So, Are We Sure About These Tigers Scrimmages?

Ever seen this singular photo before?

It is one of the few remaining documentations of the day a bright idea by the Boston Red Sox that wound up – in all likelihood – costing them the 1946 World Series:

Photo Courtesy Boston Red Sox

On the left, Red Sox centerfielder Dom DiMaggio. In the center, pitcher Tex Hughson. On the right, in the Sox road gray: Joe DiMaggio – who didn’t have his regular uniform with him for one of the fateful games Boston played 66 years ago.

The Detroit Tigers’ idea to address their five day layoff between finishing sweeping the Yankees and facing the Cards or Giants in the Series by playing a pair of exhibition games is not new. The Red Sox did the same thing in 1946.

And it killed them.

We forget this now, but the Red Sox were prohibitive favorites to win a Series remembered for “Slaughter’s Mad Dash” and the disastrous 5-for-25 performance of Ted Williams. Boston had clinched the American League pennant with a 1-0 win on September 13th (courtesy of a Williams homer, naturally). They won by 12 games over a defending champion Tiger team that nearly played .600 ball, and a tidy 17 over the third place Yankees who imploded and went through three managers. Williams supplied a slash line of 38/123/.342 and had an OPS of 1.164 (and four other guys in the line-up were at .799 or better). The Red Sox were the team to beat.

But the National League race was back-and-forth between the Dodgers and Cardinals and with an N.L. first-place tie – and a Series-delaying three-game playoff looming – Sox Manager Joe Cronin and General Manager Eddie Collins thought they needed something to keep their Heroes alert and awake while the N.L. decided which of its teams was going to be its sacrifice to the mighty Boston maw.

They scheduled three exhibition games for the Red Sox…versus American League All-Stars. It was a helluva plan – in theory. The Red Sox got such luminaries as Hank Greenberg and Luke Appling and Joe DiMaggio (hence that crazy picture) to travel to Fenway and put the Champs through their paces.

They also brought in Mickey Haefner.

Haefner had just completed a 14-and-11, 2.85 season for a Washington Senators squad that only the year before had finished a buck-and-a-half behind the A.L. Champion Tigers, so he belonged among the All-Stars doing their part for the greater glory of the American League. But there was only one problem with letting Haefner throw towards your hitters, even in an exhibition setting.

He was a knuckleballer.

On October 1st – which would’ve been the eve of Game 1 of the World Series, had the N.L. only made up its mind in 154 games – Haefner was pitching for the All-Stars against the Red Sox at Fenway. And one of his knucklers – and he threw it in the Niekro/Dickey range of hardness, not the Wakefield range – hit Ted Williams in the elbow.

Got him exactly right. There is no idea how hard the pitch was thrown but the pain was sufficiently excruciating to send Williams to the hospital for X-Rays. While those few who saw the injury held their breath (and presumably Collins and Cronin tried to figure out how they could each blame the other), the tests came back negative. That’s the way it was in those days: broken or not broken. Nothing about deep bone bruises or inflamed ligaments or anything else. It hurt? It ain’t broken. Put some ice on it and play.

Williams played. 5-for-25, .200. It would be decades before Ted acknowledged that the elbow pain never really subsided through the subsequent Series. The only post-season appearance of his career produced five measly singles. And when reporters concluded Williams had not risen to the occasion, or had been psyched out by what was even then a rare but not unique infield defensive shift, Williams let them blame him. Despite the apparent justification for such a claim, he never blamed his ’46 World Series nightmare on the Haefner Hit-By-Pitch.

That the Sox lost the Series was not the end of the story. The pall of that loss lingered for generations. Boston would slide into the second division, then the basement, and would not emerge until the year after Williams was inducted into the Hall of Fame. That his performance in the 1946 Classic was the low point of Williams’ career goes without saying. He eventually admitted it was the low point of his life.

Talk about the Curse of the Bambino? Bolshoi! The Curse of Mickey Haefner, more like!

If you check history – especially internet history – you might see passing mention that Williams hurt his elbow when hit by a pitch “in an exhibition game just before the World Series.” But what you do not see is the disturbing truth that is of particular relevance tonight: Williams hurt his elbow when hit by a pitch in an exhibition game just before the World Series that had been arranged by his own bosses to try to keep the Red Sox sharp FOR THE WORLD SERIES.

Today, of course, Collins or Cronin would’ve been fired or at minimum vilified by history for their gross stupidity. Didn’t happen that way. Cronin succeeded Collins as General Manager, then became American League President in 1959. Both of them are in the Hall of Fame and Cronin has his retired number 4 right up there with Teddy Ballgame’s.

The Tigers are not asking any of their vanquished foes to help them fill the competition gap by playing these exhibitions (the term they used was “scrimmages”) on Sunday and Monday. They have flown up the minor league kids like pitchers Hudson Randall and Joe Rogers from the Florida Fall Instructional League  to fill the role played by the A.L. All-Stars in the last ill-fated attempt to keep the rust from growing while the National League tries to figure out its champion (Cards or somebody else).

Presumably the Tigers will take every precaution against the obvious things: sliding (no!), diving for fly balls (don’t!), line drives back at pitchers (use the Batting Practice screen!). But unless Jim Leyland and Dave Dombrowski are aware of the 1946 Red Sox disaster and the saga of Mickey Haefner, they cannot possibly be prepared for the inadvertent pitch that just…gets away.

What do they do if Miguel Cabrera gets hit in the elbow? Or the knee? Or the head? Or while at third base takes a one-hopper off his bean, as he did in Spring Training?

Hudson Randall and Joe Rogers, you say? Neither of them is a knuckleball pitcher, right?

40 Comments

Glad to have found your baseball blog. Have enjoyed all you write and say for many years.

olbermann hates the giants.

cuz keith is a big baby

How does Olbermann hating the giants make him a baby, this does not make sense.
Also KO is not a Yankee’ fan, he a fan of the game. Wow you just came up with a BS posts, that makes me love and respect KO more and more.

Fascinating history — Marty Lurie on KNBR in San Francisco just mentioned this on his show, so had to come take a peek. It’s a fine line between developing rust and risking injury. Life is definitely interesting here by the Bay; chance of rain early in the week which could push the Series start back even farther if STL/SFG have to play a game 7. (But hey, would it have killed ya to actually acknowledge the presence of the San Francisco Giants in the NLCS, instead of calling them “somebody else”?)

Yeah (regarding Giants)!
Also what if CC Sabathia has a serious elbow injury, because he is seeing Dr. James Andrews (cue frightening organ chord)? If he misses significant time in 2013, will it be a first since 1995 (no Yankees OR Red Sox in postseason)?

Very good point. I think it would serve the Tigers well to heed this bit of advice. Now if they just read it! Well done, Keith, as usual. Everything you write is brilliant. And I ditto what Ron said in his comment before me. Looking forward to your return soon. Can’t come soon enough for me.

This was a great historical piece. I enjoy reading about how it was back then. Love the picture of Joe DiMaggio (another hero of mine). Good tale of the knuckleballer Mickey Haefener and what can go drastically wrong in a flash. That’s the second time I’ve heard about a knuckleball pitcher besides Jim Bouton. I really appreciate your writing about baseball. You show a true love of the sport and make it easy for me, a novice, to understand. I’m not making any bets but I would really like to see the Tigers win this one. Unfortunately that may not be the case. It should be a great series to watch in any event.

Again as a historain and a lover of history, I love when KO does posts like this. He makes baseball history fanicating along with getting historical acurate. Things like this are just some of the reasons that I love him as I do and always will. Will be interesting to see what happens when the tiggers win but also who they play. Thanks again KO for being as great as you are, and making baseball to even someone who is not a fan of the sport intersting. I love seeing how much you love and know about this sport. Again wish I was this knowledgeable about tennis. Keep being yourself KO and you will always have a fan in me.

very interesting, Keith. Thanks for writing

Given this is Leyland’s solution to the same no-play stint that is blamed for 2006, what’s your in-between solution?

KO as a historian I love hearing the histroy of the sport, you make it so facinating and real. Really enjoy it, you show why you are this generations Murrow and why you have no idea how to lie and make things up. Sorry you get even here people that love to make stuff and put stuff up that has been debunked about you and your career. Sorry you got unjustily fired at Curent. I know that I will be unhappy if you do not get the justice that you so rightly desrve for being abused there, and I looked at both suits and every piece of evidence and all it shows is how Curent broke the contract and unjustily fired and that you personality, which I love including ego had nothing to do and never will have nothing to do with it. Keep being yourself and you will always be perment on my wall Ipod and ipad and life, love you faults and all.

