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By Mark Hall
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The two-foot wide locker that John Olerud calls his own in the Toronto Blue Jays' clubhouse isn't very big at all. There isn't even a door on it, let alone room to park a major league sports ego. Luckily, that's one thing Olerud doesn't have to worry about.
The 22 year old Washington State native has been batting for the Jays since the fall of 1989. He arrived in Toronto with pretty well everything anybody would want if they were aiming at a career in the American League.
By the time he left high school, John had lettered in three sports, was named to the All State team and was most valuable player in baseball.
There's more: when he graduated from Washington State University, Baseball America newspaper named him the NCAA Player of the Year for 1987-88, partly in recognition of the hitting records he set for the WSU Cougars. He also fit in time to help the U.S. National Team win an Intercontinental title in Havana in '88.
Oh, and Olerud earned a name for himself with his versatility as both a pitcher and first baseman.
So, when he picked up his uniform and moved into that locker deep in the bowels of the SkyDome in the fall of '89 Olerud had more than just an average record on the field. What he didn't bring was a big opinion of himself.
He's confident, all right, but the lanky six-and-a-half footer quickly volunteers that throughout his baseball life he's made hard work and improvement his goal.
Although he's an obvious natural to the game, he doesn't think he was simply destined to make it to the big time.
"When I could, I was always getting my dad out to throw the ball to me. What I like is the fact that the game is still fun. I wouldn't want to do it if it weren't."
In his first full year as a Jay, Olerud had earned a very respectable batting average of .277 by early fall. That's a long way off the enviable .400 average from his college days, but then, the competition just keeps getting tougher.
"I'm pretty happy with my performance this year," he says leaning forward on the slippery plastic seat of the dugout. "I do feel I can do better...I'm not much of a defensive player yet, and there are some things I'd like to work on too."
Just before Olerud joined the Jays, there were some doubts that he would ever be lifting a bat or glove again. After a regular early morning workout at the college's Hollingberry Fieldhouse, Olerud collapsed. The diagnosis was a brain aneurysm, a defect in a blood vessel that caused bleeding into his spinal column.
One month later he underwent six hours of risky brain surgery to find the weak spot and correct the damage with a clip. This incident garnered some media attention at the time, and today, Olerud is just as happy to put it all behind him. The decision to get back to playing ball was no big deal, he says.
"I knew that once I got my strength back I'd get back out and play ball. I never doubted that."
The satisfaction that Olerud gets when he's up at bat is incomparable. It's what he loves doing. He says it's "a blast" when everything's going his way and he's getting good hits. Even for the young man described as a "batting and pitching phenomenon" by the sportswriters, it takes preparation, concentration and hard work.
"When I'm hitting, I watch for the pitch I want to get, look to see if it's a fast ball or whatever. I also try to visualize what that ball will look like before it comes at me, so I can be ready to attack it," he says.
tgmag@tgmag.ca