Elliott: Olerud family was always a phone call away

Former Washington State Cougars 1B John Olerud, selected in the third round by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1989.

June 20, 2023

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

St. Marys - We had a short talk with Dr. John Olerud before the honoured, elected members of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame were piped in on Saturday afternoon.

“Give us a call ... any time ... you know we’ll always take your call,” said Dr. Olerud with a smile.

(I first met Lynda and Dr. John, along with John Jr., in June of 1989 which leads to a very, very embarrassing story -- about me -- but we’ll get to that.)

I had not seen Dr. Olerud and his wife Lynda (Mrs. O) since I sat in their living room in 1993 with former Washington State coach Bobo Brayton, who had coached both father and son with the Cougars. We gathered in the Olerud’s Bellevue, Wash. home to watch.

The Jays were hosting Cleveland on Aug. 25, before flying west to Seattle. The game had been taped and we all sat down to watch unsure or what would transpire. No one was looking up ESPN scores because we don’t think that the web took over the world in worldwide fashion until 1996.

The Blue Jays first baseman entered the game as the American League’s top hitter with a .387 average.

Facing Jose Mesa he singled on a ball deep in the hole.

“Just another leg hit for John,” someone joked. Whatever, it was a base hit and a good start to his day. Two batters later Tony Fernandez singled home Olerud and then Randy Knorr singled in Paul Molitor for a 2-1 lead.

Robbie Alomar singled leading off the third and an out later Olerud pulled a single to right and was 2-for-2 on the day. Paul Molitor had a run-scoring single, Fernandez walked and Ed Sprague doubled to centre, clearing the bases for a 6-3 lead.

Leading off the fifth, Olerud doubled to centre -- now 3-for-3 -- and scored on Molitor’s triple and Sprague hit a fly ball for an 8-4 lead.

Facing reliever Jason Grimsley leading off the seventh, Olerud doubled to right to go 4-for-4 in his climb to .400 plateau. Two batters later, Sprague singled home Olerud for a 9-4 lead. There were cheers in the living room of the Bellevue house.

Devon White led off the eighth with a walk and stole second, as Alomar bunted him to third. Eric Plunk came on in relief to retire Joe Carter, he then walked Olerud intentionally. Molitor singled to score White.

Pat Hentgen (7 1/3 innings), reliever Tony Castillo (1 1/3 innings) and Duane Ward with the final out for his 36th save were on the mound in the 10-6 win.

For Olerud it was a 4-for-4 day and he boarded a charter plane to Seattle with a .392 batting average following his second four-hit game. He had a five-hit game in an 8-0 win over the Kansas City Royals in April and another four-hit game in a 5-4 win against the New York Yankees in June.

Now 34 games remained ... could Olerud reach the .400 mark? No one had hit .400 since Ted Williams in 1941. Hall of Famers George Brett and Tony Gwynn made runs at the mark, but fell short.

Alas the four-game series in Seattle did not increase Olerud’s chances. He went 1-for-14 with three walks as his average dipped to .386. The Jays dropped three of four to fall into a tie for first place at 75-57.

From that 4-for-4 day until the end of the season, Olerud batted .246. A bad finish? Well, he finished with a .363 batting average to win the AL batting crown. He is still the franchise’s only winner of a batting title.

* * *

And now the embarrasement, egg-on-the-face story.

In June of 1989, a week after the draft, I covered the Blue Jays’ three-game series in Milwaukee, but rather than returning home for only a weekend series before the Jays headed to the coast, Wayne Parrish told me to head to Pullman, Wash. for a feature on Olerud.

I flew from Milwaukee to Seattle and drove over to Pullman, going past a sign which read “Moscow 10 miles.” Turned out it was Idaho.

We saw John play for the Palouse Cougars, in the Alaska summer college league on Friday.

After Saturday’s game, the Olerud family and I went to diner and I interviewed them. John was Baseball America’s player of the year in 1988, but a brain aneurysm cut his 1989 season short. The family had told all 30 clubs not to draft their son.

During one game Pat Gillick, who had drafted Olerud in the third round, phoned and asked what I thought. At the time, I was standing in a grove of trees with a waist-high wall with plaques atop it. I told Gillick that there were 20 plaques and the Olerud name was on roughly 10 (Dr. John had played for Brayton’s first team in 1962, Lynda was a booster, John had brought glory to the program).

“Patrick ... I don’t know how to tell you this ... but you have zero chance. You drafted him a week ago, the family’s connections to the university go back to the 1960s.”

Of course, I was wrong. Olerud signed and joined the Jays when rosters expanded in September.

On Sunday, I flew from Seattle to Orange County for the Jays’ three-game series in Anaheim and pecked away at the feature on Olerud. I had six follow-up questions and on Wednesday and phoned Mrs. O, who answered four, but said I’d have to ask her husband the other two.

“He gets up at 6:30 a.m. ... so you have to phone before 6:45 when he leaves,” Mrs. O told me.

Toronto beat the Angels in 14 innings and a weary group checked into the Oakland Airport Hyatt Thursday morning. Writers never adjust time on their watches because the deadline doesn’t change at home in Toronto.

Reaching my room in Oakland, I looked down and saw that it was 6:35 a.m. I called the Olerud homestead.

Mrs. O answered and for such a bright and cheery woman she seemed kind of sleepy.

“Hi, has the Doctor left for work yet?” I asked.

“No, he’s still here, hold on a second,” she replied.

Then, in a scene right out of the movies I looked at the alarm clock on the night stand. IT READ 3:35 AM. And the longer I looked at it the LARGER the numbers appeared.

I suggested I call back. The Doctor said, “No, its OK, go ahead.”

He answered my questions and the next day I sent flowers and an apology to Mrs. O in Bellevue.

Now you know how fitting Dr. Olerud’s line of “Give us a call ... any time ... you know we’ll always take your call.”