If you're a sports editor, do you run
this story?
This strikes me as gossipy bullshit with no real bearing or relevance on baseball. And yet, there's no denying that there's probably a huge audience for lowest-common-denominator journalism like this. The question is, do you pander to that by running this story?
Managing editor Derek Jeter says no:
TAMPA, Fla. -- Maintaining they have a fine relationship on the field and in the clubhouse, Derek Jeter resolutely refused to discuss the deterioration of his friendship with Alex Rodriguez away from the ballpark.
One day after A-Rod finally acknowledged the pair no longer are best friends, Jeter sat in the same first-base dugout at Legends Field and was asked to respond.
"I don't have a rift with Alex," the New York Yankees captain said Tuesday. "We go out there. We work together. This is our fourth year to be playing together. It's annoying to hear about it all the time. Everyone assumes they know what our relationship is. Everyone assumes -- they see us on the field, if one person gives another one a look, it's a story. If we're at opposite ends of the bench, people say it's a story."
Shortly after arriving at spring training on Monday, Rodriguez said it was time for him to stop pretending that his relationship with Jeter was as close as it was in the 1990s. The pair have drifted apart since Rodriguez made critical remarks in a 2001 Esquire article.
"I don't see the relevance of it," Jeter said. "It has no bearing on us playing baseball."