I Guess I’m A Former Old Timer (Updated)
This is an all-time first:
I am turning to the sports pages of The New York Post to discover something about my own baseball-related career:
For the last several years, political commentator Keith Olbermann has served as an in-stadium play-by-play man for the Yankees’ Old-Timers’ Day. But the Yankees are making a change, The Post has learned.
The Yankees were not happy with Olbermann posting a photo on Twitter earlier this season of a coach signaling pitches to their batters in the on-deck circle. So they decided to bounce the liberal loudmouth and will have Bob Wolff and Suzyn Waldman provide the commentary for today’s game instead.
Look, it’s their Popsicle Stand and they can do what they want. More over, the Yankees – to use the Post’s phrase – once “bounced” Babe Ruth, to say nothing of Bernie Williams, and Yogi Berra twice and Billy Martin five times. I’m making no comparison, of course. But in that context, I’ve got no complaint there. I wasn’t going to say anything about this, in fact.
And then somebody from the Yankees leaked it to the paper.
On a personal level, however, I do know that I have a legitimate complaint in one respect. Old Timers’ Day is today, and I’ve been doing the “color” on the public address system for the last ten years, and one year prior to that as well (not the play-by-play; that is, obviously, entirely the province of Hall of Famer Bob Wolff and it’s my honor to sit next to him; Suzyn Waldman has usually been with us to do Old Timers’ interviews during the game). After eleven years of doing this, I think it would’ve been fitting if the Yankees had told me rather than let me hear it from somebody outside their organization the week before the event. It just seems like you’d want to preserve the dissemination of details about your company’s decisions like that to your company, rather than have a guy hear a rumor and then have to call up and ask.
I can’t vouch for the legitimacy of the motive described in The Post because this is the first time I’m hearing about it. But on a macro level, that does worry me in terms of the suppression of information. I might have been sitting in the stands when I tweeted the photos in question, but I saw nothing that any eagle-eyed guy in the press box couldn’t have seen (and trust me, they started looking). There was a coaches’ assistant in a Yankee jacket and a Shamwow-Seller’s Headset with a radar gun sitting three rows back of home plate signalling pitch speeds to Alex Rodriguez and other Yankee players in the on-deck circle on Opening Day this year, and I took a picture of it, largely because to see the signals, Rodriguez had to basically look right over my head.
The Yankees explained that the radar gun they used for their scoreboard wasn’t working that day, and the coaches’ assistant, Brett Weber, was simply supplying information the players usually got from the scoreboard. It was technically a violation of a rule prohibiting the transfer of such information from the stands or press box to the field. My point in tweeting the photo was that it didn’t seem to me to be cheating (after all, it was information about the last pitch, not the next one) — it just seemed weird. And after asking that Weber be vacated from his seat for one day, MLB accepted that explanation and he was back the next game – on the proviso that he not do any more signaling. And I haven’t seen him do any more signaling.
The problem, of course, is that Weber signaled all last year, too, and not just pitch speeds. He had a clipboard and some thin cardboard with which he seemed to be explaining to players in the on deck circle what kind of pitch they had just seen, and where it was. After the storm about the tweet broke, I talked to several friends of mine who happen to be American League managers. One real veteran gave me particular kidding grief about it and when I said it wasn’t anything new and had started the year before, he said “The hell it did. They’ve been doing all the years I’ve been coming to this place and the old Stadium and we complain and complain and nobody’s ever done anything about it before.”
For generations – and I mean pretty much since Jacob Ruppert bought the team in 1915 (or maybe it was from the time it moved from Baltimore in 1903), the Yankees have been notorious for trying to manage information. I can remember the day in a playoff series when they went after a fly with a cannon. We were setting up the interview stand in the clubhouse as the Yankees moved to within a few outs of eliminating advancing. Suddenly, the door opened and as intense a series of obscenities as I’d ever heard resonated through the room. It was a player who was not happy about having just been removed from the decisive game before its conclusion. Obviously, we in the Fox crew were being given a great courtesy – a few extra minutes to make our “set” look good. None of us would have dreamed of reporting what the player did – the definition of a gamer who had every right to blow off steam – or to whom his invective was directed. We were reporters, and we were “there” – but we were there under controlled and agreed-to conditions. The threats started to pour out of every Yankee exec who had contact with any of us that if we reported a word of it, there’d be hell to pay and jobs and contracts threatened. And we were all dumbfounded by the overreaction. We got it – and still the Yankees yelled and threatened.
There were far more dire consequences threatened about a story about Roger Clemens nearly getting into a fist-fight with a fan during the subsequent World Series. I had obtained a videotape of the confrontation, but had already decided not to run it, because it showed only Clemens’ response, not the utter and unjustifiable provocation by the fan. It would’ve made a great front page for The Post, but the video not only told just half the story, in doing so, it completely erased the truth of the story and replaced it with images that implied Clemens was entirely at fault. As I say, I had already decided not to run it, told the Yankees I had it, and that I would have to run it if the story got out some other way. And while at least one executive understood my dilemma and thanked me completely for my journalistic restraint, others made efforts to somehow seize the tape from me, or prevent my network from running it (even though we weren’t going to).
I should also point out here that of all the story-suppression efforts, I never got any of them from George Steinbrenner himself. Not even when the story was about how a couple of other reporters seemed to be very close to confirming some very ugly rumors about the owner himself. I contacted the club, mostly to find out if the stuff was true (and potentially to break it myself), and while some of his underlings freaked out, Steinbrenner himself told me he had no complaints. “That’s your job. I get it.”
It’s also kind of a shame that whoever from the Yankees leaked this information about Old Timers Day to The Post put Yankees’ Vice President/General Manager Brian Cashman on the spot. In my previous capacities at SportsCenter, and later as the host of the Playoffs and All-Star Game on NBC, and of Game Of The Week and the World Series on Fox, I have often reported things Cash didn’t like, but he’s always been professional and pleasant and there are few in the media who have had the slightest serious problem with him (a record that very few other Yankee figures of the last 40 years can claim).
