Countdown with Keith Olbermann

SEASON 2 EPISODE 5: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: In a tradition as old as the nation itself, Trump has been indicted. The true headline is the accelerated timeline the Judge imposes. There can be no question they intend to begin this trial not just before the election but WELL before the election. B-Block (19:29) IN SPORTS: The shut-up-and-dribble crowd forgets to shut up. The DeVos-owned NBA Orlando Magic donates $50,000 to a campaign arm of the racist, homophobic Ron DeSantis and the team players and ALL the NBA players rightfully go nuts. And Tiger Woods joins the PGA Board: will he save us from the Saudi takeover of golf, or collaborate with those who want to see The Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Masters? (23:43) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Trump whore Mark Levin with an embarrassing flub, Tampa discovers "Dumpster Fire" is not always just a metaphor, and General Michael Flynn was trying to tweet something AGAINST child trafficking but wound up tweeting something that sounds like it's FOR child trafficking. We think that's what it is. C-Block (29:10) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: If it's another indictment day I can only read you one of the master's works: he wrote it in 1931 when Donald wasn't even a gleam in Fred Trump's eye at an invigorating KKK rally. Yet it is the story: "The Greatest Man In The World."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SEASON 2 EPISODE 4: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: The "it was just free speech, you're criminalizing the 1st Amendment" defense has been replaced. Trump's lawyers, Fox News puppets, and even opponents are all rolling out a new one: John Eastman did it! Of course they are phrasing it differently. They are blaming it on Trump relying on "the advice of counsel." It's an ingenious strategy - you were too stupid to know your lawyer was an idiot. But it really only damages Obstruction charges, and it would require Trump to testify. Still, it does indicate Trump will keep throwing different things at the wall to see what might stick. Plus, the media line for spaces at today's arraignment of Trump in DC began to form before sunset last night. Trump is almost certain to be there, even though cameras won't be. Trump's January 6th Insurrection turns out to have helped destroy America's credit rating. The debate over the identity of Unidentified Co-Conspirator 6 continues to raise with Maggie Haberman and the Times insisting it's Boris Epshteyn - but there's an important flaw in the description that they have ignored. And you don't want to be Unidentified Co-Conspirator 1. The Rudy Giuliani tape transcripts are out from the rape and sexual abuse lawsuit against him and they actually ARE filled with slurs against Jews and gays and constant gross misogyny. I will give a dramatic reading. B-Block (22:15) IN SPORTS: 37 days ago he was throwing a perfect game. Today, he's in in-patient alcohol rehab. And is Max Scherzer lying about the Mets? Or are the Mets lying to their fan base? Or did the Mets lie to Scherzer? (26:40) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Moms For Liberty - still fighting mental health. Warner Bros apologizes after they suddenly realize that "Barbenheimer" and "Ken's Atomic Bomb Hairstyle" might be a little offensive - in Japan. In August. And Uncle Fester steps in it: Joe Rogan smears Ray Epps, who was not a provocateur on 1/6 but IS extremely litigious. C-Block (33:00) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: Theo, in Queens, needs a forever family! (34:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Off by a day, but 44 years and a day ago, as a 20-year old rookie sportscaster and editor on a 1,000-station national radio network, I was literally walking into the booth for my first sportscast of the night when the news suddenly broke: the captain of the New York Yankees had died in a plane crash. That day will always be with me.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

