This is from "Sports Network," via the New York Daily News, from the day of game one of the Tigers-Yanks' division series:

However, Derek Jeter, like he always seems to do, rose to the occasion and produced his finest season as a Yankee. He could very well be on his way to his first AL MVP award. The captain finished second in the AL batting race to Minnesota's Joe Mauer with a .344 average and was near the top in almost every other offensive category.

Let's get the minor mistakes out of the way first: He hit .343, not .344. Granted, he was percentage points away from .3435, which would be rounded up, but he wasn't, so let's not lie. His finest season as a Yankee? Debatable. And "seems" is a key word in this paragraph. He does seem to always rise to the occasion. He just doesn't really do it. Hence, you know, six years without a title.

Now, let's look at this line:

and was near the top in almost every other offensive category

Ready?

At Bats: 9th
Hits: T-3rd
Doubles: T-16th
Triples: T-32nd
Batting Average: 2nd
Home Runs: T-65th
RBI: 22nd
Total Bases: 13th
Walks: 17th
Stolen Bases: 7th
OBP: 4th
OPS: 15th
Slugging: 29th
Sac Flies: T-65th
Sac Hits: T-14th
Hit By Pitch: T-6th
Intentioanl Walks: T-36th
Extra base Hits: T-35th
Stolen Base Percentage: 3rd

I'm "near" the top of the Empire State Building when I'm on 34th Street, but the window washers would kick my ass if they heard me say that.

Now, maybe you can come up with a bunch of other stats, like average with RISP/2 out, RISP/at night/1 out, RNISP/in Ohio/after taking a dump, etc. And maybe he'd be truly near the top in all of them. But there are enough categories mentioned above in which he's not near the top to make the writer of the above article A LIAR. It's horrible how people will see things like that and just assume they must be true.

Derek Jeter is the MVP of the Yankees. What people forget is that there are 29 other teams.