And how many times has a team sat around and done nothing and been the favorite and end up losing? Oh that’s right, how about the Tigers in 2006 with Jim Leyland as manager. Freak things happen in life. How many players have been injured taking batting practice, or even slipping in the shower.

Great history, but in no way are the Tigers ill-advised for trying to stay sharp. With the modern interminable playoff system, hot teams can get iced. No better example than in 2007 when the Rockies were rewarded for their two series sweeps by being iced for NINE DAYS until the World Series with Boston finally came around. Inaction is DEATH for baseball players, and the Rockies went from super-hot to ice cold and got swept.

Baseball players have to be sharp, aggressive, and not pussyfoot around worrying about injuries. I applaud the Tigers for doing all they can to be at their best for when the damned World Series FINALLY comes around where we may once again see The Summer Game spill into NOVEMBER. Ugh!

so, perhaps the answer is to A. have scrimmages, but B. don’t use knuckleballers?

thanks for posting this, love the blog and glad I found it

Yeah KO is great, I love how he tells the truth even when it comes to basball. Again KO keep showing why you are this generations Murrow, sorry you got treated like crap at Current. Again all you have to be is yourself and you will have a loyal fan and that will forever be on my ipod,ipad and life. You never have disappointed and never will as long as you are yourself, because it shows how real you are and how real of a jouranlist you are. Love you faults and all. You make me love and respect you more and more, love you again always faults and all.

Love the article but lets face it Leyland hasn’t gotten the benefit of the doubt on any decision this year. If he lets his guys sit and they go cold he is wrong, if they work out or scrimmage and someone is hurt he is wrong. By the way I’ve seen the photo before but never realized they were wearing different uniforms.

I keep wondering how many times that uniforms get changed in the history of the sport or any sport for that matter

sometimes a team will change its uniform to signify change, and try to distance it’s self from a losing chapter in that teams history. Blue Jays and Marlins both had high expectations in the offseason and changed their uniforms. The Orioles changed their uniforms and went with a more retro look and had their best season in about fifteen year. Royals and Padres also made slight changes to their uniforms and had no expectation of winning so maybe its completely random

didnt care before. now i want the giants to win the nlcs and the ws

forcing ko to write about stupid baseball cards and how his beloved yanks are right on the cusp of another world championship

the fact is, back in the day, ball players werent athletes…except for mays

so anything they did could cause an injury

dimaggio was a fraud…there are kids in low a who could strike him out

RYAN VOGELSONG WON MORE GAMES IN THEN NLCS THEN YOUR BELOVED YANKS WON IN THE ALCS….PATHETIC

Walt
KO is not a Yankee fan he is a baseball fan, he wrote a true story about weither Arod would be traded or not.

Also I know someone that is a Cardinals fan and would probably not be happy if they do not get in the World Series, someone else I know is routing for the Giants. Just to show it has all different kinds of fans. Even ones that have no idea what trade means in the game.

How big of an asshole do you have to be to get fired by a rapist and replaced with a whoremonger?

Wow what a stupid post that makes no sense, first no one that works at Current is a rapiest, that is BS, second here is what happened at Current Again it called being unjustily fired here is it again debunking this crap and showing how igorant you are, Do you know what unjustily fired means, it has been proven over and over again that Current broke the contract here is what I told a blogger how they did it Wow
Again I suppose to believe a ogranization that claims they are liberal but thinks it okay for KO to do a commerical for ATT& that they were trying to get him to do, showing Mike that they are not corporate independent, and believe a quto confirming a negtvie story that they put out but which KO was slient about and defended Current in, as being sabatoged wow some great company, I do not listen to mangement mike that thinks that KO should work while he fighting a thorat infection, and with a guy that fired someoen with AIDS and even got rid of his co-ceo with no reason at all, you really do live in a fantasy world. again thier is no evidence that KO’s personality is why he not at Current, all you do is show that you think that imcomptent mangement need to be have by everyone. Keep lying and showing how ingoratn you are on KO, you really show that KO has no ego problem or personality problem. By all the evidence shows that Current unjustily fired KO here is something else Also jaws how is KO wanting what he would have gotten if he had been at Current for five years shows that he is all about money, if you where unjustily fired you would want what you would have gotten if you had stayed, again jawes how does that make KO a naracssit. Also jaws people in the industry would be laughing that you think that KO would never be able to come back. Patrick who has know KO was asking KO what he wanted to do next, Bill carter who has critized KO has said that he can comeback. Jaws maybe you can explain why both ESPN and MSNBC have hired him back if he so unemployed in this industy. Also how is KO a jerk, because he was suppose to let bosses treat him like crap.
Jawes, I care crap what KO is like personally that is why I can look at him objectvely and when I look at what happened at Current I saw nothing that showed that KO was being a jerk. Jawes I want you to explain what is professional about putting out a attack letter when you fire someone, I have never heard of any professional company doing that, that is how unprofessional Current is. If Current is so good at business why is they fired or let go the CEO that knows the TV industry, why did they not listen to a guy who been in this industry for 33 years when it came to how to build a network aka infustrature which means you get live streaming and HD up. Why did Current have KO do a commerical for AT&T and have AT&T be a sponser if they so cared about him, why standing up and making sure that your brand and why people became fans of you is not damge wow can you explain jaws how that is nacarrist behavior and how that is showing that you are a jerk, wanting to run the news department like he was promised and which Current has been hypocritical about, in that they say it only a title in counter-suit, but never correct go after Medite when they bash KO about him being polite to Cenk, does not say that KO was suppose to run the department. How is that narracist behavior and how is that being a jerk. Jaws getting angry at your bosses for not doing thier jobs, Current says that they deal with the business side of the show, fixing tenichal problems jaws is business not content, so they should not have to have KO telling them to do thier jobs, they should be fixing these problems not complaing about set costs and how big staff or set is, KO used that set even after the lights went out aka primary and State of the Union so Current lying when they say that he never used the set. Also they bought the equipment breaking down and say that they would move the studio he was in, I did not know wanting people to say what they mean, means that you are naccarist jerk, wow, also why jawes when current is talked about in media they use source but when KO talked about they use his name his mangers name and his lawyers names, and why did Hyatt say KO but never deined when KO said that Hyatt had told him it was his manger and about blackmailing and threatening about firing staff, you do not do any of that is you have truth on your side, that is how dishonest Hyatt is, why can Current talk the shirts off about what is going on when it comes to primary coverage a lot of the times negatively, even on the story that says that lawyers are invovled in solving this but when KO and his lawyers are only confirming what that source says about lawyers being invovled that is sabtoging Current, Jaws people who use logic know that if you are talking away at the press like Current was that Current was sabotging itself with that and thier dishonesty about being corporate independent, espically giving a coporations KO’s website and again trying to get which is what I should say do a commerical for AT&T and have a AT&T sponsership, that is how made up your narccist jerk statement is. Thier is no evidence jawes that KO is a narccist jerk and thier is no evidence that he has burned his last bridge, even people in his business do not say that, they know that KO can draw a audience and do not meation Current because no one was able to see him, because that channel again has no infustrature. If you look on fan fasebook pages and blog post about him when he was appearing on ABC this Week both times and twitter, people wanting him back, that should tell you jawes that networks are more than willing to take a chance on him. Keep bashing KO and going after me for being a fan. I do not interupt anything, you just make me love and respect him more.
Again you are showing that KO never lies and you are making me love and respect him more and that you do not know what unjustily fired means. KO keep being yourself and you will always be this generations Murrow and have a fan in me. Love you faults and all. You really make me love and respect him more. KO do not change and sorry you got unjustily fired at Current. Will not be happy if you do not get the justice you deserve. Keep being yourself love you faults and all. Again keep showing that you would rather lie and bash KO. I want you to be in a career for 33 years and than say someone is bad. Keep bashing KO he is and never be an asshole. Sorry KO that you got unjustily fired at Current. OO you show why KO is this generations Murrow and why he will be around for years to come and how igorant you are about KO.

You’re right.
I should have put ATTEMPTED rapist.