POST-INDICTMENT TRUMP SPECIAL: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SMITH MANAGES TO CHARGE TRUMP WITH A COUP, STOCHASTIC TERRORISM, SEDITION, AND ATTEMPTING TO FOMENT A CIVIL WAR - without ever using any of these weighted and difficult-to-prove phrases and charges. It is the genius of the charging document and indeed the case. It looks and reads like a set of Obstruction, Fraud, and Civil Rights charges. In fact it will go into history as the fiercest damnation of the worst criminal in American history  B-Block (21:51) YOU ARE NUMBER SIX: It can't all be gloom and doom. We have been unintentionally given a Wordle-like game to play. Let's call it "Trumple." There are six unidentified, unindicted co-conspirators in the case. Four are easily recognized: Rudy, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, and Sidney Powell. The fifth is a little tougher: Kenneth Cheseboro. But who is number six? Experts, sources and crowd-votes disagree. But I think I've found him. LET'S PLAY TRUMPLE. C-Block (32:30) TRUMP'S DEFENSE? THIS WAS JUST FREE SPEECH. He's got a problem here. The judge assigned the case has heard countless January 6 trials and has already dismissed the 1st Amendment as a defense, and has mocked the loyalty of the seditionists to Trump. But, we get to hear Rudy cry about Trump. And you get to hear me guarantee you that eventually, Rudy will give him up.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A-Block (1:44) BULLETIN: Trump indicted and the lone true surprise is the six unindicted co-conspirators and for once Donald Trump is not alone on the stage of infamy. And it may yet prove that the Trump Six are as important to this case as anything else because they can only BE unindicted because the Special Prosecutor is holding out hope he can make them into witnesses by deferring indicting them, and implicitly threatening to do so. Plus we all think we can figure out with virtual certainty who at least five of them are. As for Trump, he is in the worst position he has been on any of his indictment days because flatly, the narrative presented by Jack Smith in the 45-page four-count indictment really offers him only one defense: Abject Stupidity. “Despite having lost,” it begins, “the defendant was determined to remain in power. So for more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won. These claims, and the Defendant knew that they were false. But the defendant repeated and widely disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense national atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.” Smith has indicted Trump not merely for trying to overthrow the 2020 election and stop the peaceful transfer of power and savage American democracy, but of doing it while he knew, every moment of every day, that he was lying as he did so. Again and again prosecutors quote Trump advisers, lawyers, counselors as telling him he lost. And at least once Smith quotes Trump acknowledging it. Acknowledging he lost. Acknowledging on January 3rd that Joe Biden would be president on January 20th. And then immediately going back to trying to stop it from happening, and lying about it. Paragraph 83: “On the evening of January 3, the Defendant met for a briefing on an overseas national security issue with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other senior national security advisors. The Chairman briefed the Defendant on the issue-which had previously arisen in December- as well as possible ways the Defendant could handle it. When the Chairman and another advisor recommended that the Defendant take no action because Inauguration Day was only seventeen days away and any course of action could trigger something unhelpful, the Defendant calmly agreed, stating, "Yeah, you're right, it's too late for us. We're going to give that to the next guy." Yet he did NOT give it to the next guy. Paragraph 84: “The Defendant moved immediately from this national security briefing to the meeting that the Acting Attorney General had requested earlier that day…The Defendant expressed frustration with the Acting Attorney General for failing to do anything to overturn the election results, and the group discussed Co-Conspirator 4's plans to investigate purported election fraud and to send his proposed letter to state officials-a copy of which was provided to the Defendant during the meeting.” There are only two explanations anyone could offer for that kind of behavior: to acknowledge you have lost the election and are leaving office, and then conduct a meeting over how to stay in office. Either you are stupid to the point of mental incompetence, or you are engaged in a conspiracy to knowingly defraud the people of the United States of America by any and all means available. And in this country when you are arraigned you must plead Guilty or Not Guilty. You may not plead "STUPID." THE REMAINDER OF THIS PODCAST IS FROM TUESDAY'S ORIGINAL EDITION B-Block (16:02) SPECIAL COMMENT: Indictment foreshadowing. “This is really bad news for Biden,” Trump wrote last night, though – not really, no, “which means I will probably be indicted again, soon.” Do you like THAT foreshadowing? Or how about this one? Fani Willis sends an e-mail to county commissioners asking them to make sure they keep themselves and their staff safe. And