Instead of .400, Olerud Is Chasing Full-Time Job

John Olerud is alive, well and still in Toronto with a roof over his head.

He did not expire when his 1993 pursuit of .400 did. It only seems that way.

Go figure.

The ’93 American League batting champion is now a platoon first baseman with the Blue Jays.

The placid personality and demeanor hasn’t changed, but he has had trouble sustaining that once-sweet swing, finding the ’93 groove again.

Can he? Will he ever duplicate a season in which he hit .363 with 24 homers, 54 doubles and 109 runs batted in?

“If you look at the years leading up to that, I’d say he was capable of being that type hitter on a consistent basis,” Blue Jay Manager Cito Gaston said. “Now I’m not sure. If he were to bat .300 and hit 25 homers and drive in 80 to 90 runs, that would be a tremendous year, and you might say, well, maybe that’s a more realistic level. But he hasn’t come close to that either.”

The hard reality is, in the last 2 1/2 years, Olerud has made an impact only at the bank.

The Blue Jays were so convinced ’93 wasn’t an illusion they gave him a four-year, $22-million contract that has had a major influence on who they have been able to keep and who they haven’t. The part-time first baseman is being paid $6 million this year and is guaranteed $6.5 million in 1997.

“We made a significant commitment to John,” General Manager Gord Ash said. “Are we disappointed [in his performance]? Certainly.

“No one expects him to challenge .400 every year, but when you look at what he did over the full season [in ‘93], that ability is there.

“Is it unfair to keep comparing his performance to ‘93? I don’t think so. He’s hit .297 and .291 in the last two years, and that doesn’t measure up. All major leaguers go through a continual period of adjustments, but John hasn’t made that next adjustment.”

That next adjustment? This is where it gets difficult.

The left-handed-hitting Olerud produced those ’93 numbers going the other way a lot, driving the ball to left field.

Pitchers and defenses have adjusted, but the Blue Jays don’t think believe has. They believe he needs to pull more, hit for the power that is expected of first basemen.

They also believe he lacks aggressiveness and is too often facing two-strike situations.

Olerud acknowledges that his approach and swing have deteriorated since ’93.

The batter’s box, in some ways, has become a no-man’s land in which the disciplined hitter tries to be more aggressive, tries to pull more, rather than using the whole field as he always had.

He has 15 homers in 246 at-bats, but is batting .256 with 41 RBIs. He had only eight hits in June. A .156 average in 45 at-bats against left-handers has resulted in the platoon role.

Some in the organization question Olerud’s work ethic. That placid personality may hide an inner intensity, but who can be sure? Gaston and Olerud are the senior Blue Jays, the only uniformed people who were with the club in ‘89, but the manager concedes that he can’t get past that pleasant, low-key shell, that he doesn’t really know Olerud and doesn’t know anyone who does.

“I do think he’s trying hard, although a lot of people don’t,” Gaston said. “We’re at the point where we’re going to let John hit the way he wants, go about it his way, to see if he can get back to where he was.”

It would be uncharacteristic of Olerud to complain, but he has met twice with Gaston recently to assure the manager that he is not resigned to being a platoon player, that he wants to play every day.

In the meantime, the swing, the approach, the comfort level of ’93 continue to elude Olerud, who doesn’t know why or where it all went. He hit .336 over the second half of last year, but said he still wasn’t doing it with authority and wasn’t satisfied. His .297 and .291 averages of 1994 and ’95 were accompanied by only 20 homers and 121 RBIs.

“I continue to experiment and tinker, hoping to go in the right direction, but I haven’t had a whole lot of success finding that groove,” Olerud said.

“It’s frustrating any time you struggle and don’t produce the way you’re capable. I don’t have a problem when people compare everything I do to ’93 because that’s what I’ll always compare it to as well. Maybe that year gets blown out of proportion because everything went so well for an entire season, but I don’t think I should be the type hitter whose average fluctuates 70 points from one year to the next. I feel I’m capable of having that type year again, of finding that groove.”

The search is in its third year, but Olerud remains unshaken. At 27, he doesn’t throw helmets or break bats over his knee.

Maybe the 1989 surgery for removal of a brain aneurysm that threatened his life while at Washington State created perspective.