*rapist NOT rapiest
*again NOT Again
* is is called NOT it called
*unjustly NOT unjustily
*organization NOT ogranization
*quote NOT quto
*negative NOT negtvie
*Mike NOT mike
*throat NOT thorat
*someone NOT someoen
*there NOT their
*incompetent NOT imcomptent
*ignorant NOT ingoratn
*unjustly NOT unjustily
*unjustly NOT unjustily
* narcissist NOT naracssit.
*known NOT know
*Carter NOT carter
*criticized NOT critized
*he’s so unemployabe NOT he so unemployed in
*supposed NOT suppose
*objectively NOT objectvely
*why is is that NOT why is they
*damage NOT damge
*narcissist NOT nacarrist
*supposed to NOT suppose to
*narcissistic NOT narracist
*narcissistic jerk NOT naccarist
*involved NOT invovled
*sabotaging NOT sabtoging
*sabotaging NOT sabotging
*corporation NOT corporations
*narcissistic jerk NOT narccist jerk
*There not Thier
*an audience NOT a audience
*mention NOT meation
*infrastructureNOT infustrature
*Facebook NOT fasebook
*blogs posts NOT blog post
*Twitter NOT twitter
*interrupt NOT interupt
*generation’s Krusty the Clown NOT generations Murrow
*and I’m sorry that you NOT and sorry you
*then NOT than
*rightfully fired by FOX SPORTS, ESPN x 2, MSNBC x2 and Current NOT
*generation’s Krusty the Clown NOT generations Murrow
*ignorant NOT igorant

OO
Al Gore not a rapiest or a attempted rapiest. You are disgusting that you even write that. OO you show that you love to exploit rape and call people names because you cannot handle the truth. I may be angry at Gore for how he treated KO, but he never attempted to rape anyone that is Bs, and you disgust me that you even write that. You show that you have no idea what tolerance is. You show why KO is this generations Murrow and why I would not listen to you on tolerance or anything, because you are disgusting with your made up crap and your laughing when it comes to rape. I may hate Hyatt because he fired someone with AIDS and shows he has no morals because of it, but I know that thier is no one there that raped anyone, they did not even attempted to rape that is made up BS, that has been debunked. Thanks for showing me how pathic you are, this is the most disgusting post I have every read in my life. You are just making me love and respect KO more with this disgusting of post that shows just what a disgusting person you are. You make me proud to be a KO fan.
KO I am sorry you got unjustily fired at Current. You show why you are tolerant and do not say different OO beacuse that will be a lie, when it comes to women and why you will be around for years to come. Again keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all. Keep showing Oo why you will always be this generations Murrow, again you be yourself and you will forever be on my ipod,ipad and life, and you will be the only one that will get me to watch news again, you will always have my love and respect as long as you are yourself. Love you faults and all.