orange security barriers have gone up around the Fulton County Courthouse. And yesterday was the first of ten days before August 18th when she ordered 70 percent of her staff to work remotely. Willis also gave a TV interview: “The work is accomplished. We’ve been working for two and a half years. We’re ready to go,” unquote. Meanwhile back at the DC Ranch: there is still that January 6th Target Letter from Jack Smith hanging like the sword of Damacles over Trump’s head and the fact that if Smith sticks to a timeline that matches the document case, he’s indicting today or Thursday at the latest and the fact that his Trump January 6th Grand Jury was expected to convene today and while Trump’s latest self-pitying post – that would be number Three Million, 447 thousand 237, collect the whole set – is not necessarily time-sensitive it sure is funny if he already knew from his attorneys that the indictments are coming this week and instead of just revealing it like he did last time, he’s milking it this way, in order to feed the fascists’ story line that the entire prosecution of Trump is being made up as they go along, and in a matter of hours, for one reason only. Namely – as Trump also posted last night – “in order to kill the news cycle!!!" Also: why does Trump treat his cultists like idiots? Because they're idiots. New polling: 91 percent of Republicans who trust Fox News don't believe he has committed any real crime and 85 percent of them say Republicans have to support him regardless. And there is a guess or a theory or a thesis beginning to form that Trump is cash-poor, has been drained by the failure of Trump Social, and his ability to pay for those lawyers AND this campaign may be severely constrained - and it's all because of Elon Musk! C-Block (33:30) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Whatever actually happened with Congressman Ronny Jackson and the 15-year old girl and the cops at the rodeo, his office felt compelled to issue a press release insisting he WASN'T drinking. The X-sign is gone. Tommy Tuberville is all ears after he loses Space Command for Alabama. RFK Jr's PAC is literally half-funded by an 81-year old Republican. (36:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Musk. Again. Threatening to sue to prevent free speech and protect hate speech. DeSantis fanboy Pedro Gonzalez and MORE antisemitic texts including one against Nancy Pelosi whom he doesn't know isn't Jewish. And the U.S. Congressman who believes that a soldier is buried under the floor of the Capitol rotunda.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

IT'S THE COUNTDOWN 1ST ANNIVERSARY PODCAST A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: Indictment foreshadowing. “This is really bad news for Biden,” Trump wrote last night, though – not really, no, “which means I will probably be indicted again, soon.” Do you like THAT foreshadowing? Or how about this one? Fani Willis sends an e-mail to county commissioners asking them to make sure they keep themselves and their staff safe. And orange security barriers have gone up around the Fulton County Courthouse. And yesterday was the first of ten days before August 18th when she ordered 70 percent of her staff to work remotely. Willis also gave a TV interview: “The work is accomplished. We’ve been working for two and a half years. We’re ready to go,” unquote. Meanwhile back at the DC Ranch: there is still that January 6th Target Letter from Jack Smith hanging like the sword of Damacles over Trump’s head and the fact that if Smith sticks to a timeline that matches the document case, he’s indicting today or Thursday at the latest and the fact that his Trump January 6th Grand Jury was expected to convene today and while Trump’s latest self-pitying post – that would be number Three Million, 447 thousand 237, collect the whole set – is not necessarily time-sensitive it sure is funny if he already knew from his attorneys that the indictments are coming this week and instead of just revealing it like he did last time, he’s milking it this way, in order to feed the fascists’ story line that the entire prosecution of Trump is being made up as they go along, and in a matter of hours, for one reason only. Namely – as Trump also posted last night – “in order to kill the news cycle!!!" Also: why does Trump treat his cultists like idiots? Because they're idiots. New polling: 91 percent of Republicans who trust Fox News don't believe he has committed any real crime and 85 percent of them say Republicans have to support him regardless. And there is a guess or a theory or a thesis beginning to form that Trump is cash-poor, has been drained by the failure of Trump Social, and his