• media approval ratings

    Media Approval Ratings: Buster Olney

    When we first moved to New York, Buster Olney was the anonymous, goofily named reporter in The New York Times who knew pretty much everything you needed to know about baseball. He was their star. And then he went to ESPN. He's not the star anymore, but at least everybody knows his name now. More »

    1:05 PM on Fri Mar 21 2008
    By Leitch
    8,799 views, 45 comments

    Latest by Small White Ball: If he dropped the Yankees schtick, I would approve. It's embarrassing. Greenberg loves him though...which means I doubly disapprove. /dueling. more »

  • media

    In Defense (?) Of Borges

    In response to our Ron Borges and the Quote Pool Of Replenishing Nourishment item earlier today, a reporter (and colleague of Borges) writes in to (gently) take us to task, requesting that he/she remain anonymous. A quote: More »

    2:45 PM on Tue Mar 6 2007
    By Leitch
    6,264 views, 56 comments

  • espn

    Buster Olney Responds: "I Like My Job, Thank You"


    One of the things we love about Mr. Irrelevant and his gang at AOL Sports Bloggers Live is that they're fun enough to pounce on the real sports stories yet clean and well-shaven (and AOL-affiliated) enough to bring in big-name guests that we don't have (or, more accurately, have little desire to have) access to. We get to be the crazy uncle who plants them questions for their big-name guests without those guests having to, you know, sully themselves with us. It's a nice exchange. More »

    4:30 PM on Tue Nov 15 2005
    By Leitch
    1,290 views, 11 comments

    Latest by whittlz: Ok, well, correct me if I'm wrong: Hasn't Chris Berman been there, doing that schtick, the whole time? And more »

  • baseball

    Lenny Dykstra, Cosmopolitan

    We know we make fun of ESPN a lot here, and much of it is justified, of course, but we are nothing if not fair. The big investigative steroid story gracing the cover of ESPN: The Magazine this week is, for lack of a better word, outstanding. Legitimately all-encompassing, it's sober, smart and full of all kinds of great info. It's the type of public service journalism that has been sorely lacking not just at the network, but in sportswriting all together. There. We said it. See? We're reasonable people. More »

    10:15 AM on Thu Nov 10 2005
    By Leitch
    598 views, 10 comments

    Latest by Eirishis: I'm with Gamenotes - the whole thing is a few years late and a few dollars short. Given the more »

  • espn

    More Mock Press Conference Shenanigans

    busterolneysit.jpg
    An alert reader clues us into some ESPN tech snafus last Sunday, the first day of the mock Steve Phillips press conference things. More »

    4:00 PM on Wed Nov 9 2005
    By Leitch
    493 views, 2 comments

  • espn

    OK, Seriously, Knock It Off You Guys


    All right, we know we've mentioned this already, but we're still kind of obsessed with this daily SportsCenter feature of Steve Phillips "playing" the role of every team's GM. At first, we thought this was just going to be a Boston thing, playing with the Theo Epstein press conference last week. But then they did the Yankees, and then the Cubs, and the Astros tomorrow, and we're realizing that they're really going to do this, they really might do every MLB team. So we thought we'd just go ahead and confess every part of this we're confused about. Henceforth: More »

    11:00 AM on Wed Nov 9 2005
    By Leitch
    4,014 views, 14 comments

    Latest by Will Leitch: Ha. That's fantastic, Martha. You're right: That IS the best part. When Phillips compliments his own questions. Brilliant. more »

  • espn

    Sure, Yeah, Critics, ESPN's Totally Listening

    Maybe it's that ridiculous Steve Phillips mock press conference thing that "SportsCenter" is doing right now, but for whatever reason, there's all kinds of anti-ESPN invective out there today. More »

    11:30 AM on Tue Nov 8 2005
    By Leitch
    106 views, 2 comments

  • espn

    The Sad Faces Of Buster Olney And Jeremy Schaap


    For anyone who wondered just what sacrifices that legitimate journalists like Jeremy Schaap and Buster Olney have to suckle from ESPN's cash teat, look no further than this morning's "SportsCenter." In it, baseball analyst Steve Phillips answers mock questions in a mock press conference, pretending to be Boston's general manager. This is bad enough, dumb, pointless, harmless. But then, the people "asking" the "questions" to Phillips ... they're real ESPN journalists! Including Olney and Schaap, who both, after asking scripted questions to a co-worker, have considerable "I hate myself and want to die" looks on their faces. More »

    10:15 AM on Mon Nov 7 2005
    By Leitch
    1,833 views, 9 comments

    Latest by Sportszilla: My favorite part was the crawl at the bottom of the screen making it very clear that it was a more »

  • espn

    We Have To Ask ...

    Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ...
    • 11 a.m. MLB with Buster Olney: Hey, loved you in the "Our Gang" comedies. Now get a real name and tell us who the next Yankees manager is gonna be.
    • 1 p.m. NFL with Michelle Tafoya: From a small Minnesota TV station to Monday Night Football sideline reporter. You're gonna make it after all ...
    • 4 p.m. NFL with Rick Spielman: Your great A.J. Feeley experiment has ended in thus — the Dolphins just traded him for Cleo Lemon. Your thoughts?

    10:50 AM on Mon Oct 24 2005
    By Leitch
    75 views, 2 comments

    Latest by Planet B: Who's Cleo Lemon? more »

  • espn

    We Have To Ask ...

    Suggested questions for today's ESPN SportsNation chatters ...
    • 10 a.m. Fantasy Football Focus: "We've got a couple of sleeper picks at quarterback," you said. "You can't go wrong with Michael Vick and Tim Rattay," you said. "You can thank us later," you said. I'd like to thank you now. What's your address?
    • 11 a.m. MLB with Buster Olney. Seriously, this sounds like a local TV kids show. When does Bunny Rabbit release the ping pong balls?
    • 1 p.m. NFL with Michelle Tafoya: Come on, take off your top. What? This isn't Howard Stern? Oh. Well, would you consider taking off your top anyway? Oh, sorry: We thought Olney was still chatting.

    10:38 AM on Mon Oct 10 2005
    By Leitch
    77 views