Wow OO
You put a list that is all wrong and is all been debunked. OO you do not even know KO career, KO has not been fired from MSNBC and ESPN, again here is what happened Keep showing that you would rather bash KO than listen to the truth, that he has never naplenmed a bridge and that he unemployable has always been debunked and always will be, I look at those articles and you have to live in fantasy world if you think that shows that KO is a jerk or that he unemployable, I already apologized for what happened with Suzie but people like you want to put that out because KO has to be a bad guy here is what KO did A long, long time ago, one of my bosses at ESPN told me that during times of contention, I always showed too much backbone.
Well, he was damned right.
A whining sacroiliac sent me to the chiropractor’s last week and the X-rays proved my old boss literally correct. I am part of that hidden minority, the spinal mutants, who have six lumbar vertebrae instead of the customary five. I do have too much backbone.
This was the final sign that it was time to do something that for months has been crystallizing out of the gauzy haze of the unconsciousness that surrounds us all: I need to apologize to ESPN.
This began to become evident weeks ago when the deputy mayor of Indianapolis attacked Chris Mortensen, one of my reportorial role models. I once watched Mort protect a source who not only publicly denied what he’d told Mort in private but also questioned his ethics. Just this month, Mort went on the air and criticized the thoroughness of his own reporting on a story. Mortensen is the gold standard, and this hack politician slashed him and said ESPN was “a sports channel first and a news organization fifth.” I was amazed to find my hackles rising and myself rushing to defend my old employers on my radio sportscast.
It all became remarkably clear after that. This isn’t about my skeletal freakiness, or Chris Mortensen, or even, particularly, the primary area of wounded feelings for my former bosses and colleagues, Mike Freeman’s book about the network. This isn’t even about specific events or people, although nearly everybody at ESPN merits an apology from me, and I give it willingly and with great sadness, but with some hope that it will explain if not erase my actions, and might even be of some inspiration to any who might be afflicted in the same curious way I’ve come to learn I am.
This is about not knowing why you do things — literally, not knowing for years and years — and then suddenly beginning to scratch the surface of understanding. That earlier imagery about the gauzy haze is almost factually precise: It feels as if I’ve been coming out of a huge fog bank.
Enough preamble. After five and a half years there, I left ESPN at the end of June 1997. My decision inspired a lot of head-scratching, everything from graffiti on a wall in a syndicated comic strip, to shouts of “traitor” from a viewer at a World Series game. There have been a lot of explanations conjectured, by myself and others, but heretofore I have never definitively stated why I left — in large part because until recently, I didn’t really know. In point of fact, I couldn’t handle the pressure of working in daily long-form television, and what was worse, I didn’t know I couldn’t handle it.
Not the broadcasts themselves, mind you — I’ve rarely had as much fun in life as I used to during those hours on the air with Dan Patrick. I’m talking about an inability to digest all that led up to those hours, about which I had no clue at all. And unless somebody at ESPN had the insight to look for a big-picture pattern, nobody else had any clue at all. I think some executives, most notably John Walsh, had a sense that something was wrong. But whatever any of them said about “insecurity” or “perfectionism,” I know I just took it as an attack and stiffened my extra-long spine.
On top of everything else about it that can destabilize the soul, television is fraught with a million commonplace things that can go wrong. A surprisingly large number of things can go wrong even when everybody involved is giving their all. It’s the nature of a medium so complex it would’ve made Rube Goldberg blanch.
But I didn’t see it that way.
I have lived much of my life assuming much of the responsibility around me and developing a dread of being blamed for things going wrong. Moreover, deep down inside I’ve always believed that everybody around me was qualified and competent, and I wasn’t, and that some day I’d be found out. If you think that way, when somebody messes up, you can’t imagine that it just “happened.” Since they’re so much better than you are, how could they not complete a task successfully? They have to be not trying hard enough — and when they don’t try and the show goes to hell, who gets blamed? You do.
In other words, you start thinking like George Steinbrenner, circa 1977.
Mix that in to the very public nature of the field, and especially the high-profile nature of a job like hosting “SportsCenter,” and you have a combustible combination.
The results can probably be summarized by this conversation I recall from the weeks after the infamous launch of ESPN2 in 1993. After three hours of live shots failing, news breaking, entire 20-minute segments of the show being swapped during commercial breaks, tapes physically falling apart, and production assistants wiping out as they ran through the snow to try to get us information, the producers, my co-host Suzy Kolber and I somehow managed to cover Michael Jordan’s first retirement professionally and entertainingly.
Afterwards, the coordinating producer, Norby Williamson, greeted us like the survivors of a World War I foxhole at Ypres. “Great job. Great show,” he said.
“The hell it was,” I said.
Wrong answer.
You suspend — no, let’s be exact about this, I suspended — the whole human part of the equation. It never occurred to me that most of the problems were the result of mere events. Even the chaos that surrounded the entire launch of the experimental show “SportsNight” was merely the inevitable result of the fact that it was experimental.
And it never, ever occurred to me that if it failed, I wouldn’t be found out, fired, banished, finished.
The oddest thing about all this, is that even when I left — and in six weeks I will have been gone longer than I was there — executives like Walsh and Howard Katz underscored that I was welcome to return at some distant future date, despite all the Sturm und Drang. And, man, I was usually producing both the Sturm and the Drang. Months later, Katz even approached me about contributing to ESPN Classic, shortly after the company had bought that network.
Of course, I could not know that the major bone of contention, the veritable sixth lumbar vertebra of contention, still awaited: Freeman’s book. I should herein point out that none of this should reflect on Mike: He did an exhaustively thorough job, and more to this point, he didn’t misquote me, not once, nor did he use anything I said out of context. Nor did he cajole or sweet-talk me into discussing topics I didn’t want to discuss. Also, this isn’t some kind of loudspeaker confession from George Orwell’s “1984.” I’m not going to renounce most of my criticisms of the place. I did not consort with Goldstein. I don’t think I was wrong on the issues — I think my methodology was wrong. Outstandingly wrong.
My answers to Freeman constituted the ultimate act of somebody who lived in terror of being blamed. After I left for NBC in 1997, I was unprepared for a question I would literally hear daily — on the street, at events, even on the air on MSNBC: “Why’d you leave ‘SportsCenter’?” If you make a decision in your life, even one as eminently logical and self-improving as “Why’d you start washing your hair every day?” and you start getting questioned hourly about it, you’re going to start second-guessing yourself. I eventually got up to about my millionth guess.
So. The logic was impeccable. To answer that question, I couldn’t take the blame (responsibility) for the disaster (career growth) about which I was being persecuted (sympathetically asked about). Why did I leave “SportsCenter”? Obviously, because it was a medieval torture chamber (fairly typical television workplace providing a high level of ego gratification and creative freedom).
There’s a lot in Freeman’s book that I regret. I won’t inundate you with details, but a few require specificity. Referring to ESPN’s executives, I told Freeman that “other than Steve Anderson, I don’t think any of them are any good.” Well, that was ridiculous then and it is ridiculous now. Without even judging how good they were, just to keep a monolith like ESPN on the air every day requires as many good executives as they have at NORAD.
As suggested earlier, I don’t regret my stances on the work environment there, but to say that some actions management took were merely “covering their ass legally” was to subtract the humanity from the equation. It never dawned on me that some of these guys had been thrown in at the deep end of the pool, or would have to expose, prosecute and fire friends and colleagues who themselves had done things that until a decade before had been standard operating procedure at every corporation in America.
I now read with horror of my ESPN2 co-host, Ms. Kolber, sequestering herself in the women’s bathroom and weeping over how I treated her. She told Freeman that as things deteriorated, I wouldn’t talk to her. She’s wrong: I couldn’t talk to her. I pumped up some small-scale complaints into a scenario in which she was at fault for everything ESPN2 hadn’t become. I wasn’t completely obtuse back then, and if anything would have cut through my neuroses, it would’ve been a colleague’s tears. If I had known, I think I could’ve jumped over the fence I’d built around myself and said what the inner guy always knew: No TV show is worth crying over. Suzy: I’m sorry.
There are lots of little gratuitous shots in there that also reflect an insensibility to parts of reality. I get queasy at all of them, but one stands out as representative. Freeman accurately quotes me as complaining about how a labor-intensive participatory field piece I did in 1996 about what the first-base coach does and says during a game, got little airtime. A year later, ESPN ran a similar piece in which the coaches of the Anaheim Angels wore microphones. I complained to the relevant coordinating producer, Jeff Schneider, and he replied that the new ESPN-Disney-Angels connection explained why one piece ran and the other didn’t. It is almost certain that Schneider was joking, or tweaking me, or, most probably, protecting me from a fact I could never have admitted to myself or have survived hearing from him or anybody else: My coaching piece just wasn’t that good.
Several ESPN folks suggested to Freeman that I was trying deliberately to violate the rules — appearing on other networks and writing for publications without notifying them just to tweak management. That was almost right on the money. But it wasn’t as simple as merely trying to annoy ESPN or John Walsh or whoever else. It was me trying to give myself an excuse to get out from under the pressure of working in an environment of my own creation in which I daily expected the blame ax to fall. It was prepackaged sour grapes.
Oddly, I did figure some of this out then, which is why, even after we’d finalized my departure I went back and proposed to them that I do one show a week. That really was instinct cutting through all of these neuroses. That was, should’ve been, and remains my ideal TV schedule: one or two days a week, and the other five or six to remember that I’m not going to be blamed for everything by anybody — even myself.
So, I’m sorry. It should have been done differently. It wasn’t. Then again, I’m only finding out now about that extra vertebra and the extra steps I have to take to learn how to be, well, flexible. Wow so Suzie is beating up on a guy that was able to man up and apologize for what happened wow that shows that she would not know what character is just like you, also Suzie is not great herself on stuff like working well as you and others want people to believe because jack does not want to hear that KO ego is not why he not on Current, here is what KO said about SuzieBelow is an excerpt from Those Guys Have All The Fun: Inside The World of ESPN, which is finally in paperback so those readers anxious for more Bristol back-biting don’t have to carry around the cumbersome hardcover. The new version includes more bitchy anecdotes from Bill Simmons, further details about Tony Kornheiser’s on-air insults about Hannah Storm, and, of course, more from Keith Olbermann, who maintains that he didn’t treat his one-time co-anchor Suzy Kolber as horribly as most people think.