The day that The New York Daily News published the story of the tweetpic of Weber, four fingers raised, I happened to be at the ballpark and got corralled by the beat writers who were trying to figure out what it was all about. In the middle of this, Cashman came over to explain, and to say it was no big deal from the Yankees’ point of view (as I said it wasn’t from mine) and to very publicly reassure me that the team had no problem with what I did, or with me.
Today, this statement seems to be inoperative.
Back on that brilliant spring Saturday in April, Cash even had a joking explanation for this:
“He was just ordering four beers, Keith,” Cashman said with a laugh.
So I showed him the picture I didn’t tweet and asked him (with my own laugh), if that was the case, if they really didn’t have a bigger problem than just improper hand-signaling:
POSTSCRIPT: You will find this silliness in the comments. It’s worth it
I believe this also stems from Keith Tweeting a picture of Jorge Posada’s name crossed out on Joe Girardi’s lineup card on the day Posada asked out of a game. As he was NOT a ‘reporter’ that day, in my opinion, Keith had no right to post that picture other than to fuel his own ego to simply prove he can. Also, KO was obviously trying to embarrass the longtime Yankee catcher who was probably at the all-time low of a generally nice career. Who kicks a guy like that when he’s down? As a baseball fan, I find that itself is unforgivable.
FYI, I’m not only a 20+ year Olbermann fan, but a frequent and loquacious defender of his and the Posada incident has soured me so much I’m sad to say I’m starting to lose faith in his political message around which I have long based my own beliefs.
While the truth may never come out, don’t discount the Posada incident as a reason for Keith’s exclusion from this prestigious Yankee event.
Go Yanks!
Yeah, this is pretty dumb. The tweeted picture this poster has gone nuclear over was of a copy of the printed line-up/scorecard sheets the Yankees give out in the press box and to every spectator in the suites areas who asks for it. It showed where I had crossed off Posada’s name on my sheet and written in Andruw Jones’ name. It was obviously my handwriting. And I tweeted it only to illustrate tangible proof that even the Yankees had been crossed up by Posada’s unwillingness to bat ninth.
Where on earth would I get a copy of Joe Girardi’s line-up card, during a game?
mlblogskeitholbermann1
That generous guy Weber was just buying a round, that’s all!
I believe this also stems from Keith Tweeting a picture of Jorge Posada’s name crossed out on Joe Girardi’s lineup card on the day Posada asked out of a game. As he was NOT a ‘reporter’ that day, in my opinion, Keith had no right to post that picture other than to fuel his own ego to simply prove he can. Also, KO was obviously trying to embarrass the longtime Yankee catcher who was probably at the all-time low of a generally nice career. Who kicks a guy like that when he’s down? As a baseball fan, I find that itself is unforgivable.
FYI, I’m not only a 20+ year Olbermann fan, but a frequent and loquacious defender of his and the Posada incident has soured me so much I’m sad to say I’m starting to lose faith in his political message around which I have long based my own beliefs.
While the truth may never come out, don’t discount the Posada incident as a reason for Keith’s exclusion from this prestigious Yankee event.
Go Yanks!
Surely, Gehrig, your political beliefs are strong enough not to be altered by an entertainer/newsman’s ethical decision regarding a single photograph.
KO, like all of the rest, uses sensationalism and titillation – and the ever-popular “gotcha!” – to boost ratings. That’s the deal right now and holding advocates you like to a higher standard than their competition, while noble and idealistic, puts them at a disadvantage.
After 20+ years as a KO defender, it seems (forgive me) rather petty to abandon what I’m sure is a complex set of personal values and opinions because of a single photo posted by one man. But it’s your right to give more or less weight to matters some might see as pretty irrelevant while formulating your overall philosophy.
Even then, it seems reasonable that you should refuse to forgive KO; but unreasonable for you to abandon all hope for world peace, etc. because of what you consider his reprehensible act.
David, while it may seem “petty” to you, I don’t believe I have ever seen KO effectively kick a man at perhaps the lowest point of his professional life before, like he did Posada. Things like that make me question a person’s character, and the info from them I glean. Although he may have press credentials to the ballpark, the Yanks are not KO’s ‘beat’ and he used inside information to embarrass a proud, distinguished man (on Twitter for god’s sake) for NO reason other than to justify his own existence at that moment. He wasn’t doing it to “boost ratings” at all.
And, c’mon, with the amount of hate Olbermann holds in his heart “world peace” is hardly what he preaches. FYI, I haven’t abandoned anything. I’m ‘boots on the ground’ for Obama whenever and wherever needed (2008 I was sent to Indiana) and consider myself a good, strong progressive. I just wanted to point out that the incident referenced above might not be the only reason for today’s Old Timer’s Day ‘snub’ and add the feelings of a true Yankee fan (KO admits he isn’t) which may be forgotten/overlooked by some.
While I’d forego the “petty” remark (which you must admit I used reluctantly in the first place), I’m sticking to my guns regarding the central question regarding how much you should depend on KO or anyone for determining your core beliefs (baseball and otherwise).
I admit that I’m not a big baseball fan; but as a journalist and a (very low-level) “public figure” I’m very clear on the fact that those who are in the public eye are not well protected from libel (or slander, if that’s what Twitter generates). Based on your writing, I’d guess that Mr. Posada is a great guy and deserves better than a big gotcha from anyone — KO included. Then again, he’s collected some significant benefits derived from his being in that public light – perhaps enough on the plus side to make the negatives quite bearable. I would think that most of those whose opinion Mr. Posada really cares about (including loyal fans like you seem to be) would take negative press and invasions of privacy with a huge grain of salt and wouldn’t change their high opinion of him a whit.
