB. His role in the Yankees Universe has been reduced down to a title on their letterhead. To give any legitimacy to whatever he says is laughable. But, being the story-hungry lot that they are, the media immediately rush over to Derek Jeter for his reaction.

Why Derek Jeter? Because he has just completed construction on his new mansion in St. Petersburg, Florida. Oh, scandalous! There's a story a-brewin'!

Obviously Jeter laughed it off, dismissing it completely and went on with his day. What exactly were the media expecting him to say? To curse out Steinbrenner? Demand a trade? Take a shit on his desk? He's Derek Jeter. He hasn't said anything interesting since the day he was drafted. For a guy who is basically the most covered sports figure in the history of New York, he could be the most boring. There wasn't a story here. And the media still headed to Jeter for a reaction. Derek incorporates the words "teamwork", "effort", and "bunt" into every quote. Even if it's in regards to his love life. Bor-ing.

Want a story? Follow Joba around for a few days. See exactly what he eats. If he makes consecutive stops to two different Cinnabons within the span of an hour, then I'll be interested. Until then media, hang low for a while. Real stories will be here soon enough.