Keith Olbermann:
I hate to put this on the record, but I’m really annoyed that Suzy has portrayed herself as this sweet bystander victim all the time. I swear on my niece’s head that this is true. When those touch-and-go negotiations for her to stay in ’96 ended, we were all working in a trailer while they rebuilt the newsroom, and Dan I were even sharing a computer. And one day she comes in and tells everybody—and I mean every on-air guy on the network was in this double-wide—”I’m leaving for Fox. It’s been real.” And as soon as she was out the door everybody stood and applauded. McQuade came over to me and said “Well at least her time here produced something positive. You get her computer.
Two-and-a-half years later, maybe the day after I got to Fox, now she’s leaving there to go back to Bristol and she sweeps through the news bullpen to say goodbye and damned but it doesn’t happen again. She says her farewells and as soon as she’s out of earshot, the row of writers stands up and starts applauding and cheering.
I liked Suzy then and I like her now but she wasn’t just sinned against.”
“Suzy’s statement seven or eight years later that I had caused her to go into the bathroom and cry really affected me. I mean, it provoked genuine introspection and sincere guilt. But, honestly, that was the first I’d ever heard of it. I mean, we shared an office desk for six months and she never even hinted that however I had treated her it was a problem.
In fact I had been proactive in trying to help her, because Norby and Mike Bogad were really pushing her around during the earliest rehearsals. My agent, and a very good woman friend of mine at ESPN, came to me and said “you know, you can be a little intimidating sometimes, you should take Suzy out to dinner and be her friend.” That floored me, but I took their word for it, and I tried to remind her that while she was the newcomer, they had bent over backward to try to get her, and the very biggest wigs at Cap Cities had personally pushed for her, and while it made sense for me to lead things off because I was by that time established with the brand, she should not just sit there if they shunted her off to the side or sent her on these punishing trips to Edmonton to interview Doug Flutie or whatever. I said I’d back her up completely. That night, we parted closer than ever. And the next day she was in Norby’s office demanding that she get the lead story instead of me! Wow hearing that just makes me love and show that KO gets along with others just fine.
Murdouch, this is guy who would not know what truth is if you put in his face, Jack do you realize that Murdouch has no idea what honesty is, he also like Hyatt thinks that it okay to blackmail his employees like he did KO hereOn Countdown tonight Keith Olbermann used a Special Comment to detail how Rupert Murdoch blackmailed him when he worked for Fox Sports.
Here is the video:
After retelling the story of how he got fired from Fox Sports for reporting that Rupert was looking to sell the LA Dodgers, Olbermann got to the new details,
The second half of my story I have never told publicly before. It’s time. In June of 2000 after a year and a half of doing two one hour cable shows a night for Murdoch and baseball from 7 AM to 5 PM on Saturdays, I got sick. My doctor told me that if I didn’t among other things slow down at work; he would be treating me for heart disease within the decade. I took him very seriously. I told my employers about cutting back maybe from the six days to 5, and offered to give back to Fox some of my salary in the process because my health was at risk maybe even my heart.
They immediately took me off the air. They refused to put me back on until I had gotten a letter from my doctor guaranteeing them that I was well enough to work. By itself that was hardly an evil thing to do. In fact, I recognized it as a prudent business decision, and I complied because I didn’t know what they intended to do with it. They blackmailed me with it.
Wow a guy who thinks like Hyatt and Brohem thinks that someone should work while they are sick that shows that Murdouch is a boss no one even KO should work for, also jack, KO got fired from there for telling the truth, KO found out that Murdouch was selling the Dogers he even went to someone asking if Mourdouch would be okay with the story, which they said yes and than he was fired when Murdouch, because Jack honesty is not allowed when Murdouch organization is in it, I should listen to a guy that is underinvestigation for warptapping when it comes to how KO is, you really love to show me that KO is easy to work with and that you like Current have zero clue what being hard to work for. MSNBC let’s see they thought that it was okay for Scaurbough to donate also and if KO had not gotten caught would have let Scraubough get away with donating so you show again how hypocritical MSNBC is on that here is MSNBC suspended host Keith Olbermann today, following revelations that he made campaign contributions to three Democrats in the elections — a violation of MSNBC policy.
But a search of OpenSecrets.org reveals that MSNBC host Joe Scarborough and MSNBC contributor Pat Buchanan have also made contributions to political campaigns. Here’s what we found…
In March 2006, Scarborough, who hosts the show Morning Joe, gave $4200 to Derrick Kitts (R-OR). And, as the Daily Kos points out, a month later Kitts was a guest on Scarborough’s show.
Between 2005-2008, Pat Buchanan made five contributions to Republican candidates, totaling $2250.
Chris Hayes, the Washington editor for The Nation, is a frequent contributor to MSNBC shows, and often fills in for Rachel Maddow on her show. The Upshot reports that he gave $250 to Alabama Democratic candidate Josh Segall this year before he signed his contract with MSNBC.
NBC News producer Mary Murray, who also does reporting for NBC News and MSNBC, gave $250 to John Waltz (D-KY) this year. In 2008 she gave the same amount to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.
Update: New York Times reporter Brian Stelter Tweeted that Hayes, in fact, would not be subbing for Olberman after all.
Later Update: Alex Pareene at Salon notes that CNBC anchor Larry Kudlow donated to former Congressman Christopher Shays (R-CT) in 2009 — one of a number of donations Kudlow made to Republican candidates over the years.
Even later update: Chris Hayes Tweeted that it was his decision to decline to host “Countdown” tonight, and that his donations were all made prior to his MSNBC contract. Also MSNBC has had others like Geogary who spoke at a republican event, hereThe National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which calls itself “the voice of small business,” is one of the Republican party’s strongest allies. The group spent over $1 million on outside ads in the 2010 campaign — all of it backing Republican House and Senate candidates (and, Bloomberg News reported last month, “another $1.5 million that it kept hidden and said was exempt” from disclosure requirements). The group is the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit against the Obamacare law and bankrolled state governments’ challenges to the law. The NFIB has also taken stances against allowing the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases, opposing regulations on businesses, and supporting curtailing union rights.
Given the group’s obvious Republican alliance, it comes as little surprise that the NFIB’s three-day 2012 Small Business Summit, which begins Monday, will feature headliners Karl Rove and House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH).
But the first name and photo on the invitation for the $150-per-person event — Tuesday’s “keynote address” speaker — is NBC’s Meet the Press host David Gregory. He is marketed by NBC as an anchor and “trusted journalist.”
The Society of Professional Journalists’ Code of Ethics states:
Journalists should:
— Avoid conflicts of interest, real or perceived.
— Remain free of associations and activities that may compromise integrity or damage credibility.
— Refuse gifts, favors, fees, free travel and special treatment, and shun secondary employment, political involvement, public office and service in community organizations if they compromise journalistic integrity.
Regardless of whether Gregory is being paid for this event and of what he says in his keynote, allowing the NFIB to raise money for its political mission using his name, reputation, and celebrity appears to be at odds with journalistic ethics.
Gregory did not to respond to a ThinkProgress request for comment. So your article just shows what a hypocrite krutz, where does krutz get on Georgary case for speaking at a even or when ED was suppose to speak at a Wisconsin event, so Krutz has no creadiblity when it comes to KO. Also all those stories have been disaproved, KO never had people put notes outside his box that came from suggestions jack and a disgulted employer made the other stuff up, also dealing with personal problems like his parents death that shows that KO bad and hard to work with, also dude that shows that MSNBC was not watching Countdown because he was not getting angry after his parents died, that shows that MSNBC wants to lie, mangement wants to re-write the history of who put them on the map, that how BS, also this came from gawker I suppose to believe gossip site on how KO cannot get work, maybe you should read Carter when it comes to this and than tell me that KO is unemployableGiven Keith Olbermann’s abrupt removal at Current and his typically temperate response — “Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently” — it seems as if his next stop will be a puppet show shot from a basement somewhere. He’ll never work in this town, or any other, again, right?
Wrong. Many of his past employers will testify to his unmanageability and unpleasantness, but the fact of the matter is that somewhere, sometime, after some kind of cooling-off period, Mr. Olbermann will be coming to a television near you.
That has less to do with the greater fool theory, which suggests that there will always be someone naïve enough to think that they can accomplish what others have not — that is, make Mr. Olbermann behave like a professional when he is not on the air. (Remember that former Vice President Al Gore and Joel Hyatt — two of the principals at Current — blew through many stop signs to get to Mr. Olbermann. They made very hopeful statements when the deal was cut, which were followed by very frustrated noises thereafter.)
No, the mistake that the executives at Current made was to think that by giving Mr. Olbermann a stake in the enterprise and a title of chief news officer, he would forgo the drama that has characterized his stints at CNN, Fox, ESPN and MSNBC. After all, you can’t rail against the Man when you are the Man.
But Mr. Olbermann is talent, and a big baby to boot — any reporter who has covered him could tell you all about that — so the idea that he would default to the good of the many over the needs of the one is just not in his nature. The title was used as leverage, nothing more, when Mr. Olbermann became dissatisfied and starting communicating with his employers through lawyer letters months ago. Mr. Olbermann is a ferocious fan of team sports, but that’s not how he plays the game.
He is the equivalent of a supremely talented left-handed pitcher with a strong arm — and some obvious control issues — that can give whatever team hires him a lot of quality innings. On the bench and off the field? He will complain about his coach, his teammates, the quality of the field and the stadium lights.
He did not solve the miserable ratings math at Current — as my colleague Brian Stelter pointed out, in his 40 weeks on Current TV, he had an average of 177,000 viewers at 8 p.m., a shadow of his former incarnation at MSNBC where he drew a million-plus people a night.
That’s not all his fault. Anybody who has watched the Keith-less version of Current could understand why they wanted him so badly in the first place. Beset by technical problems that had Mr. Olbermann broadcasting his show with a black backdrop in a kind of hostage/protest motif, Current was not and is not ready for prime time.