I apologize for using the word “petty.” I’m afraid that I was doing the same thing KO may have done — sensationalizing a bit in the hopes of garnering a bigger audience.
We live and learn.
Good luck to your team. Having grown up in San Diego, I’ve enjoyed far fewer thrilling seasons; in the future, I’d love to see the Padres make it to the World Series as often as the Yankees have in the past!
David, I think in your zeal to make your larger point, you missed mine entirely. I’m not defending the ballplayer because of his right to privacy in any regard whatsoever. And I’m not defending Posada’s personal character at ALL. I have oft heard he is brusque and short with fans and teammates alike. I purposefully called him “proud and distinguished.” What I take issue with is Olbermann’s decision to embarrass the man while inserting himself into the story for purely selfish reasons. Merely to impress his Twitter followers. (ugh) He’s not a sportswriter anymore, and certainly didn’t attend the particular game (or the one referenced above) in that capacity, but used inside info to which neither a normal front row fan nor a regular beat writer would be privy. KO wants it both ways. He wants to Tweet celebrity pictures from his gorgeous Yankee Stadium front row seat yet seems to thinks he should be allowed to attack (report on) anyone and anything under the hallowed guise of ‘journalism’. I have a journalism degree myself and that is a conflict my long ago ethics professor would have a hard time justifying. Anyway, thank you for a pleasant discussion.
Please accept my apologies for hijacking the comments thread, that was not my intent.
It sounds like you have spent way too much time analyzing the situation. Taking it from the signals to Posada, and then to your political beliefs. The bottom line is that the Yanks probably think they just had the last laugh. However, we KNOW that won’t be the case. You can count on that.
I’m disappointed that the Yankees organization would let you find out via the newspaper as opposed to contacting you directly concerning Old-Timers’ Day.
Hi, Keith. I’m with Lou up above – it’s disappointing, and to me it seems classless. I’m not a fan of any person or organization which tries to manage information.
Lou
I agree fully. I know KO even if my first post does not say it that KO is not prefect, but I again do not have to be a fan to know that ones at fault here is the Yankee organzation. KO has been in the sports world for a long time and has always critized them, that photo was making rounds it looked like sports world it had nothing to do with KO’s article, people were easily seeing it, that is what I will always beilieve because I know that it is the truth. Yankee has lost respect from me for doing this, post is just garbage and always will be. Sorry KO you have my simpathy on this. Your show is great, better than at MSNBC and you are showing how honest and principled you are and showing why I am a life long fan. keep it up.
Looks like the Yankees wanted to follow a trend of NL East managers by going old….
Mets’ Terry Collins at 62 now 4th oldest of 5 managers in division
It’s hard to not get to do something you love to do…and I’m sure that game experience won’t be the same without Keith but stuff happens. With that said, The Post joins the line-the-bottom-of-my-bird-cage folded print when it used the term ” liberal loudmouth”. While you can’t knock someone from breaking a story (after all that is their job)…name calling kind of says it all in the way of classless. It does stink that no one could pick up a phone…but this as an aroma of secret agenda around it.
Greig Foster
KO is not gernating a bigger audeice that is pure made BS and you know it. KO was being a good fan and journalist like he always is, you were only a fan because KO was suppose to agree with you and do not say different because that would be a lie. KO is honest, tolerant, loyal trustworthy and principled guy, he does nothing to generate a bigger audience I do not have to be a baseball fan to know that is pure made up debunked crap, you need to retract your made up crap post and do not say differnt because you know as well as I do that is all made upo crap and not remotely true and never will be as much as you wish it. KO cares about baseball and the sport not just team. Your post shows how great KO is and that he has no idea how to generate outrage or a bigger audience thanks for showing how great KO is and how ¥ou just care about people agreeing with you and making sure nothing bad is said about Yakees, thanks for showing me why I love and respect KO and make me love and respect him more, KO was reporting the truth it had absoutely and never will be about audeince build up that is just you making up crap about KO because Pado or any Yankee should ever be critized. Thanks for showing that you love to make stuff up and show that you were never a fan. And do not say different because that will be a lie. Retract your made up garbage post on KO and tell the truth you are angry at KO because yankees are never to be critized and anyone that crtitizes them are bad. Thanks for showing me why I am huge fan and always be and why he so honest and that he like always was telling the truth.
Also tweeting celbrity photos has nothing to do with the picture that he talked about, that means nothing about what happned and it has zip to do with ratings or wanting a bigger audience I do not have to a KO fan to know what you wrote is BS and is being defensive because you know that KO is telling the truth here and you hate it because the Yankees are never to critized, I sorry if this is harsh but I know KO is not prefect but he was in the right here and it had nothing to do with bigger audience and tweting celebrity photos that just shows that you know KO is telling the truth and you do not want to hear it. Sports people report the bad stuff about teams all the time and than put celebrity photos also that has nothing to do with truth and means absoutely nothing with this incident, keep showing how honest KO is and how right he was here, with this made up crap about celebrity photos which has nothing to do with the story. Keep making me love and respect KO more and show why I am a life long fan.
To agree with the (laugh-accompanied) assessment of the second photo, I’d need to know what size the standard beer serving is at Yankee Stadium.
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The Yankees famously released Phil Rizzuto as a player in a similarly classless manner — near the August 31st roster deadline in 1956 the Yankee brass invited him to the front office, handed him a copy of the Yankee roster and asked him who he’d release before the World Series. A few minutes into the discussion the Scooter (a former MVP and much beloved by teammates and fans) realized HE was the one being cut.
The Yanks can hire and fire whoever they damn well like to announce their Old Timers Games. But they could’ve been a tad more polite towards Keith O. about it.
