This has nothing to do with the Countdown host’s politics, by the way: On his baseball blog, Olbermann recounts a 1993 meeting with Showalter when the then-Yankees manager told the then-SportsCenter anchor that the Yankee players didn’t appreciate his style on the ESPN highlight show, and that they refused to enter the clubhouse until Olbermann had left. Showalter said Olbermann made him laugh personally, but that he feared a couple of players — he named Wade Boggs and Paul O’Neill — might take a swing at him if given the chance.
But four years later, Olbermann ran into O’Neill at the ESPYs, and the right-fielder set the record straight. Said O’Neill, according to Olbermann: “Buck ordered us into the trainers’ room. 25 guys in there like sar-blanking-dines! All he told us was there was a reporter he hated and he wanted to air out and we needed to stay put till he let us back in the clubhouse.” Olbermann adds that after posting this, he received word from a baseball writer who says Showalter pulled the same thing on him while managing in Arizona. So if you’re scoring at home — or as Olbermann might say, even if you’re alone — that’s two members of the media reportedly manipulated by what Olbermann calls a “recidivist Manager-Who-Throws-His-Players-Under-The-Bus.”
So Good To See Buck Showalter Again (Not) [Baseball Nerd/MLBlogs]