The channel’s election coverage has been tendentious and painful to watch, and the depth of its bench can be measured by the fact that it is bringing aboard former Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer of New York to replace him. Current will have to do some renovating to make room for all of the baggage he brings with him, from both his scandal-ridden exit from the governorship and his ratings-challenged turn at CNN.
Which brings us back to Mr. Olbermann. Anchoring a show on television looks easy. Buy a nice suit, get a nice haircut and read the words on the prompter in the right order with some semblance of conviction. But it’s not. As cable stations proliferate, the desperate search for people who can credibly show up every night — or not, as Mr. Olbermann was frequently on strike at Current — and hold an audience’s attention will only become more acute. Mr. Olbermann has a terrible relationship with actual humans, but a very good relationship with the camera.
When I was working on a magazine piece about Mr. Olbermann, we went to a Yankees game and he explained the camera voodoo:
“Mechanically, if you look very carefully in a camera, it has a series of reflections and dimensions to it, you can look past that,” he said. He holds up his hands in the shape of a box. “Here’s the camera, here’s the front of the camera, here’s the lens of the camera, but if you look deeply enough, you can see the inner rings at the far end of the lens and maybe a glimmer of light very deep in the distance. You can always see something that might be an inch or two below the surface. Whenever I can, I try to focus there, not on the prompter or the front of the lens.”
Maybe that’s overexplaining something that is actually innate, but history has shown that even though Mr. Olbermann’s employers do not like him, the camera, and the people at the other end, like him just fine. As Jonathan Wald, the producer for Piers Morgan put it, somewhat more industrially, in a tweet on Saturday night, “Stars star and producers produce.”
And that means he will find work. He is a free agent in a business that is remarkably akin to pro sports, full of divas who are great at hitting the curve or making impossible catches, but baffled by the rest of life. Think Terrell (“I love me some me”) Owens. Or Randy Moss. Or Babe Ruth. Or Ted Williams. Jerks, louts and narcissists, all tolerated because within the four corners of the diamond, the football field and, yes, the television studio, they can do what others cannot.
So some executives will eventually plug their noses and write a check and a contract that they hope will contain Mr. Olbermann’s less attractive aspects. He and they will say that this time it will be different, and it may be. Just don’t expect him to be part of the team.
Wow jack so even Carr who would agree with you about KO’s behavoir says that KO is employable and will come back, that is how made up that statement is. You really love to show me why I love KO and why his personality had zero to do with what happened at Current, that article even tells about Hyatt and AIDS aka firing someone with AIDS and you want me to believe KO’s the bad guy. Keep making me love and respect KO more and more and show that all you wnat to do is bash him and put up gossip articles that can easily get refuted, you also do not get what I do about KO is that he a professional and someone that is not afraid to stand up for what he believes in which is what mangement hates about him and why he has a hard time with them, it what people love, keep lying about KO that is all you know how to do, you keep showing why I am a fan and always will be. Jack you also show why KO got unjustily fired from Current you have no evidence that KO is unemployable, only a gossip site by mangement that for the first two aka MSNBC and Fox are hypocritical and includes Current, and one with someone who has just as bad a reputation as KO suppose to have, and who wants to still get on KO’s case about something that he apologized for showing that she has zero crediblity and sounds like it just a revenge post. KO keep being yourself again will be pissed if you do not get the justice for being unjusticly fired from Current. Jack why does KO been in this industry for 33 years if he so unemployable that is how BS your argument is. KO keep being yourself and showing off your great personality and showing why KO is this generations Murrow and why he will be around for years to come, keep being yourself KO and you will always have a fan in me, again Current needs to stop lying and tell people the truth that your personality and ego is not why you got fired and that you work fine with others, Hyatt needs to explain why he and Brohem thinks it okay to make thier broadcating stars to work with a throat infection, that jack shows that Current never cared about KO, just like MSNBC who wants to re-write history and is okay with people that speak at partisain events and other employers doanting but KO the bad guy, that he unbelieveable MSNBC is on that topic. All that shows jack is why I do not watch Current and MSNBC and how dishonest those mangements are. You really love to show that KO works fine with others. KO keep being yourself and you will always be perment on my wall, ipod and ipad and life and why you got unjustily fired from Current. jack you just make me love and respect KO more and more with your BS crap about who he is. Jack thier is no and you just showed once again there is no evidence that KO personality was what got him fired. Keep lying about KO and showing that KO has zero clue how to lie and that you Jack have zero clue how to tell the truth about KO and his past employment. KO love you faults and all. Here is KO true oo job history not your made up debunked version Mike thanks for showing me that you are beyond ingorant on KO’s job history. KO Mike was never fired from MSNBC or ESPN, also Mike KO was rehired by both of those companies, wow some bad personality there, Mike do you live in alternte reality, Mike you do not do last shows which KO did at both MSNBC and ESPN if you been fired. KO and even MSNBC have said that KO quit, he even got his salary that also Mike does not happen when you are fired. So no Mike he has no history of being fired by every employer that is pure BS and again has been debunked. He only be fired from Fox and that was for reporting the truth and Current and that was unjutily because they promised him the moon and never delivered. Also MIke he did not leave for the same reasons, you really hate listening to facts. ESPN he left because he and his bosses could not agree on a new contract, he wanted to go to New York, they wanted him to stay in Bristol, the reason he left the second time was that Patrick had quit ESPN and thier was nothing that he really did, so no ESPN had nothing to do with KO working well with others and personality and ego, so wrong there. MSNBC he left first time because he hated doing repaeted news of Monica Lewinsky, they sold him to Fox Sports, Fox is where he got blackmailed and fired for reporting the truth about Murdoch and the Dogers. So wrong there Mike, MSNBC a second time he left because a they scwered him over on campaign crap and he felt that they were taking creavity control away, again had nothing to do with personality and ego. So Mike you just again show how ingorant you are on KO. KO personlity again is not the reason he got fired at Current, again I care crap about that Mike, and I looked at the evidence thier is no proof Mike that KO broke the contract, none, zipo. Keep embarrassing yourself with made up debunked crap. I do not listen to people who are beyon igorant of KO’s job past espically ones that put out that debunked crap that KO was fired from MSNBC and ESPN. Mike I do not have to be a fan to tell you, people that are fired do not get rest of salary and last shows, KO got a salary from both the times that he worked at ESPN and MSNBC and did a last show that he thanked and said goodbye to people, that shows even to people that are not fans and people that unlike you know what commen sense is and uses it that KO was never fired from those networks. Mike sorry but you lie throught your teeth when you put out the debunked crap that KO’s ego and personality are bad they are not. Mike all you do is make me love and respect and show why he this generations Murrow. Sorry only got fired from Current and Fox, quit MSNBC and ESPN both times, that does not show that he hard to work with only that mangers have zero clue how to handle independent, prefetionist like him. I do not oo listen to people about KO who are so igorant when it comes to his work history, those people show that have no idea what facts are. OO you do not do last shows like KO did at MSNBC and ESPN if you were fired, you do not get a salary if you are fired, KO is this generations Murrow, you would not know what Murrow is. You oo are the one that is showing that you are Krusty the clown, you cannot refute anything that I say, so you decide instead to be the grammer and spelling police, people that are like that show that they are everything that they claim KO is. KO has worked in this industry for 33 years, that is the truth. OO I know that people that lie about KO’s career show that they are not to be listened to when it comes to KO, because they show that they do not know what facts are. OO you just showed that you do not have common sense. People that live in the real world not your fantasy world know oo that if someone does a last show and still gets a salary, that means OO that they quit and did not get fired. You show that you are beyond igorant when it comes to KO and you know that you are igorant when it comes to KO, but you are such a gutless coward that you only care about putting up debunked crap, like the lies about KO’s career than listen to the truth. You show with that post that KO is this genertions Murrow and you Oo are Krusty the clown and do not say different because I know like all your other posts that will be a lie and just show how igorant you are on KO. OO keep showing that KO can never lie and that you do not know what facts are and what truth is. OO KO only been fired from two places and they were by bad bosses, one that thinks like you telling the truth is bad aka Murdouch and one that wants to be lazy and not take responsibity for what happened at Current, that is it, the other places he quit out. There is no evidence but in your mind OO that KO was fired from MSNBC and ESPN. You do not even know what being fired is and what quiting is that is how made up your posts are.
OO quiting is when you do a last show and still get a salary like what happened at MSNBC and ESPN, getting fired is no salary and no last show that is what happened at FOX and Current, anyone with a brain that they like to use unlike you know that. You are so igorant on who KO is. YOu show again with this post why KO is this generations Murrow and show that you do not know what facts are. Keep lying about KO’s job history, the facts are and always will be and if you say different you would be lying and showing that you do not know what a fact looks like. KO quit ESPN in 1997 because of contract neogations falling apart, went to MSNBC quit MSNBC the first time because he wanted to do real news not just report on MOnica Lewnsky all the time, went to FOx got blackmailed by a guy that is know been in a scandal for hacking phones showing that he not to be trusted when it comes to honesty about anything, fired for telling the truth about Murdoch selling Dogers. Went to MSNBC, quit again because he did not like the hypocricracy that went on there and thought that he was loosing support and got a offer from Current. Than got unjustily fired and if you say different you be lying and showing how igorant you are on KO. There is no evidence that his personality is why he not there. This shows that he worked pretty steady in his career also
You again show why KO is this generations Murrow and why he will be around for years to come, you Oo are Krusty beacuse your post has no facts and truth in them. You even lie about KO’s career and put up stuff that has been debunked over and over again. Keep making me love and respect him and showing why I am a life long fan.
I do not listen to people on KO who put up that debunked crap about KO’s career because I know that people like you who say that, have no facts and are not wanting to argue facts all you want to do is show and if you say different than that will be a lie beacuse KO has quit MSNBC and ESPN both times. People like you show why we need KO and why KO is this and always will be this generations Murrow. KO keep being yourself and you will always be perment on my wall, ipod and ipad and life. Love you faults and all.