Again he KO is not about generating a bigger audience he has always been about the truth. He may not be prefect but he has never been about ratings or audeinces, he even listened to fans complaining about the time over lap and changed it when he did not have too, you being a fan of Padro should not mean that you get to make up debunked crap about KO. KO is not the bad guy here and never was, but please show me again how kind and caring and honest and principled KO is and why I am a life long fan of his and always will be.
Baseball has a lot of binary digits (safe-out; foul-fair; strike-ball) but broadcasting is more a matter of degrees. KO may be less about ratings and audiences than some; but to say he’s not at all concerned about them is rather silly – ratings are how TV people keep score, they determine who survives and who falls by the wayside.
BTW, you are right: KO is not prefect. But he’d get my vote.
Andrew I understand what you are saying about ratings, and I can easily retract saying that i was being silly on that one, but I always think it also silly to say that just because someone shows pictures of himself with people that he knows because he has been in baseball and loved basball a long time as a reason to why he would be not allowed to critize or tell the truth about someone is also silly. It like excuse me Yakees like all baseball teams are critized and he has crtitized them before when he was doing sports broadcasting and he still had those same realtionship the Yankee’s should not be stubborn in letting him host this, and they should not let a newspaper that only has every made stuff up about him to do it, just does not make sense. Also I have been going by history but accidently put a different name in same person.
Didn’t Randolph find out through the papers that he wasn’t the Mets manager anymore? I guess you’re in decent company there too… he wasn’t too bad. At worst, we know that the Metropolitans problems weren’t his fault.
No, Randolph was fired at the team hotel in Anaheim after a game there. Omar Minaya didn’t want to do it at the ballpark, and said he didn’t want to fire a guy “in uniform.”
Meant David not Andrew sorry about that.
No problem.
Something is rotten in Denmark…it is that simple. People who like the truth usually like fair play as well.
The only difference between MLB and organized crime is that organized crime lacks an antitrust exemption. Mr. Cashman, and his people in the Yankees organization are honorable folks in a very dishonorable organization that fronts one of the most corrupt and morally bankrupt professional sports organizations in the world. I documented their fake war on drugs in the sport, and the fact that there is no law banning drugs in baseball. Know, from start to finish, that the Yankees have their hand in every decision coming out of the Commissioner’s Office. That they would do something this cheap to Mr. Olbermann is not a surprise.
Just thought it would be important to mention the seeming hypocrisy of a dude going on TV one night to tell America about the dangers of unchecked capitalism and then rubbing elbows with modern sport’s living embodiment of those dangers the next day. That outside of the fact that everyone on that team makes a salary that would dwarf every state employee in Wisconsin.
Guess it doesn’t matter how many labor laws Wal-Mart breaks, just so long as you REALLY REALLY like watching them do it. Hey, do they make trading cards for that?
Are you looking to actively be part of the solution, or just call color while the world burns?
Yeah, ok. Like we enjoy watching Wal-Mart break labor laws. Do they make trading cards for ridiculous comments like yours?
Thank you Bethany
For putting Chris and Greigh in thier places, they have no idea what they are talking about, KO even showed how silly Greigh’s assumptions have been, Chris has shown he has no idea how bad coperations are and why KO goes after them. I want Chris to see the people that comes to the clinic my mom runs and than tell me that coeprations are good. Only good is that those two show how much I love KO and how much I respect him and why I am a life long fan and why he will put Current on the map.
Wow, I can’t believe I have to illustrate this further. I am a progressive. I am being critical of Mr. Olberman for voluntarily working for an organization that utilizes capital to create an unfair competitive market. Furthermore, there is a meta-critique about the over-value of professional sports that allows organizations to receive tax breaks for stadium building while owners make grossly unnecessary profits and players make grossly unnecessary wages.
I support Mr. Olberman’s political message. That is exactly why I am making this criticism. I believe that message has more value when actions support it. Blind worship can be dangerous in any form, but doing so to promote the person and not the idea pulls us away from having a real discourse about the problem itself.
sorry Bethany
Chris
I do not follow anyone blindly, you were not crtizing KO as much as you want to us to believe it. You were bashing him and you do not have to be a fan to see that. It also matters crap that you are liberal, that does not give you right to write made up crap that you know is made up. KO talks about corperations even in the sports world so he was not and never will be a hypocrite here and he showing you how principled he is and nothing that you do or say will change that. You basically bashed me and tell me I am following someone blindly when I merly pointing the truth out to you. I doing what KO does everyday, keep showing that you have no idea what following someone blindly is just like you have no idea what hypocricacy is and are just showing how principled and honest KO is. He not showing hypocriacy as much as you wish that were the case that is pure fantasy and you know it. tell the truth that you were bashing KO and that you are bashing me and showing that telling the truth all of sudden means that you are blind, dude I listen to KO and I have heard with my own ears him calling out what you want to call him a hypocrite, that is how I know that is being consistent here and that you have no earthly clue what you are saying, KO has no idea how to be a hypocrite. Keep up the fanstasy all it will show is how great while not prefect KO is, also learn telling the truth about someone has nothing and will have nothing to do with blind loyalty. I never follow people blindly, I think for myself and I listen to what people are saying that is how I know that you are not putting a legit critism on KO and how you are not posting a legit critism now, if you would actually listen to what KO says and see him go after coperations and defend captiolism than you will know that this is not and never will be a example of hypocriacy.
Also Chris
KO goes after the salaries of those players he does not defend, and putting up photos of friends have nothing to do with putting up with the message that KO says that coperations are bad. KO goes after the pratices of big coperations not how much they are paid, he for the unions and speaks out for the unions that want to make workers paid thier fair share, again if you would listen to what me and Bethany are telling you instead of calling us blind whorshippers you would see that KO is not being a hypocrite and that his actions are being as consistent with the message. He does not talk about salries and how bad coperate salaries are he talks about how bad coperations are when it comes to treating people and why we need to get rid of them and why we need to make sure everyone is paid their fair share, KO has even critized salries that basball players get. So yes you are bashing and showing that you have no clue what hypocricay means, again KO has no idea how to be a hypocrite.
