"I dressed up in my Matt Moore First Win Game-Used uniform..."

Despite my fervent love of baseball, I simply can't cover everything that goes on, even in the off-season. In fact, that's a great example, because I'm not going to care about every single trade or acquisition that goes on - it's just not realistic. In this case, I'm referring to the Mariners/Yankees Jesus Montero-Michael Pineda trade that has recently had everyone up in arms. First of all, I don't like the Yankees; I don't hide that. Secondly, I just don't keep up with the Mariners. There are no players in particular on their team who I like. Besides, they are an American League team and I'm a National League person. So that should sum it up right there. And while I don't read as many baseball blogs as I should, I don't need to say a word about the Montero-Pineda trade. Why is that, you might ask? Because in this case, the lovely Keith Olbermann has done it for me. (http://keitholbermann.mlblogs.com/2012/01/14/montero-pineda-no-big-deal/)

I've always liked Olbermann - he was fun to watch on MSNBC and I always knew he had previously been a sportscaster. I did not, however, until recently know that he had a baseball blog on MLB.com. And not that it's surprising, but the man can write - and he can write damn well. He was recently a guest on Clubhouse Confidential and I had to stop myself from drooling, because this guy is really devoted to baseball. I could pick from any number of his posts, really - the one about the Topps Pack Opening Day event is particularly heartwarming. In that entry he includes a shot of the limited-edition Skip Schumaker card with the Cardinals rally squirrel in it - pretty priceless, if you ask me.

My long-winded point though, is that it is really great to see someone combine their love of a sport with their natural gifts for speaking and writing. He is what I aspire to be with my blog. Sure, he's 1,000 times the writer that I will ever hope to be, but it's a wonderful thing to strive for. Olbermann is, as his blog title states, a baseball nerd - but he is one of the highest order. If he calls himself a baseball nerd, I'm proud to call myself one too.