ability to pay for those lawyers AND this campaign may be severely constrained - and it's all because of Elon Musk! B-Block (19:05) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Whatever actually happened with Congressman Ronny Jackson and the 15-year old girl and the cops at the rodeo, his office felt compelled to issue a press release insisting he WASN'T drinking. The X-sign is gone. Tommy Tuberville is all ears after he loses Space Command for Alabama. RFK Jr's PAC is literally half-funded by an 81-year old Republican. (22:10) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Musk. Again. Threatening to sue to prevent free speech and protect hate speech. DeSantis fanboy Pedro Gonzalez and MORE antisemitic texts including one against Nancy Pelosi whom he doesn't know isn't Jewish. And the U.S. Congressman who believes that a soldier is buried under the floor of the Capitol rotunda. C-Block (28:45) FIRST ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS of the start of Year 2 of this here pod. Thank you kindly for listening.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 257: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: It's just guess but I think Trump is TERRIFIED that his “Property Manager” Carlos De Oliveira is about to flip. Trump freaked out again last night about Jack Smith and the documents and Hilary emails and Biden documents and the Special Counsel covering the Biden documents review – and without provocation from any known developments – and the LAST time he did that I told you “SOMETHING is going on at the Grand Jury but I’ll be damned if I know what” and hours later there was a superseding indictment on the documents so with that context let me say it again: SOMETHING is going on at the Grand Jury because Trump may not have MANY human traits but he is really good on exhibiting cause and effect. And this freakout may have something to do with either or both of two developments. At 10:30 this morning, at the James Lawrence King Federal Justice Building in Miami, Courtroom 5, before Magistrate Judge Edwin G. Torres, we will see present himself for his first appearance who else but Trump’s newest co-defendant, his Mar-a-Lago “Property Manager” Carlos De Oliveira: the guy who gave us THE money quote, so far, of the destruction of evidence and obstruction case, “The boss wants the server deleted.” And if the Trump freak out doesn’t owe to THAT indictment hearing, and the prospect that not everybody is as dumb as Walt Nauta, and that a YEAR ago Trump wasn’t sure De Oliveira wasn’t the kind of guy who’d flip, then it’s the fact that CLEARLY Trump’s Mar-a-Lago I-T Guy Yuscil Taveras already flipped. B-Block (18:51) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: The Trump stochastic terrorist who hunted Barack Obama moves to be released from jail, and we have a SCOTUS problem: Sam Alito isn't just corrupt, he's gone crazy (22:38) IN SPORTS: Max Scherzer, Jordan Hicks, others traded as baseball's deal deadline looms. But what the GM of the New York Mets said AFTER he traded Scherzer kind of paints himself and his owner into a corner in which they have to sign Shohei Ohtani (29:26) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Ron DeSantis's pro-slavery campaign costs Orlando $4.6 million. NJ Congressman Christopher Smith wants to scuttle the World HIV/AIDS program over a conspiracy theory. And Musk reinstates Kanye West. C-Block (35:15) EVERY DOG HAS ITS DAY: The adorable Petros in Devore CA (36:15) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: I made a flub on D-Day which reminded me of the day the president of MSNBC staked everything on covering the 60th Anniversary OF D-Day - and major news broke which he tried to avoid running in order to protect his dream!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 256: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: “The boss wanted the server deleted.” WHY would you try to destroy the security video if you didn’t do anything wrong? WHY would you try to destroy the security video if it didn’t PROVE you broke the law? WHY would you move the documents after the government said don’t move the documents, and WHY would you move the documents without remembering that you’d get caught ON security video MOVING the documents, and why when you DID remember that you’d get caught on security video would you then try to destroy the security video and GET CAUGHT TRYING TO DESTROY THE SECURITY VIDEO? Why would you personally launch a plot to destroy the server that seemed to have been good at only one thing – leaving clues. And oh by the way this is still on top of the espionage. I went to a January 6th Indictment and a Stolen Classified