Overblown Non-Story of the Week Award

It's been far too long since I've done one of these, and the media thankfully gift-wrapped one for me. I mentioned in an entry a few weeks ago that I personally don't think that Barry Bonds' continuing unemployment is the result of him being blacklisted or some sort of collusion. That suggestion has been out there, but not getting a whole lot of run.

However, it has gotten a lot of run in the last 24 hours, because, if you're to believe a lot of the major media outlets, Donald Fehr announced yesterday that the union was going to launch an investigation into whether there was collusion specifically in Bonds' case. That would be something of a story, except that's not really what happened.

Here's a link to an article that details what actual went down. Fehr was talking to reporters, he was apparently asked about whether the union was going to look into Bonds' situation, and he responded that the union always looks into the free agent markets each year, and that if they found a situation with any player that's worth pursuing, they pursue it. He also went out of his way to say he wasn't suggesting or accusing anything, and that he hadn't even talked to Bonds or his agent. He basically said "Of course we're going to look into that, we always look into those matters."

So, Fehr's acknowledment that the union would do the same thing they always do somehow became front page link material on ESPN.com and other major websites, and had sports talk radio declaring that the union was launching an investigation into Bonds' case. To the media who managed to make a story appear out of thin air, I say bravo.

There is absolutely nothing newsworthy here, at all.