I arrived home last night from a four-day business trip to find my copy of Sports Illustrated waiting for me. The issue features the Core Four of the New York Yankees -- Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada -- on the cover and a transcribed interview with SI writer Tom Verducci during their first-ever group lunch date.
SI is one of my favorite magazines and I enjoy reading it from cover to cover, even the features on sports that I'm not terribly interested in such as golf. So the interview with the Core Four Yankees was disappointing to say the least and quite frankly a bit boring. Unlike an interview Kimberly Jones conducted with the four players or the Daily News Yankee Heroes series, I learned nothing remotely interesting about the Core Four. Forget about the SI cover jinx, I just wanted a fun story about my favorite Yankees that told me something I didn't know before.
What counts for a major revelation in the story is Posada's habitual lateness or Mo's firm belief in saving for a rainy day. The only comment that caught my attention was Posada's claim that he has never been angry at any of his three buddies. I find that very hard to believe, knowing what a fiery guy Posada is (nice way of saying he has a quick temper) and the fact that the four of them have spent so many years together (I've gotten angry with colleagues in a lot less time than that).
It's not that I don't think the Core Four deserves the ink. They are all defying the haters and having outstanding seasons. But if you're going to do a story that has been done a hundred times, it has to at least be a little interesting. Or is that too much to ask?
Verducci does a better job of conveying the tone of the lunch in an online piece with bonus excerpts from the interview, which features some interesting tidbits from the players about the current state of baseball. But the piece in the magazine is a real snooze fest.
SI is one of my favorite magazines and I enjoy reading it from cover to cover, even the features on sports that I'm not terribly interested in such as golf. So the interview with the Core Four Yankees was disappointing to say the least and quite frankly a bit boring. Unlike an interview Kimberly Jones conducted with the four players or the Daily News Yankee Heroes series, I learned nothing remotely interesting about the Core Four. Forget about the SI cover jinx, I just wanted a fun story about my favorite Yankees that told me something I didn't know before.
What counts for a major revelation in the story is Posada's habitual lateness or Mo's firm belief in saving for a rainy day. The only comment that caught my attention was Posada's claim that he has never been angry at any of his three buddies. I find that very hard to believe, knowing what a fiery guy Posada is (nice way of saying he has a quick temper) and the fact that the four of them have spent so many years together (I've gotten angry with colleagues in a lot less time than that).
It's not that I don't think the Core Four deserves the ink. They are all defying the haters and having outstanding seasons. But if you're going to do a story that has been done a hundred times, it has to at least be a little interesting. Or is that too much to ask?
Verducci does a better job of conveying the tone of the lunch in an online piece with bonus excerpts from the interview, which features some interesting tidbits from the players about the current state of baseball. But the piece in the magazine is a real snooze fest.
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