Keith Olbermann is the Satchel Paige of Cable News.

[grantcart]

Last edited Wed Apr 4, 2012, 04:23 PM - Edit history (1)

On edit: Obviously I wasn't careful enough in my original OP because some thought that I meant that the analogy meant I thought that they made equal contributions to their professions. I don't think anyone who knows Satchel Paige's career could confuse it with anyone except Conkrite in its star and professional quality.

It was meant as a more humorous comparison of Paige's most famous anecdote where he tells the rest of the team to sit down while he strikes out the side. Olbermann is reminiscent of THAT anecdote.

Paige gave decades of superstar performances and may have done some of it with a rotator cup tear. For those that appreciated the humor of Paige and admire the contributions of Olbermann, even though he seems to self destruct, here is the OP with a tongue in cheek analogy of the two;





For those that don't know the great Satchel:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satchel_Paige

Satchel Paige was probably the greatest human to ever play baseball.

There are many famous stories about Paige but this is the most well known:

He also pitched for a semi-pro team named the Down the Bay Boys, and he recalled that he once got into a jam in the ninth inning of a 1–0 ballgame when his teammates made three consecutive errors, loading the bases for the other team with two outs. Angry, Paige said he stomped around the mound, kicking up dirt. The fans started booing him, so he decided that “somebody was going to have to be showed up for that.” He called in his outfielders and had them sit down in the infield. With the fans and his own teammates howling, Paige struck out the final batter, winning the game.[10]

Paige was also famous for saying very funny things, like "Avoid running at all times."

Paige's contract was always in limbo and was a mess of legal arbitration.

Olbermann, like Paige, has flashes of brilliance, is a brilliant player unable to play well in a team sport, seems to have a lot of unusual contract problems, and says strange memorable things.

Olbermann is unquestionably brilliant.

Olbermann is not a good team player.

Olberman is going to sue Current TV.

Olberman, explaining his situation with Current TV:


‘You know, if you buy a $10 million chandelier, you should have a house to put it in. Just walking around with a $10 million chandelier isn't going to do anybody a lot of good, and it's not going to do any good to the chandelier.' And then it turned out we didn't have a lot to put the house on, to put the chandelier in, or a building permit, and I, I should have known that," he said, acknowledging that he believed he was akin to the chandelier.

I believe that Satchel Paige was convinced that he too was a $ 10 million chandelier in a cheap house.

Final closing ironic note: KO would be pleased as punch to be compared to Satchel Paige, would get the analogy and probably agree with it, and SP would be pleased as punch to be still remembered and used as a point of comparison thirty years after he died.

[walruswasrob]

1. Which is why I admire the guy...

He knows he can be an ass. If you were making the comparison between Paige and Rush or Beck, they would be pissy and indignant.

KO is the guy who showed Jon Stewart's scathing and facetious parody of him (in it's entirety) on Countdown and then responded with "he's right".

[DefenseLawyer]

2. Once in college I responded to an ad for a job with a "sporting goods retailer"

When I got there it turned out to be a job selling steak knives door-to-door. I didn't take the job. The fact is most people just aren't in the position to walk every time they find that the situation isn't what they signed on for. Olbermann just happens have the willingness (and the financial security) that he doesn't have to shut up and take it the way most people have to in their jobs.

[Laurian]

3. +1

Amen.

[msanthrope]

4. You demean Satchel Paige with the comparison.

The man who said--

"You win a few, you lose a few. Some get rained out. But you got to dress for all of them."

should not be compared to a difficult employee with an god complex.

[Swamp Lover]

5. agreed

[truebrit71]

6. KO had a god complex?

We get it, you don't like KO....move on FFS...

[msanthrope]

20. Yes. I think he does. I kept that in mind when I watched him. nt

[Hissyspit]

7. Not suffering fools gladly is the same as a "god complex?"

Not quite.

[FSogol]

11. I agree. Bad comparison. n/t

[WCGreen]

13. He pitched for the Indians when he was over 50...

Helped them win their last world series in 1948...

Interesting guy.

They have a place for him in the Hall of Fame...

