œI’ve long respected MLB.com’s editorial independence and I’ll be delighted to test it, says MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann of his hiring by MLB Advanced Media (link courtesy Maury Brown’s Biz Of Baseball), and while I’m sure the O’Reilly-baiter is chuffed to be a colleague of David Roth, hasn’t MLB.com’s editorial direction been tested time and time again by Sultan Of Surly valet Barry M. Bloom?

Olbermann™s columns, currently available three times per week at keitholbermann.mlblogs.com, will provide fans with his œBaseball Nerd perspective of the game across various platforms. He also is the first national journalist hired as part of MLBAM™s digital newspaper initiative, currently scheduled for a May launch.

At his request, Olbermann™s full salary for his work as an at-large columnist will be split equally among three charitable organizations. They will be: the Baseball Assistance Team, St. Jude™s Children™s Research Hospital and the Jayden Braden/Ariana Marzano College Fund, established in support of the late John Marzano™s grandchildren. Marzano, a former Major Leaguer and MLB.com host, died just over one year ago in a home accident in Philadelphia.

“Seriously, it’s an honor to be able to write about all the obscure things I love inside the game I love,” said Olberann, “and to help some worthy causes in the process, and to honor an old friend. Not to mention that it will be my politics-free oasis. Unless another cat jumps up at another Governor.