You didn’t, by chance, take your ESL classes in Wisconsin, did you?
BTW – That was bashing.
No I speak English I just a bad speller, again Chris KO hanging out with people that make higher salaries is why critizing coperations is not hypocricacy, if we are going by your standards KO himself or Shultz or even Moore because they all make more money than the Wisconsin union workers, that it how silly your agrument is, and again Chris you do not have to be a Olbermann fan to know that you are showing yourself and not KO to be a hypocrite. KO stands by the baseball union and all unions and the little people he daily practices what he preaches and always has. Celebrity pictures and hanging out with ball players is not hypocricacy. He will critize those same players like you see him do with the Yankees and those same coperations. Again dude learn what real hypocricacy looks like and you will understand that KO has no earthly clue how to be a hypocrite and you going after my spelling shows me that you know that you know as well as I do that all you done is bash KO and put out crap post because you have no earthly clue what real hypocricacy looks, keep up with that crap and bashing people that are trying to save you from coperate power and show you how bad that they are. You really need to get off this silly made up crap about salaries and celbrities, because that has zip to do with what KO talks about everyday and KO it only shows that KO has no idea how to be a hypocrite and that they only thing that he knows how to do is tell truth to power, that is why he will always be this generations Murrow. Keep making me love and respect him more and show how honest, trustworthy and principled and tolerant he is and why I am a life long fan and why he will put Current on the map.
It is not up to you to defend Olbermann in every post. We get it. Your manic writings about the exact same subject have made your point, if muddled and virtually incoherent. And when you misspell clearly written words like my name here, it doesn’t mean you’re a “bad speller”, it means you’re a clueless idiot who only makes fellow Olbermann supporters look even worse by comparison. If EVERY post here proves to you that you’re correct in your “love” of KO, try going to a few anti-Olby sites and typing the same crap over and over. You aren’t convincing anyone here of anything other than you’re unstable.
As I wrote before, I’m a 20+ year Olbermann defender. People can vehemently disagree on a subject and still support each other. He even personally called me out to 300,000 people on Twitter as well as on this very page and I didn’t go as bat-crap crazy as you are. As a matter of fact, I laughed out loud as I typed my response. In any event, I’ll still tape the Current show tonight at 8PM and fast-forward through the stuff which I don’t care about like usual. I KNOW I’m right about the Posada incident at least lending to KO’s exclusion yesterday, so I’ll just leave it at that. I look forward to a misspelled, thousand-word, quasi-response. (BTW, those little red squiggly lines underneath half your words in the “Leave a Reply” box mean those words are misspelled.)
Chris
That is not hypocriacy. Talking about the horros of coperations have nothing to do with the badness of capitolism, this is not never has been and never will be a example of hypocriacy that is only in your fantasy world because you do not want to realize of horriable coperations are, this is very consistent with his message of trying to tell you how bad the coperations are, you are showing that you have no idea what hypocricacy is and that KO has no idea how to be a hypocrtite, please continue put up debunked garbage on KO and show me how honest and trustworthy and loyal and principled he is and why he will put Current on the map, thank you for making me love and repsect KO more and show why I am a fan, KO goes after coperations not capitolism. Thier is a major difference between telling the truth about coperations and what captiolism is, sorry but that is a bold face lie and you know it and if you keep saying that all I will know is that all you want to do is make crap up about KO than face the truth about coperations in this country and why KO goes after them.
Greigh
I defend KO because he tells the truth something that you have no idea is. Keep calling me names and making fun of my spelling and showing me that KO and I are right to call you out. I care crap that you were a fan of 20 years that does not give you the right to bash him. I read blogs and your post are same crap I read from Obama supporters and than again with Clinton supporters when anyone dare critized thier candidate. Do I mind KO being critized no but bashing which is all I see from you and Chris is not legit crtism and never will be, and fact that you want to call me names and make fun of spelling shows that you know that you are lying and bashing KO because KO made the big no-no, no one is allowed to critize the Yankee’s because they are best team sense slice bread, that is how silly your agrument is, KO embarrassed you and you hate that so you come back a bash him again along with a fan. I have disagreed with KO before but I did not like the tone he took with the BP oil spill, but I did not throw him under the bus like you are doing I did not put up crap posts like you are doing because I happened to disagree with him, I did not call him a hypocrite and say that he doing this for a bigger audience because I happen to not agree, that is not legit critism and it shows me that you were probably never a fan or that you are only a fan when people agree with you. I said KO not prefect all I want is for him to be KO that all I expect from him is for him to be himself, that is it. Yankees and players that play for them are not prefect and KO critizing them is him doing what journalist are suppose to do tell truth to power no matter what, he doing what real supporters are suppose to do praise when need be but not afraid to critize, you and others are not doing that, I have not read a single legit critism on this page, all I seeing is bashing of KO and this post like the your others only show how honest, caring, tolerant and principled KO is and how you have no idea what those concpets mean. KO already told you how silly that first post was and you just reprinting it shows that you do not want to hear the truth because Yankees have to praised 24 hours a day. Greigh I do not have to a KO fan to know that you have no idea what a legit critism is just like all the other post here. Anger over salaries please keep bashing me and KO and others here, all you do is make me love and respect KO more and show why I am a fan and why he will put Current on the map.
Who is this “Greigh” to which you keep referring? Nowhere, did I (or anyone) say the Yankees are beyond criticism, that’s YOUR asinine assumption. Despite your obvious need to respond to every post, YOU are not the arbiter or moderator of this thread. What YOU say is or is NOT “legit” doesn’t effect me in the least. But it does say quite a lot about YOU when you think you’re the only one right in a relatively benign comment thread on an obscure MLB celebrity blog. And KO telling me I’m “silly” (more nonsense from you), means nothing because I don’t agree. His word is not gold, despite what blind butt-lickers like you think. Intelligent people have other beliefs and interpretations of events.