Hey Mr Olbermann! Now would be a good… nay, perfect time, to gather the children ’round the campfire and tell us the story of how this would have been the second square-off between Giants and Tigers, if it wasn’t for Fred Merkle and Johnny Evers.

Please don’t forget to mention and clarify if Iron Joe McGinnity or Christy Mathewson (who pitched that very same game) was first-base coach when the Giants were batting. Pitchers as baserunning coaches during the game? So if Mathewson came to bat AND was coaching first base, did Iron Joe replace him for just the at-bat?
It’s… it just gets weirder and weirder the more one reads about the day of the Merkle Boner, fascinating stuff and this chapter of baseball history is relevant this week.

TODAY ON CABLE TEEVEE 6:10 pm March 30, 2012

Al Gore Fires Keith Olbermann For Being Terrible

by Jim Newell

Sanctimonious screeching creep Keith Olbermann, whose ego isn’t the size of Jupiter but certainly is that of Jupiter’s largest moon, has been fired from his 757th job on television, for being horrible. Current TeeVee owner and other relatively liberal person Al Gore was the one who did the firing, in an explosive memo which arrived at the common conclusion that Keith Olbermann is someone with whom it’s impossible to work. His replacement — starting tonight — will be former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, last seen achieving the remarkable feat of being CNN’s most boring primetime host and, before that, constantly having sex with prostitutes. But but but, you will inevitably say in the comments because that’s what you always do on Olbermann posts, Keith Olbermann was the only thing that kept me sane during the Bush administration, with his unwatchable 10-minute fake rants where he pretended to be Ed Murrow! Never understood it; can’t offer you much help in that regard.

THE POLITICO has the hot cable television news, of Al Bore being mean to Dearest Keith:

“Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers,” write Current founders Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in an open memo to viewers. “Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.”

Editor Rebecca has asked your author to post some “greatest hits” of his craziest moments, but your author has never watched Keith Olbermann’s Current TV program. Here he is announcing that he’d been forced out of his last job:

You can catch Olbermann reading Thurber out of a cardboard box in Central Park, weeknights at 3 a.m.

UPDATE: Keith is suing Al Gore!
LMFAO!!!!!!!!!!

Wow again you do not get that Hyatt does not know what those terms means, he shows over and over again that he everything that he claims KO is. Again this is what happened Wow what a stupid post that makes no sense, first no one that works at Current is a rapiest, that is BS, second here is what happened at Current Again it called being unjustily fired here is it again debunking this crap and showing how igorant you are, Do you know what unjustily fired means, it has been proven over and over again that Current broke the contract here is what I told a blogger how they did it Wow
Again I suppose to believe a ogranization that claims they are liberal but thinks it okay for KO to do a commerical for ATT& that they were trying to get him to do, showing Mike that they are not corporate independent, and believe a quto confirming a negtvie story that they put out but which KO was slient about and defended Current in, as being sabatoged wow some great company, I do not listen to mangement mike that thinks that KO should work while he fighting a thorat infection, and with a guy that fired someoen with AIDS and even got rid of his co-ceo with no reason at all, you really do live in a fantasy world. again thier is no evidence that KO’s personality is why he not at Current, all you do is show that you think that imcomptent mangement need to be have by everyone. Keep lying and showing how ingoratn you are on KO, you really show that KO has no ego problem or personality problem. By all the evidence shows that Current unjustily fired KO here is something else Also jaws how is KO wanting what he would have gotten if he had been at Current for five years shows that he is all about money, if you where unjustily fired you would want what you would have gotten if you had stayed, again jawes how does that make KO a naracssit. Also jaws people in the industry would be laughing that you think that KO would never be able to come back. Patrick who has know KO was asking KO what he wanted to do next, Bill carter who has critized KO has said that he can comeback. Jaws maybe you can explain why both ESPN and MSNBC have hired him back if he so unemployed in this industy. Also how is KO a jerk, because he was suppose to let bosses treat him like crap.
Jawes, I care crap what KO is like personally that is why I can look at him objectvely and when I look at what happened at Current I saw nothing that showed that KO was being a jerk. Jawes I want you to explain what is professional about putting out a attack letter when you fire someone, I have never heard of any professional company doing that, that is how unprofessional Current is. If Current is so good at business why is they fired or let go the CEO that knows the TV industry, why did they not listen to a guy who been in this industry for 33 years when it came to how to build a network aka infustrature which means you get live streaming and HD up. Why did Current have KO do a commerical for AT&T and have AT&T be a sponser if they so cared about him, why standing up and making sure that your brand and why people became fans of you is not damge wow can you explain jaws how that is nacarrist behavior and how that is showing that you are a jerk, wanting to run the news department like he was promised and which Current has been hypocritical about, in that they say it only a title in counter-suit, but never correct go after Medite when they bash KO about him being polite to Cenk, does not say that KO was suppose to run the department. How is that narracist behavior and how is that being a jerk. Jaws getting angry at your bosses for not doing thier jobs, Current says that they deal with the business side of the show, fixing tenichal problems jaws is business not content, so they should not have to have KO telling them to do thier jobs, they should be fixing these problems not complaing about set costs and how big staff or set is, KO used that set even after the lights went out aka primary and State of the Union so Current lying when they say that he never used the set. Also they bought the equipment breaking down and say that they would move the studio he was in, I did not know wanting people to say what they mean, means that you are naccarist jerk, wow, also why jawes when current is talked about in media they use source but when KO talked about they use his name his mangers name and his lawyers names, and why did Hyatt say KO but never deined when KO said that Hyatt had told him it was his manger and about blackmailing and threatening about firing staff, you do not do any of that is you have truth on your side, that is how dishonest Hyatt is, why can Current talk the shirts off about what is going on when it comes to primary coverage a lot of the times negatively, even on the story that says that lawyers are invovled in solving this but when KO and his lawyers are only confirming what that source says about lawyers being invovled that is sabtoging Current, Jaws people who use logic know that if you are talking away at the press like Current was that Current was sabotging itself with that and thier dishonesty about being corporate independent, espically giving a coporations KO’s website and again trying to get which is what I should say do a commerical for AT&T and have a AT&T sponsership, that is how made up your narccist jerk statement is. Thier is no evidence jawes that KO is a narccist jerk and thier is no evidence that he has burned his last bridge, even people in his business do not say that, they know that KO can draw a audience and do not meation Current because no one was able to see him, because that channel again has no infustrature. If you look on fan fasebook pages and blog post about him when he was appearing on ABC this Week both times and twitter, people wanting him back, that should tell you jawes that networks are more than willing to take a chance on him. Keep bashing KO and going after me for being a fan. I do not interupt anything, you just make me love and respect him more.
Again you are showing that KO never lies and you are making me love and respect him more and that you do not know what unjustily fired means. KO keep being yourself and you will always be this generations Murrow and have a fan in me. Love you faults and all. You really make me love and respect him more. KO do not change and sorry you got unjustily fired at Current. Will not be happy if you do not get the justice you deserve. Keep being yourself love you faults and all. Again keep showing that you would rather lie and bash KO. I want you to be in a career for 33 years and than say someone is bad. Keep bashing KO he is and never be an asshole. Sorry KO that you got unjustily fired at Current. OO you show why KO is this generations Murrow and why he will be around for years to come and how igorant you are about KO. You keep putting up debunked crap that has been shown over and over again not to be true, again here is what happened at Current and why KO was unjustily firedWow what a stupid post that makes no sense, first no one that works at Current is a rapiest, that is BS, second here is what happened at Current Again it called being unjustily fired here is it again debunking this crap and showing how igorant you are, Do you know what unjustily fired means, it has been proven over and over again that Current broke the contract here is what I told a blogger how they did it Wow
Again I suppose to believe a ogranization that claims they are liberal but thinks it okay for KO to do a commerical for ATT& that they were trying to get him to do, showing Mike that they are not corporate independent, and believe a quto confirming a negtvie story that they put out but which KO was slient about and defended Current in, as being sabatoged wow some great company, I do not listen to mangement mike that thinks that KO should work while he fighting a thorat infection, and with a guy that fired someoen with AIDS and even got rid of his co-ceo with no reason at all, you really do live in a fantasy world. again thier is no evidence that KO’s personality is why he not at Current, all you do is show that you think that imcomptent mangement need to be have by everyone. Keep lying and showing how ingoratn you are on KO, you really show that KO has no ego problem or personality problem. By all the evidence shows that Current unjustily fired KO here is something else Also jaws how is KO wanting what he would have gotten if he had been at Current for five years shows that he is all about money, if you where unjustily fired you would want what you would have gotten if you had stayed, again jawes how does that make KO a naracssit. Also jaws people in the industry would be laughing that you think that KO would never be able to come back. Patrick who has know KO was asking KO what he wanted to do next, Bill carter who has critized KO has said that he can comeback. Jaws maybe you can explain why both ESPN and MSNBC have hired him back if he so unemployed in this industy. Also how is KO a jerk, because he was suppose to let bosses treat him like crap.
Jawes, I care crap what KO is like personally that is why I can look at him objectvely and when I look at what happened at Current I saw nothing that showed that KO was being a jerk. Jawes I want you to explain what is professional about putting out a attack letter when you fire someone, I have never heard of any professional company doing that, that is how unprofessional Current is. If Current is so good at business why is they fired or let go the CEO that knows the TV industry, why did they not listen to a guy who been in this industry for 33 years when it came to how to build a network aka infustrature which means you get live streaming and HD up. Why did Current have KO do a commerical for AT&T and have AT&T be a sponser if they so cared about him, why standing up and making sure that your brand and why people became fans of you is not damge wow can you explain jaws how that is nacarrist behavior and how that is showing that you are a jerk, wanting to run the news department like he was promised and which Current has been hypocritical about, in that they say it only a title in counter-suit, but never correct go after Medite when they bash KO about him being polite to Cenk, does not say that KO was suppose to run the department. How is that narracist behavior and how is that being a jerk. Jaws getting angry at your bosses for not doing thier jobs, Current says that they deal with the business side of the show, fixing tenichal problems jaws is business not content, so they should not have to have KO telling them to do thier jobs, they should be fixing these problems not complaing about set costs and how big staff or set is, KO used that set even after the lights went out aka primary and State of the Union so Current lying when they say that he never used the set. Also they bought the equipment breaking down and say that they would move the studio he was in, I did not know wanting people to say what they mean, means that you are naccarist jerk, wow, also why jawes when current is talked about in media they use source but when KO talked about they use his name his mangers name and his lawyers names, and why did Hyatt say KO but never deined when KO said that Hyatt had told him it was his manger and about blackmailing and threatening about firing staff, you do not do any of that is you have truth on your side, that is how dishonest Hyatt is, why can Current talk the shirts off about what is going on when it comes to primary coverage a lot of the times negatively, even on the story that says that lawyers are invovled in solving this but when KO and his lawyers are only confirming what that source says about lawyers being invovled that is sabtoging Current, Jaws people who use logic know that if you are talking away at the press like Current was that Current was sabotging itself with that and thier dishonesty about being corporate independent, espically giving a coporations KO’s website and again trying to get which is what I should say do a commerical for AT&T and have a AT&T sponsership, that is how made up your narccist jerk statement is. Thier is no evidence jawes that KO is a narccist jerk and thier is no evidence that he has burned his last bridge, even people in his business do not say that, they know that KO can draw a audience and do not meation Current because no one was able to see him, because that channel again has no infustrature. If you look on fan fasebook pages and blog post about him when he was appearing on ABC this Week both times and twitter, people wanting him back, that should tell you jawes that networks are more than willing to take a chance on him. Keep bashing KO and going after me for being a fan. I do not interupt anything, you just make me love and respect him more.
Again you are showing that KO never lies and you are making me love and respect him more and that you do not know what unjustily fired means. KO keep being yourself and you will always be this generations Murrow and have a fan in me. Love you faults and all. You really make me love and respect him more. KO do not change and sorry you got unjustily fired at Current. Will not be happy if you do not get the justice you deserve. Keep being yourself love you faults and all. Again keep showing that you would rather lie and bash KO. I want you to be in a career for 33 years and than say someone is bad. Keep bashing KO he is and never be an asshole. Sorry KO that you got unjustily fired at Current. OO you show why KO is this generations Murrow and why he will be around for years to come and how igorant you are about KO. So I care crap that you found a article from Jim Newell, what that guy has posted has been debunked, so once again you put up something that has been debunked and I am supose to believe that you have facts. It has been shown over and over again OO that KO is none of those things, and I am someone that cares zip about his personality, because I know that KO is not prefect that is why I was able to look at this story objectvely, and nothing shows Oo that KO was the one that broke the contract, all the evidence shows that Current broke the contract, but I guess in your world when employers treat you badly you just but up because you care about standing up for your rights and not work with imcoptent bosses. Also I should believe and listen to someone that says the most stupdiest crap that I have every heard. OO do you live in a fantasy world, you and Newmell do not get that KO is a millionaire he not going to be living out of a box, he set for life. I do not have to be a fan to know that is the most stupidest statement that I have every heard, wow you show why KO is this generations Murrow. You take the word of people that do not get that KO is a millionre and is set for life and that even to people with brains knows that he not even remotely will be homeless. Wow you show that OO lives is a fantasy world and believes and reads people that also live in a fantasy world and only care about bashing and putting up BS crap like he would be homeless. People with brains OO know that KO not going to be out on the street. Hyatt has no morals and shows that he everything that he claims KO is and you believe a guy who does not understand that KO a millionaire and who would never live out on the street. This is shows that you do not know who KO is, you do not know what being a millionaire is. This is a guy that jealous of people that make more than he does. Do you love to show how igorant you are about KO, you really make me love and respect KO more. Only people who do not use thier brains and live in fantasy worlds like you do, would believe such garbage. You really love to show that KO is oppsite of what you want him to be. YOu are everything that you claim KO is. Keep bashing KO that is all you do. YOu are beyond igorant on who is, and only show that you have zero clue what journalism is, you keep showing me that you are not and never should be listened to when it comes to KO, because you show that you have zero and do not say different because that is a lie who he is. You are so igorant on who KO is and what he does it not even funny. Keep putting up embarrassing articles like this one, showing how igorant you are on who KO is. YOu really make me love and respect him and show why he cannot make crap up. You just proved that he got unjustily fired from there, and that he needs to be suing, you really are pathic with your embarrassing posts.