DOCUMENTS Indictment broke out! It was the cover-up sank Richard Nixon. The cover-up got Bill Clinton impeached. And THIS cover-up – Destroy the Servers, Destroy the Servers, now looks exactly like the Server cover-up Trump accused Hillary Clinton of in 2016, a theme he pounded weekly and daily and hourly and arguably won him the White House. And one thing we can infer from the superseding indictment is that the government has witnesses to whom Trump showed the Mark Milley Iran War document, and has all Trump’s Property Manager’s texts and it looks like it has his IT Guy, Employee 4? He and Employee 5 are testifying against Trump and they have all of Walt Nauta’s messages right down to the SHUSH emoji he used to remind the person he was telling all this to not to tell anybody. (Prosecutor holds up giant blow-up of Nauta text with SHUSH emoji, six feet tall. “Perhaps, Mr. Nauta, THIS will refresh your memory!”) And let us not forget: the January 6th Indictments are still coming. Today? Beginning of next week? They remain next. POOP EMOJI! Trump’s guilt is now even more obvious than ever; thus so too is the fact that we are playing Beat The Clock. Is the play now to offer to trade Trump justice and revenge in a disqualification plea deal? B-Block (22:00) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Maybe Trump had his Property Manager also send the IT guy to fix McConnell. Can he have a look at Feinstein? And while he's at it, maybe he could remove the adult content from Rep. Nancy 'I Skipped Sex To Be Here, Reverend' Mace. (26:30) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: The Barbie movie. Now they will ALL BE Barbie Movies. Jonathan Turley suggests Biden might pardon his son and then announce he's not running for re-election. And while Senator Tommy Tuberville is blocking military promotions, The Washington Post reports he's also dragged his own father's honorable military record through the mud by inflating his service in World War 2. C-Block (33:20) FRIDAYS WITH THURBER: I haven't read this one to you before. It's a delightfully crafted story of the crassest kind of practical joker: "Meet Birdey Doggett."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 255: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:43) SPECIAL COMMENT: What if that had been Joe Biden and not Mitch McConnell? What if that had been JOE BIDEN stopping mid-sentence, going glassy eyed and catatonic for 30 seconds, having to be led away by his colleagues, returning only to mumble his insistence he was fine - and a bad joke? What kind of Hell would the Republicans have unleashed on us? "Resignation! 25th Amendment! Cover-up! Seizure! Aneurysm! History! Diagnosis! Prognosis! Body Double! And - I get it - 100 Minority Leaders aren't worth ONE President. But what would Republicans have DONE with this? And what DID Republicans do with Trump's Covid hospitalization and Trump's 2019 mystery trip to Walter Reed? What if it was Joe Biden making a bad joke about Mitch McConnell's health instead of Mitch McConnell making a bad joke about Joe Biden's? And the reporter replies "Oh nice." The Republicans, and the news media - partisan and otherwise - would've gone insane over this story. Or if it had happened to an elderly Democratic Senate leader. Plus the Hunter Biden plea deal collapse really hurts Jim Jordan and Jamie Comer - and Jordan admits it. And I swear something is going on at the Trump Grand Jury. Trump is freaking out again. But I'll be damned if I know what it is. And Marjorie Taylor Greene exceeds her usual boundaries of stupidity. After two dozen listens I still don't know what she said, and I don't know what she MEANT to say. B-Block (16:11) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Underwater temperatures in the Atlantic off Florida are as hot as a Jacuzzi and the highest on record. Asphalt temperatures in Arizona are 180 and have sent people to the burn ward who merely fell to the ground. We have skipped "Climate Crisis" and gone right to "Climate Catastrophe." And he may be finished but Chris Licht ain't finished. First he destroyed CNN. Now his hope for revenge is destroying Variety. (26:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Somebody took a Community Note over his vaxxer conspiracy tweet; he just threatened advertisers; he just purloined the handle @X - yes, Elon Musk takes Win, Place and Show. C-Block (31:05) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Saturday would've been my Dad's 94th Birthday. I don't know which seems weirder to write here: "94th" or "would've."See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 254: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: There are no