Washington State University Athletics
Interview with John Olerud
March 27, 2013
Washington State University will retire John Olerud's uniform No. 18 prior to its March 30 (noon start time) game against Stanford at Bailey-Brayton Field.
The 2013 season marks the 25th anniversary of Olerud's historic season for WSU. He led the Cougars to a school-record 52 wins while playing in all 66 games during the 1988 campaign. He was named national player of the year after batting .464 and posting a 15-0 record on the mound.
In addition he set school records that still stand today for batting average, hits (108), RBI (tied, 81), total bases (204), slugging percentage (.876), on-base percentage (.556), OPS (1.432), wins and innings pitched (122 2/3). Other records he set that have since been broken include home runs (23), runs (83), games pitched (tied, 16) and strikeouts (113).
In May 2011, Olerud sat down with WSU Athletics writer Jason Krump for a feature in the Winter 2011 edition of Washington State Magazine. The feature focuses on Olerud's recovery from a brain aneurysm while at WSU, his faith, and how he applied that faith to a medical challenge with his daughter Jordan, who was born with a chromosome disorder.
Many more topics were discussed during the interview, including memories of playing for legendary coach Bobo Brayton, flirting with .400 with the Toronto Blue Jays during the 1993 season, and the Seattle Mariners' historic 2001 campaign. Below are excerpts from that interview.
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"It was a huge influence on my life...I made some great friendships and a lot of great memories."
- John Olerud on WSU
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On choosing WSU:
"Those were tough decisions and to be honest I wasn't really forward thinking to where I was going. I went down and visited Stanford and they just wanted me to pitch. I loved hitting and both the University of Washington and Washington State would allow me to do both. It came down to the two Washington schools. I think just my Dad's [John E. Olerud, played three years for the Cougars (1963-65) and led Washington State to the 1965 College World Series] experience at Washington State. He felt like the best coach he ever played for was Bobo (Brayton), as far as an instructor and just coaching and knowing the game. At that time, too, Washington State was clearly the best baseball school. They both told me I would be able to pitch and hit. I don't think there was too much thinking about what's the best way to go. I thought it was good to be a little ways away from home, do some growing up."
On how WSU shaped him:
"It was a huge influence on my life. It was a big transition going from living at home to being on your own, more independence and taking more responsibility. It was definitely some of the funnest times of playing baseball. You're with a group of guys who were all in the same boat, same age group, and the same phase of life. I made some great friendships and a lot of great memories."
Memories of playing for Bobo and how he influenced his major league career:
"I remember Bobo always yelling at us that you never play catch in front of the dugout. `I don't care if you're playing the Dodgers or the New York Yankees you never play catch in front of the dugout.' Because he wanted to keep the infield grass looking good. Every time (in the majors) you're with somebody and they say `Hey, the game's getting ready to start you want to play catch? I need to get my arm loose.' And they want to do it right in front of the dugout. I can hear Bobo saying, `Hey, I don't care who you're playing for you never play catch in front of the dugout.' I can still hear it in the back of my mind."
"Not that I'm a super talkative guy but if Bobo saw you talking to a guy (on the opposing team) and we weren't winning the game and you're talking to him, that drove him nuts. (Impersonating Bobo) `Oly talks to this guy while he's kicking your rear.' Say you knew somebody and he comes to first base and so `Hey how's it going?' All that sort of stuff. If you're losing, that would really get Bobo upset. You're there focused on what you're doing at the game. You don't have your head in the stands while you should be focused on the game. Those are the sort of things that he would drive home."
"At Washington State, third out, you're out of the dugout, sprinting to your position right away. There's no waiting. You're taking the field. I remember my first time playing in Toronto and, up there, third out, guys are like okay, get their pants right, they go get another glass of water, drink it, grab their gloves. I didn't want to be the only one racing across the field so I'm waiting for at least a few guys to go before I go out there."
"These were just some of the habits that you worked on at Washington State and I think they were really good things. They served me well just with practice and the workouts and the respect to the coaches. I think it was definitely a positive thing."
On playing in the World Series with Toronto (1992 & 1993):
"I know I enjoyed the second World Series a lot better than the first one. Just the first one, it's such a big thing and you want to take advantage of this opportunity. I want to have a good series and I don't want to let my teammates down because of what a long season it is. Just getting to the playoffs can be an accomplishment. To actually get there, you just want to make the most of it."