I not being a moderator, and do not think that I am right that again is a BS lie and yes you and others are acting like the Yankee’s cannot be crtized. Greigh Foster KO calls you out on what I and others saw as a silly post, I saw that picture and I knew that KO was not dissing Podosa, he was putting what the Yankees had changed at the time, so you should have been angry at Yankees about that not KO. Also I it not hard to figure out KO should not have to tell you this that the yankees would not give him a roster line up, hello only mangers and coaches get that. That is how I know that your first comment is ridlclous and than you put up that KO only did that because of audience size that foster was the same words that I heard Obama supporters use when someone wiether it was Moore or Maddow not just KO would use when Obama got crtized. You go on about harshness. Foster you and others start talking about venmen and ohter key words that Obama and Hillary supporters used when people critized them. I have read those blogs and nothing in those blogs where remotely vicous and vedetta against the Yankees, they are just comman blogs post with the comman crticisms that KO uses, nothing has changed this year, I have seen worse. So no that is a BS lie from you. A legit critism is not saying that I my respect from you has gone down or that bigger audience crap or that oh because you hang out and even those people have a big salary hypocricacy crap. All you have to say is that KO I understand where coming from but this why you are wrong. I am a fan but this is why you are wrong. Foster I hate bashing and that is what you and others are doing attack me and make up untrue crap why I am here. I read this blog and the comments here and I have seen legit critisms and have said nothing. What I say here and if you say different you are just lying and what to bash more because you hate hearing the truth, was bashing with they bigger audience like KO cannot have problems with the Yankees because he’s not happy, that is bashing Foster Greigh, so is oh you are being more venmous like saying that they will be in fourth or critizing a player the way that he crtizes anyone is bashing. Keep showing how desperate you are. I do not follow blindly but I do not like people being bashed like you have done because Yankees need to be protected. Sorry but you have just embarrassed yourself more and shown that yes all you and others have done is bash and say that the Yankees can never be critized, again I have seen other people call KO out about his crtisms of thier teams but they have used you are wrong, not you just want a bigger audience, actions speak louder than words and your actions show that all you care about is protecting the Yankees at all costs. KO saw that too and called you out on it. Keep proving me why I love KO and making me resepct him more and showing that you have no idea what montering and being always right is. Give me a break.
Huh? Your last post is incoherent drivel. You seem to be cycling and might need your meds. Oh, and CAN you read? My name isn’t THAT hard, is it?
Nope
It only incoherent to you, because you do not want to face the truth. That I have not tried and I am still not trying to modderate, learn when you talk about audience and ratings that gives it aways that you only liked KO because he was suppose to agree with you. Keep making me love KO more and embarrass yourself more with the bashing posts. Keep showing how honest KO is and how you have no idea what legit crticsm is.
The Yankees are a bunch of cry babies.
Since I’ve been called out publicly, I’ll happily respond. First, I have been to hundreds if not thousands of games at now two Yankee Stadiums and even worked in the baseball business for several years last decade and have never, ever heard of a fan being given a blank lineup card. It simply doesn’t happen. You, Keith, are receiving favors not afforded to regular fans because of your celebrity status, not because you’re a media member. How would a regular fan even know to ask? And who? As for it “obviously” being your handwriting, exactly how is one to know that either? So, basically…I saw a lineup card, which fans never get, in someone’s handwriting, which would 99% of the time be that of a coach or at the very outside a media member, and I called it like I saw it. If it was yours, I apologize. I stand proudly by the rest of what I wrote. And c’mon, “nuclear” (nuke-u-lar?). I thought Davd and I above had a pretty respectful conversation and I even apologized (again) for hijacking the thread.
All that being said, I think it was crappy of them to not let you know personally you weren’t doing OTD, but I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment. You’ve tweaked them too much (and for little real reason) lately for that prestigious honor, in my humble opinion.
Go Yanks!
Personally, I think it has to do with Keith’s general tone towards the Yankees this season. He is the first to sauté Jeter when he has a bad game; for well or ill, the signal tweet was a “gotcha” attempt; and the “Posada Scratch” seems odd, too. If it were my game, I wouldn’t let him on the field or in the box either, for fear of him finding some other transgression to tweet after the game or in a commercial break. I love the guy’s politics, too, and was sad when Countdown moved to a network to which I don’t get access, but my respect for him has been diving all season, given how venomous he is about everything the yankees are doing.
Art
Wow so you only respect KO if he does and says what you want him to say about the Yankee’s
Greigh and you both need to realize that KO has always been about honesty and he tells it like it is including baseball, it not his job to put his head in the sand when the Yankee’s are doing something wrong. I love Tennis but if KO said something bad about that I would know that it was not because the sport is bad but because a Tennis star was not behaving the way that it should or said or did something stupid. Critizing Jeter or the Yankee’s is a stupid thing to be loosing some respect over. Also he was very right Greigh to tweek them the Yankee’s are not god neither is Jeter I read and saw what he wrote and he had every good reason to tweak them, he did what he always does and that is tell truth to power. You two keep showing me how honest, trustworthy, loyal and tolerant and principled he is and keep making me love and respect him more and show why I am a huge fan and always will be. KO has not been venmous toward the Yankees you only saying that because the Yankee’s are never to be critized. I may not be a baseball fan but I have read his posts on the Yankee’s nothing on thier was venmous all it was the truth, you are loosing respect because KO is never allowed to tell you the truth about the New York Yankee’s because they are so prefect and they need to be praised 24 hours a day, give me a break, that is the same kind of crap that I hear from Obama fans when he critized him. Again KO is not prefect but critizing but telling the truth about a baseball team is not a sample of being venmous it a sample of being a good journalist. Keep making me love KO more and respct him more that is all your post is doing. Yankee’s need to held countable for bad decisions, just like the president, does not mean that he does not support them. KO is showing you what real support looks like and you bash him some fan. give me a break I know legit critism of KO and this is not it. I want KO to be KO that is all I expect warts and all and this is what I love is that he not afraid to tell it like it is even if he general supports it.