signs that the Jack Smith Grand Jury actually did indict Donald Trump yesterday in Washington. So why and how - just minutes after the Grand Jurors went home for the day - did Trump write and post: They "Are now indicting me"? Does Trump know something we don't? Or is it just that if you send out 60 social media posts in a nine-hour span, your odds of being actually pertinent and right, begin to approach 100%? Meanwhile: Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy beclowns himself. First he says of President Biden "this is RISING to the level of impeachment inquiry." But by morning he has switched to: It "would rise to the level." And finally, to "We wouldn't HAVE to rise." B-Block (15:59) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: One part of the Climate Catastrophe that we forgot about. When it hit 115 degrees in Catania in Sicily, all the underground electrical cables melted. Texas A&M goes full on McCarthy, punishing a lecturer who dared to criticize the Lieutenant Governor. And Trump's top legal advisor has his first Biden scalp: he's proved the DOG is guilty of deep personal corruption (21:27) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Sean Hannity and Elon Musk lead the chorus jumping to the conclusion that LeBron James' son suffered cardiac arrest because of Covid vaccine because no athlete ever went into cardiac arrest before Covid except all those other ones who died. Andy Ogles demands the media stop "sensationalizing" mass murderers - unless they were to pose with long guns on their Christmas cards. And Greg Gutfeld defends the Fox/DeSantis claim that slavery helped slaves by teaching them all to become blacksmiths, by saying that those in the Nazi death camps who had useful skills survived and all the other unskilled ones didn't. He has not been fired. Not yet. C-Block (26:53) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: Tomorrow is Uma Thurman Day. I was supposed to have coffee with her, then dinner with the network president who had a plan for us to save the network from the idiot who owned it. And then plans changed...See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

EPISODE 253: COUNTDOWN WITH KEITH OLBERMANN A-Block (1:42) SPECIAL COMMENT: Trump may be indicted for the January 6th attemped coup – today. Or, not! But clearly as of 1 PM eastern at the Prettyman Courthouse in DC, the window TO indict is open for the first time on this 10th day since Trump received Jack Smith’s 2nd Target Letter. The window from Target Letter to indictment last time might have been as short as 10 days, maybe as long as 20. Plus what could be at the center of a THIRD set of indictments: more testimony from Trump staffers that he knew damn well that the election wasn’t stolen and that he didn’t win it. And that in February 2020 he even praised the improved election security and audit capability for paper ballots, nine months before the 2020 Presidential Election. And Trump online: reposts Marjorie Pornography Greene’s “little bitch” quote about the Special Prosecutor, and a moronic poll over Republicans’ “Dream President” Plus: obeying Supreme Court rulings is now optional. Who knew? That's the verdict from the Republican Governor of Alabama Kay Ivey, and the Republican Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy. So I guess Roe-V-Wade wasn’t overturned and that key 2nd Amendment case – Heller – doesn’t say anything about the right to own a gun after all. B-Block (16:33) POSTSCRIPTS TO THE NEWS: Doug Burgum, your pro-vigilante presidential aspirant. Ben Shapiro on Barbie: Go Woke Go Broke. World on Barbie? $337 Million opening weekend. My late neighbor Tony Bennett. (23:00) THE WORST PERSONS IN THE WORLD: Fox blasts USA Women's Soccer team for not singing the national anthem while it NEVER PLAYS the national anthem on the games it televises. Elon Musk doesn't OWN "X" for social media (and no, he's NOT calling them 'Xeets') and the World Trade Center promotes itself with a photo of the building - and a passenger jet. C-Block (28:00) THINGS I PROMISED NOT TO TELL: In an all-new edition, I have two stories about baseball's newest Hall of Famers. Fred McGriff was drafted by the Yankees but traded away as a minor leaguer for garbage because an active Yankees player insisted to George Steinbrenner it was a great deal, and Scott Rolen insisted to me that the highlight of his 1996 season was the elaborate practical joke he, his minor league teammates, the manager, and the umpire concocted and played on me during a game - and he stuck to this even after I reminded him that 1996 was the year he began his Hall of Fame major league career,.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.