I see these ‘scrimmages’ drew about 2,000 fans.

From what I know about baseball of that era, the sox saw a chance to make some more $ and took it.

I’m not sayin it was a good decision, just why it was made.

If we could get back to talking about baseball that is…

after the series is over, will ko finally apologize to vogelsong, the giants, giants fans, the city of san francisco, the state of california, and baseball fans everywhere?

will he finally admit that he and the rest of press who live east of the mississippi, know little to nothing about the greatest game ever created?

Walt he just did, maybe if you read him on twitter you would have known this. Here it is Okay, #Giants fans. About my World Series prediction: I Feel Great Shame. Congrats. #YouRealizeHowBadYankeesMustHaveBeen
Here is the other part Mea culpa RT @BASportsGuy @KeithOlbermann How about your Vogelsong snark? Walt as for the other part, that is made up crap. you need to get into your head that just beacuse people make mistakes aka east of the river. It does not mean that they do not know the game of baseball, or sports. They just make mistakes like you do. So wrong KO has always Walt known the greatest game every played. Walt KO is man enough to apologize like he always does when he makes a mistake. Maybe you can put you can apologize for that sterotype, just because people may not like the Giants or thier fans, does not mean that they do not know baseball, I am not baseball fan, but even I know that is the most stupidiest thing that I have every heard of. You need to stop bashing easterns and say that because they do not like a team and will get stuff wrong that they are not smart about baseball like the westerns are. All you guys are smart on baseball Walt, and all of you make mistakes.
KO keep showing why I love and respect you, and make me love and respect you more and more. Sorry again you got unjustily fired at Current, hate and will be pissed at the way that they abused you. Keep being yourself and you will always have a fan in me. Love you faults and all.

Two things happened that turned the prognosticators preconceptions on their heads: first, the Giants defeating Justin Verlander. Even I assumed Verlander would win his starts after seeing his dominance of Oakland in the ALDS, which is why I had Giants in 6. The second might have been the turning point of the series: Madison Bumgarner, who’d been shaky in his earlier post-season starts (even being skipped over in the NLCS), solving his delivery issues and matching Doug Fister pitch for pitch. Matt Cain wasn’t stellar tonight, but he pitched well enough to get the job done, and got picked up by stellar defense and his bullpen. And it was entirely appropriate that small ball, which got the Giants into the post-season, is what won the game for them tonight.

As for the rest of the comments, do we really have to bring politics into the discussions here? I have a fellow SF Giants fan on Twitter; we disagree vehemently about politics (he’s as conservative as I am liberal), yet we can agree on one thing: the Dodgers still suck. And that’s how baseball unites Americans. ;-)

Roberta
tell that to the trolls, that think it okay to come here and bash KO. Trust me, again I would love to just seat back and hear KO talk baseball. I hate when he or anyone that matters gets bashed and lied about. KO keep showing why you are this generations Murrow and why you will be around you years to come. Sorry you for untjustily fired at CUrrent, will be pissed if you do not get the justice that you deserve for getting abued over there. Always knows that ego and personlity was never the reason why you are not at Current. KO keep being yourself and will always have a fan in me, love you faults and all. As long as you are yourself you will always be perment on my wall,ipod and ipad and life. Again love you faults and all, be yourself and you will have a lifelong fan in me.

Two things happened that turned the prognosticators preconceptions on their heads: first, the Giants defeating Justin Verlander. Even I assumed Verlander would win his starts after seeing his dominance of Oakland in the ALDS, phd research proposal

Sports, sooo great….!!!

Love this article about my grandpa, Mickey Haefner.

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