The card is in Keith’s handwriting. I recall it. It is amazing how people have twisted what happened into something so far from what it originally was! There is no evidence of KO hating Posada or the Yankees. Venemous? Damn! Now he is a snake…a Cobra loose in the Bronx. Baseball is one of the best things that ever happened to Keith…and truth be known…Keith is one of the best things that ever happened to baseball. Some here need to take their bats and balls and go home.
keep politics out of baseball!
Patrice
Some here need to realize that KO is a journalist weither it sports or politics and journalists jobs are not put heads in sand when I team that they love make’s a bad decision, it thier job to call it out. I do not agree with KO all the time, but I do not loose respect for him because I might not like what he saying about something or say that he being venmous that is beyond silly. KO has said some stuff about Obama I have not agreed with but I did not lose respect for him or did not love him any less. It not his job to say that Yankees are going to be a great team or that Jeter or Posda are the best players ever, even if he knows and are friends with people on the team and goes to spring training, it his job to tell it like it is, you should be glad that KO is not afraid to tell the Yankee’s that they need to do better and try to be a better team, just like I love when KO tells Obama and the democrats that they can be and do better, this is what support means. It means to not be a afraid to crtize and say wait when something is not going good, it does not mean that we only praise and put head in sand when things go wrong. KO is a great human being, yes he has warts but again my only expectation of him is to be himself as long as he is that I am happy. He best thing in the sports and news industry along with basball and news and the sports and baseball industry are the best thing for him too. Get over it I read this bog and his tweets he critizes every team in the baseball league not just the Yankee’s because that is his job to hold feet to fire, one reason why I love him and why he put ESPN and MSNBC on the map and why he will put Current thier also.
Oh Keith, will you ever stop burning bridges.
Olberman, there’s no room for your nonsense in the great game of baseball. You do yourself a disservice on a daily basis, please don’t do it to “our” game. Go away.
Call the waaahmbalance
Or it must be the Republicans fault…(No I am not one)
This guy is a hack and nothing is ever his fault, he is the kid that used to tattle on everyone then smile, invite them over and say another kid was ratting them out. That kid usually got his bell rung with an uppercut or two and fell into line or became ostracized…not Keithy, his parents problem sued the school and he became a professional b!t#h.
Obermann, you should just walk into a closet and talk to yourself, since you are the only one that you think is right anyway.
Your elementary, borderline intermediate knowledge of baseball does not negate your obvious faults.
You are the Randy Moss Owens of broadcasters and baseball bloggers
sciarrino and James
you two have no idea who KO is, and real Yankee I want KO to be principled and stand on those principles, I care zip about buring bringes, keep telling truth, also James the Yankees not KO are ones being the babies have keep up with the bashing and making me love and respect KO more and show why I am a huge fan and show why KO has no clue how to be a hypocrite or how prinicipled.
Well look, sports isn’t politics — it’s entertainment. All is fair in love, war and politics. KO can come out 99 times against Repub’s and then one day support one to suit his needs. That’s fine, one sells their soul a little to be in that game.
But sports is a different game. If he’s going to continuously, relentlessly knock an organization, then that org. will eventually part ways with him. KO knows this — he’s seen many of his professional relationships end horribly. And sure he can have a critical eye and “tell it like it is,” but I read his blog somewhat regularly and it gets really petty and mean-spirited sometimes. I don’t know — what does he expect? From his arrogant attitude, I don’t think he’s ever, EVER done anything wrong …
Wow
So KO crtizing the Yankees is now him being arrogant. The only arrogant ones I seeing here are the Yankees. First they are organization and should expect crtitism and I have heard harsher crtisisms of them from people on twitter and other bloggers and articles then anything that KO has said, so that right off the bat is ridclous. Second KO has never sold his soul, you think KO leaving a coperation and joining a independent news channel that is not in very many homes is selling his soul, wow, You just put up a bunch of made up crap, you are showing that the arrogant ones are you and the Yankees. KO has always represented the 99ers still do. If you want to see a sell soul look at Fox. If you want to see arogance look how the Yankees treated KO by not even telling him about it. Sports teams are expected to be crtized, if they are that petty when someone does it, they should not be in the public light. Thanks for showing me how principled KO is and that he has no idea how to sell his soul. Keep making me love him more and more and show why I am a huge fan and why he will put Current on the map.
@history
Ok, I don’t think you read my post very carefully. KO didn’t sell his soul by going to an independent news channel — I didn’t say he did. So your attention to detail stinks.
He went to the smaller news company after getting kicked out of MSNBC. I don’t care if he left or whatever, if they wanted him he’d still be there, but instead it ended badly. That goes back to my point that his fallout with the Yankees is part of a pattern.
Look, you think he’s principled or whatever, and that’s fine. That’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. I think he’s a hack Liberal on Republican auto-bash. Why he now has it out for the Yankees I don’t know (and if you read this blog regularly, he does), but it seems personal. And that isn’t a very professional way to cover a team, is it?
It’s up to the Yankees who they want associated with the organization, but it’s disappointed they weren’t man enough to tell you to your face. Lou Gerhrig is rolling in his grave.
Yankee fan
I got your point just fine, and you just show why KO is great, wow so KO is suppose to stay in a job where mangers treat him like crap and where he felt it was at the point of controlling his content and he left that is pretty principled. Yankees were the ones that were being arrogant here because they could not handle crtism, KO is not and never will be a hack. Thanks for showing me how KO is great and make me respect him more and show why I am a fan. Keep up the bashing, because I understood your point just fine.
what a little cunt. like a woman scorned keith is. ahaha grow a fucking DICK
Corpious
I love the crap and bashing that is going on here by you people, keep showing why I love Ko and I’m a fan and why you guys have no idea what hate speech is. Wow Yankees just like MSNBC can get away with murder but its KO’s fault. Just keep making me love and respect KO more.
