The latest ESPN gimmick to celebrate its 25th anniversary is to team up five old personalities with current ones on a weeklong series of SportsCenters.

People like Craig Kilborn and Greg Gumbel are back for one night each this week, but viewers won’t see the best possible reunion: Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann.

Before Olbermann left ESPN in 1997, he and “tag team partner” Patrick were the best and most distinctive pairing SportsCenter has ever had, even writing a book about their effort called “The Big Show.”

Their reunion would have been the drawing card of the year for ESPN. But a network executive told the St. Petersburg Times that Olbermann wasn’t invited. He had burned too many bridges.

To his credit, Olbermann admitted he made mistakes at ESPN. He did what high-strung, talented people often do, getting in more arguments than he should have, not appreciating how much talent was around him and not examining his own flaws.

The ESPN executive said having Olbermann back for one night would cause severe damage to workers at the station, and simply wouldn't be worth it. Maybe he’s right, but it sounds like a rationalization.

As a manager, you should evaluate every move based on your customers. Would more viewers tune in to see Olbermann than, say, George Grande? You bet.

Now if Olbermann’s return really would damage morale, hampering ESPN’s product for weeks or even months, then the network has a good defense.
But more likely, everyone would be on their best behavior — or, at worst, workers would say to themselves, “Thank God he’s here for just one day.”

A sports network should know what many baseball players have discovered:
Sometimes you get so angry that it’s hard to keep your eye on the ball.