While some wonder if there is any fire to him, Olerud maintains that even keel--a handsomely paid platoon player struggling to recapture a year that was both his glory and albatross.

“Once you win a batting title, people expect it every year,” said Gaston. “Considering he got the big contract on top of it, people aren’t going to let him forget. He’ll have to live with it--until he does it again.”

ROAD WARRIORS

The race in the National League West may be determined by how the Dodgers, Colorado Rockies and San Diego Padres perform on the road over the next three to four weeks.

The Dodgers are in the process of playing 19 of 25 on the road, where they were 22-25 before the San Francisco series.

The Rockies are now playing 20 of 29 on the road, where they were 15-29 before the San Diego series.

The Padres begin to play 20 of 26 on the road Monday, but are 25-21 away, less troubled than their division rivals.

Neither the Padres nor Dodgers are as schizophrenic as the Rockies, who have stayed alive with their 34-15 home record, baseball’s best.

The Rockies’ eight-game winning streak ended in San Diego on Thursday, but Dante Bichette said his team began the trip convinced that “We’re finally ready to step up to the challenge [of the road]. . . . We’ve proven we can do the little things to win games, and if you do those things you win no matter where you play.”

Perhaps, but one thing is certain: Winning is winning. Who cares where? Let the Coors Field bashing continue.

Said Manager Don Baylor: “The bottom line with me is winning, and it’s that way with the 25 guys [on the roster]. Let the other guys complain about [Coors]. Every bad thing they hear about it is perfect. We can use it to our advantage.

“Get base hits, doubles, hit a home run when we can and play in front of 50,000 people every night.

“That’s why I don’t get tired of [the bashing], and it’s why [my players] don’t get tired of it, either.”

NAMES AND NUMBERS

--With Darryl Strawberry having returned from the independent St. Paul Saints, can Jack Morris be far behind? Seeking a fifth starter, New York Yankee owner George Steinbrenner has dispatched Illinois scout Tim Kelly to join the suddenly congested Morris trail. Morris, 41, began the weekend having pitched three consecutive complete games, attracting a caravan of scouts and prompting Strawberry to say:

”. . . If the Yankees are looking for a guy who knows how to pitch, has knowledge of what pitching is all about, Jack Morris is that guy. I think he could really help this team.”

--The St. Louis Cardinals now have a lot of good things going as they bid to put a second-half stranglehold on the NL Central. The best of those things, Manager Tony La Russa said, is the outfield of Ron Gant, Ray Lankford and Brian Jordan. La Russa said he wouldn’t trade it for any in either league, adding: “There are some you can put next to them. There’s the one in Cleveland, but the guys on their corners [Albert Belle and Manny Ramirez] can’t play with our guys.”

--Kirby Puckett will be eligible for the Hall of Fame ballot in December of 2000, and could be inducted in the summer of 2001. Should he be?

Putting aside his charisma, his contributions to championship teams, his 10 consecutive All-Star selections, his six Gold Gloves, his batting and RBI titles, consider only the statistical comparison to the 36 center fielders and right fielders in the Hall--Puckett having been a center fielder for 10 years who then moved to right.

Of the 21 right fielders, Puckett has more hits than seven, more RBIs than nine and a higher average than 12. And of the 15 center fielders, he has more hits than seven, more RBIs than eight and a higher average than seven.

--Mo Vaughn, battling second cousin Greg Vaughn for the American League RBI title, will be paid a comparatively modest $18.5 million over the next three years by the Boston Red Sox and is outraged by the contracts going to NBA free agents.

“What’s amazing to me is they’re earning so much with so little service time,” he said. “I believe you have to go out and get whatever’s available to you, but in baseball we have to earn it.

“We have to go out year in and year out and reach the point where you can make the big money. You have to get honors, awards, win championships, battle through the minors. In the NBA you don’t have to earn anything. You can walk right in out of high school. I mean, it’s amazing that some of those guys with only a couple years’ experience are making more than [Hakeem] Olajuwon.” In a span of five days, the cousins Vaughn hit grand slam homers against the inept Detroit Tiger pitching staff. In each case--Milwaukee’s Greg did it on Tuesday after Boston’s Mo did it last Saturday--the Tigers had loaded the bases on walks, a category in which they lead the league, one reason they are headed for the highest team ERA in history.