Olbermann names Ichiro Best Person in the World

July 18, 10:53 AMSeattle People ExaminerLaura Vecsey

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Before more times passes and the 2008 All-Star Game is but a flickering memory (you mean it already IS a flickering memory?) we have to share this Keith Olbermann moment. In his broadcast Wednesday night, Olbermann named Seattle Mariners star outfielder Ichiro Suzuki the Best Person in the World.

It was because of Ichiro's pre-game address to his All-Star teammates, riddled with prime examples of Ichiro's mastery of the English language.

Of course, Jay Buhner taught Ichiro a lot those first few seasons in the Mariners clubhouse. And Jay Buhner used to wear bagels on his ...

Still, we love this move by the Countdown host only slightly less than we love Olbermann naming Bill-O the Worst Person in the World. Every night.

Olbermann said:  "According to Yahoo Sports, last night, for the eighth consecutive year, the diminutive, somewhat aloof Japanese- born star of the Seattle Mariners gave a pregame address to his American League All Star teammates, exhorting them to victory. Ichiro affects a pose of not understanding English, which is somewhat belied by the speech, which is roughly the same every year, described in the Yahoo article only as, quote, bleep, bleep, national league, bleep, bleep, bleep, national, bleep, bleep, bleep, bleep.

That`s all we know, except the witness in the A.L. clubhouse confirms exclusively for us tonight one line of the fabled Ichiro address, quote, let`s kick these bleeper, bleeper`s bleep. The American league has now won all eight times he has played and spoken."

Olbermann is a baseball nut. Years ago, when Ken Griffey Jr. was heading out of Seattle to Cincinnati, Olbermann was the writer of some stealth emails to me when I was a columnist at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I don't know when Olbermann has time to sleep or eat a nice, long meal because he sure seems to be constantly on the hunt for news and information to feed his inquiring mind. And Olbermann was very curious to know what was happening with Griffey.

The point is, sort of: When Fox News issued reports doubting whether Olbermann and former White House spokesman Tony Snow actually did correspond via email, the idea seemed highly likely.

The other, real point is: Seattle baseball stars are not exactly in the national news these days for anything good, except for Richie Sexson getting signed by the Yankees today. So if Olbermann can resurrect some good feeling for Seattle's lone international baseball star, we'll take it.