Wish I knew how to unsubscribe from this discussion. What a waste of time.
Seriously, if anyone knows how a person who asked to see follow-up comments can reverse that choice.
Remind me to NEVER do that again. I’m old, feeble and online too much of the tie to be bombarded by banal banter between baseball bombasticators. Gimme shelter!
Sorry David
I know that I have been part of the problem here, I just hate bashing and people trying deny that they are doing it. I know KO not prefect do not want him to be, but I have seen legit crtism here before and I sorry that I am not seeing it now. All some of these people need to do is say that respect KO but disagree in this comsecte, Chris is another story, he needs to look at a history book and realize why he one being the hypocrite on the salary stuff. If people would just keep it legit I would have no problems. I have even disagreed aka BP eposde but saying venmous or saying that people making more money or hanging out with people with more money what it about the unions is not legit. That is all I ask just say you disagree or that you respect him but this is why he is wrong and I will have no problem. He’s not prefect and I do not want him to be I want him to be KO that is all I expect him to be.
I like Suzyn Waldman better anyway for doing things relating to baseball and the Yankees.
The Yankees are a classless organization. Today you should consider yourself the luckiest person on the face of the earth because you’re not associated with them.
I have forgotten the number of times I have been told my services were no longer needed via a 3rd party. Classless? Yeah. I just look at the source. Very doubtful I am the only person to be treated as such by the offending organization. Absolutely not surprised by what the Yankees do. Just another reason to rejoice “the yankees lose… theeee Yankees lose. … That always makes my day.
If only Paul O’Neill were there, they could have just pretended that they were really just afraid he would take a swing at you.
I never ceased to be amazed at the people on both sides of the aisle who politicize this blog. Olbermann has political views, as we all know. He does not trot them out here. And I don’t read mlb.com and its blogs for them–and I would add, on most issues, I agree with Keith but think his approach does more damage to my cause than helps it; I don’t say that to reopen a debate, but to make clear where I come from on this.
As to the behavior of the Yankees organization, it was without class, but anybody who expects class from the Yankees really needs a checkup from the neck up. This is the organization that wouldn’t show Don Zimmer on its telecasts because he and George III weren’t getting along (I refuse to make him in death something more than he was in life: an owner who loved the game and wanted to win, a good businessman, but often, behaviorally, a three-year-old badly in need of Ritalin) and continues to foist John Sterling on the public. Please.
Actually, though, all of this begs a question. At 90, Bob Wolff is, I do not doubt, better at play-by-play than Sterling. Why does he do only that one game?
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I blame it all on John Flaherty– please replace him on YES.
Aughhhhhhhhhhhhhh! (Runs screaming from blog.)
All these people saying the Yankees are a classless organization– such craziness. You think the fat cats in that corporate world are any different from the fat cats who run other teams? The Yankees do things like HOPE week and other community work. But that’s not the point. People who throw out the “classless” accusation act like the accused party is so bad that their own lack of tact, or class, is justified. They hate the Yankees so they just need to come up another excuse. I’m a big fan of Keith, but too often he stirs up this stuff against the Yankees (especially Jeter). I’d give my right arm (though it would probably cost me a leg or two as well) to sit in the seats where Keith sits at Yankee Stadium. Not that it’s a privilege– he has paid for them. But then to go and trash the team at every turn– it just seems inappropriate. If Keith enjoys the games, sitting near the front row, then why not simply enjoy them instead of dragging the organization through the mud on his blog?
Because he a journalist and it a journalists job to critize a organization or something when they do something wrong. Look at the blog that you are right now.
This seems more like a personal matter than something the public needs to worry about, which is the area of concern for journalists. Besides, it’s just baseball. It sounds like Keith is trying to seem nonchalant by blowing off the Yankees for dropping him as an Old Timer’s Day announcer, while at the same time kicking up a lot of dust over a fairly meaningless incident. It’s no surprise that a right-wing, piece of garbage Murdoch paper would lie about him. That’s not news. But Keith sits in the front row at Yankee games, having the time of his life, then goes on his blog and writes negatively about the organization. Journalist or not, that just seems bush league, emphasis on Bush!
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Sam, I despise the Yankees and am a Dodger fan. Being a Dodger fan, especially right now, I think I should be considered an expert on whether an organization has class. I think the Yankees (like the Dodgers) do good things for the community but until I see evidence that the younger generation is different than their father in treating employees like garbage, then occasionally doing a good deed and expecting their tame supporters to endorse their actions, I don’t see a lot of class there. Furthermore, I thought that when you buy tickets to a game, one of the things you’re supposed to be able to do is criticize your team. Maybe I’m wrong; that must be why fans never boo.
Both this post and the ensuing comments have become too unwieldy in so far as the actual importance of what happened is concerned. In other words, KO took that Murdoch rag’s bait and harped way too long about it here. And the comments have followed suit. Maybe this belongs in a memoir, but as far as a blog post, it was too much.
As for the Yankee hate of some folks here, fine, go ahead, but spread it around for a change. Taking revenue sharing and keeping a team payroll more or less equal to that amount, while pocketing the profits, and selling false hope to a fan base, is quite classless. How ’bout it?
That dude has a drinking problem. How many beers did he order?
but as far as a blog post, it was too much.
As for the Yankee hate of some folks here, fine, go ahead, but spread it around for a change. Taking revenue sharing and keeping a team payroll more or less equal to that amount, while pocketing the profits, and selling false hope to a fan base, is quite classless. How ’bout it?
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