Tampa Bay Rays pitchers and catchers report to Port Charlotte for the beginning of spring training on Monday, and along with questions about the team's playoff chances in 2012 will come inevitable discussion about a new ballpark.
But is it too much to ask that sports and news media confine themselves to something that actually contains news? And not just a rehash of the same story, which is that the team and St. Petersburg are in a holding pattern?
Saturday morning readers of the Tampa Bay Times were treated to a story that frankly, contained no news.
Titled "Not courting them, but he's still flirty," the story quoted Mayor Bob Buckhorn as saying on sports talk station WDAE-620-AM once again that he respects the contractual agreements between the Tampa Bay Rays, but if the Rays can't agree with city officials on a new ballpark being built there, then the new stadium should be in downtown Tampa.
It was absolutely nothing new, but the Times made sure to get St. Pete Mayor Bill Foster's reaction, which essentially was that he'd heard it all before.
The Times originally reported the Buckhorn quote Friday afternoon on its Bay Buzz blog, where it was appropriate to read. But with a Tampa Metro section studded with four other stories on its front page on Saturday, I don't quite understand the editors' decision that an exchange of comments previously made in its pages deserved B-1 status.