Buster Olney

Robert Stanbury "Buster" Olney III (born February 17, 1964) is an American columnist for ESPN: The Magazine, ESPN.com, and covered the New York Giants and New York Yankees for The New York Times. He is also a regular analyst for the ESPN's Baseball Tonight. Olney is one of about 575 voters for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He also hosts ESPN's Baseball Tonight daily podcast.

Early life and education

Olney grew up on a dairy farm in Randolph Center, Vermont, which came in handy when he served as the "Cow Insider" for Mike Greenberg's milking of a cow on Mike and Mike in the Morning on June 21, 2007. He was educated at Northfield Mount Hermon School and Vanderbilt University, where he majored in history. As a child Buster was an avid baseball fan. At age 8, he developed an affinity for the Los Angeles Dodgers after reading a book about Sandy Koufax. Buster would later attribute his fanship as a reason for his journalistic career.

Journalism career

Print

After graduation, Olney began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. While in Nashville, he formed a close relationship with the legendary Don Meyer, Head Coach of the men's basketball program at David Lipscomb University. He later worked at the San Diego Union-Tribune and Baltimore Sun. He arrived at the Times in 1997 and in his first year won an Associated Press award.