Background
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.
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.
He is also a regular analyst for the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network"s Baseball Tonight. Olney is one of about 575 voters for the Baseball Hall of Fame. He also hosts Entertainment and Sports Programming Network"s Baseball Tonight daily podcast.
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.
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.
During one of his first assignments in Nashville, the Sounds hosted the Columbus Clippers who, at the time, were the American Automobile Association affiliate of the New York Yankees. Olney almost had a minor confrontation with a Yankee prospect at the time known more for his football play, Deion Sanders. Olney had attempted to do a piece on Sanders, but was blown official
In return, Olney wrote what he called later in his career an unflattering piece on Sanders.
Sanders replied to Olney by writing on a baseball "Keep writing like that your whole life and you"ll always be a loser."
The Last Night of the Yankees Dynasty
In 2004, Olney published The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty,, a nonfiction account of the Yankees" run of championships in the 1990s. Since leaving the Times, Olney has become a constant on the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network family of networks.
How Lucky You Can Be: The Story of Coach Don Meyer.
In 2013, Olney delivered the May Commencement Speech at Northern State University, where Meyer coached until 2010, and was still a member of the faculty until his death on May 18th, 2014.