[grantcart]

14. I also love Satchel Paige however

some excerpts:

Satchel didn't think the rules should apply to him, and because of his superstar abilities, they shouldn't. He should have been in the Majors, but he was a "difficult employee" with a high opinion of himself, if not a 'god' complex':

Abel Linares offered Paige $100 per game to play winter ball for the Santa Clara team in the Cuban League. Gambling on baseball games in Cuba was such a huge pastime that players were not allowed to drink alcohol, so they could stay ready to play. Paige—homesick for carousing, hating the food, despising the constant inspections and being thoroughly baffled by the language—went 6–5 in Cuba.[20] He left Cuba abruptly before the end of the season

Paige did not like being overshadowed

Despite Greenlee's efforts to control his biggest star, Paige followed his own schedule and was often late to games that he was scheduled to pitch

Paige could not return to the NNL because he was banned from the league for the 1935 season for jumping to the Bismarck team





I would agree that its not a perfect comparison, because Paige was a bigger superstar than Olbermann. Paige was however "a difficult employee" with a "complex", although IMHO it was much more deserved than Olbermann's.

One of my favorite memories of my Dad was watching the great Satchel Paige pitch a couple of innings in 1961 when he pitched for Portland.

[msanthrope]

19. Are you quoting Wikipedia to me?

Ok....

[grantcart]

22. Oh the "I am too conceited to consider Wikipedia" tact.

first of all the analogy was clearly tongue in cheek but Paige's famous story about pitching without team mates fits the image of Olbermann trying to be the lone team member.

So no, technically I was not quoting Wikipedia, I was quoting sources cited and referenced in Wikipedia.

So I actually was quoting

Ribowsky, Mark (1994). Don't Look Back: Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball. New York: Da Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80963-X.

and

McNary, Kyle (2000–01). "North Dakota Integrated Baseball History". pitchblackbaseball.com. Retrieved February 10, 2010.

[soleft]

8. He's the Michael Dorsey of Cable News

He played a tomato for 30 seconds and went a day over schedule.

[RZM]

9. Satchel Paige is a legend. Olbermann most definitely is not.

That's not meant as a diss toward him. But legends are few and far between. Olbermann is pretty good at what he does, but he isn't the best there is. There are a lot of people in that business who are good at what they do.

I'm not saying you're necessarily arguing that either. What's funny is that one of the examples you use from Paige (calling the outfield in), was actually kind of a dick move. He and Olbermann do have some similarities there. But they aren't comparable as representatives of greatness in their fields. Paige was the best there was. Olbermann is good, but he has never been the best.

Of course, judging somebody's greatness in the field of political commentary is a lot more subjective than judging their greatness on the field of sport.

[grantcart]

15. No argument that Paige is a legend and Olbermann is not and will never be.

The analogy was more aimed at their similar concepts of 'team work' illustrated by the famous story.

In fairness Paige was able to work with teams over decades and had only a few instances of problems while Olberman seems to have them every year.

[COLGATE4]

10. Satchel Paige had another brilliant observation

that Keith could look at sometime: "Don't look behind you - something may be gaining on you".

[grantcart]

16. Here is his 7 rules for staying young

Paige's rules originally appeared in the June 13, 1953 issue of Collier's. The version below is taken from his autobiography Maybe I'll Pitch Forever (as told to David Lipman, 1962):
1."Avoid fried meats which angry up the blood."
2."If your stomach disputes you, lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts."
3."Keep the juices flowing by jangling around gently as you move."
4."Go very light on the vices, such as carrying on in society—the social ramble ain't restful."
5."Avoid running at all times."
6."And don't look back—something might be gaining on you."

[COLGATE4]

18. Thank you! I never knew that one of my

favorite Satchel expressions was part of his 'rules for staying young'. They're marvellous.

[Major Hogwash]

12. KO worked at MSNBC without a contract the first year he did Countdown.

I don't know if you knew that or not.
But, I think that makes your "he's not a team player" comment invalid.

KO was sent an envelope filled with anthrax in 2001, as were many Democrats serving in Congress at the time.

However, since KO was just commenting on sports back in 2001, how did that make him a target for the terrorists?
Did he say something wrong about their favorite baseball team?

[hifiguy]

17. I have great respect for Olbermann's intellect

and ability to cut through bullshit. Unfortunately, that intellect and talent is combined with a difficult, not to say poisonous, personality. He clearly is a very trying person to work with and around. That is not particularly admirable. Contrast his issues with the utter professionalism of his protege Rachel Maddow; the comparison does not redound to Olbermann's credit.

[walruswasrob]

21. Rachel lost me, oddly enough,

when she had Peter Tork on her show. She came off as an overly gushy fangirl. KO, for all of his behind-the-scene faults would have fared better with Tork, IMHO.