On getting used to the World Series Best-of-7 format of World Series:
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"At Washington State, third out, you're out of the dugout, sprinting to your position right away. I remember my first time playing in Toronto and, up there, third out, guys are like okay, get their pants right, they go get another glass of water, drink it, grab their gloves. I didn't want to be the only one racing across the field so I'm waiting for at least a few guys to go before I go out there."
- John Olerud
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The first game gets over and you're up 1-0 and you're going, `Okay let's play the next one. Don't make me go back to my room and sleep on it and have to think about it all night what's going to happen the next day. Let's go, let's get this over with.' The second one I was able to relax more because I`ve been through it. It was definitely way easier the second go around, for sure."
On the 1993 Series and Joe Carter Series' winning home run:
"The Phillies were tough and no lead was safe. We had a 3-1 lead, lost Game 5 in Philly and it looks like we're losing Game 6. We don't want to play a Game 7. I've gone back and I've looked at it. Joe (Carter), he was amazing how he could pull balls. This was a slider that was inside. This is a ball he'd usually hit two miles foul and for whatever reason he was able to keep it fair. It was such an amazing way to finish it up."
On flirting with .400 during the 1993 season before finishing with a .363 average:
"In spring training you're always working on your swing and I really got into a good rhythm, some good swing thoughts for getting my hands inside the ball. I felt really quick to the ball. I didn't feel like I had to rush to get to the inside pitch. That's the thing that sticks out to me, that I could get to that inside pitch really easy. I wasn't worried about the inside pitch and that just opened things up. I didn't get fooled as much on offspeed pitches because I wasn't worried about getting beat inside. It was one of those years when I was just comfortable all year."
"I remember three weeks into the season, someone comes up and asks me, `So, should we give Ted Williams a call? You're going to hit .400 this year?' I'm like, `Yea, I just want to keep this good streak going as long as I can.' So that was the thing. It's a long season and I know there's going to be ups and downs but let's just ride this as long as we can ride it, keep that same approach. It just kept going, I just kept getting hit after hit. I got 200 hits that year and I felt like I was getting hits all the time."
"I would say once we got to August then the thought was, `Alright, well I've done it for this long, maybe I can finish this up.' That's when it started, when you start thinking about hits instead of just taking good swings and just trying to hit the ball hard somewhere. That seemed to be when things went downhill for me a little bit."
"The whole year, I was getting the barrel on the ball a lot of the time. It was just a great year."
On if being a pitcher in college helped him as a hitter:
"I think so. It doesn't hurt. I remember I was talking to one guy with the Mets and he said, `Gosh this guy threw me just a nasty slider and I can't hit that pitch. If he throws that again I can't hit it.' He would be done mentally at the plate. I know from a pitcher's standpoint, I can't always throw the same pitch in the same place every time. Just because you can make a good pitch doesn't mean you're going to be able to do it every time. I think having that perspective of when somebody threw a pitch that was unhittable, `Alright I can't swing at that pitch and try to get something else and be ready for a mistake.' As opposed to thinking, `Alright I got to try to figure out how to hit that pitch because I know he is going to throw it again, again, and again.'"
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On 2001 Seattle Mariners season (116 wins):
"There was no doubt that 2001 was an unusual year. Personally, I didn't feel like I was in that same zone hitting-wise that I was in '93 when I felt like I'm going to hit the ball somewhere and the only way someone is going to get me out is if I hit it at them. In 2001, I didn't feel like that. The interesting thing about 2001, as I look back on it, it wasn't like there were five or six guys who had monster years. It was timely hitting and we had an unbelievable bullpen. And that's one of the things that we had going for ourselves. It allowed everybody to relax and not press. We knew that if we had the lead, come the seventh inning it was over because it would be Arthur Rhodes, Jeff Nelson, Kazuhiro Sasaki. If we were down by a couple of runs, they weren't scoring anymore, so we got three innings to get a couple of runs. I think the starting pitchers had confidence that, `If I just keep us close they're not going to score anymore after the seventh when those guys come in.'"
"I think the slogan was: Two outs. So what? We just got so many big hits with two outs that would give us the lead late in the ballgame then the bullpen would shut them down. The story I remember is we come back from a road trip and we had a night game the next day. Lou (Piniella) says, `You know what? Coming back from the east coast, BP optional tomorrow.' And we're thinking, `Okay, for day games I can see that, but a night game we're going to be able to sleep.' Usually you don't have optional BP for a night game. We end up winning that game and Lou comes into the dugout and in a superstitious way says, `You know what, no BP tomorrow, optional BP.' And we're going, `Is he serious? BP is optional for two days for night games?'"
"It was a lot of fun, it was one of those things where everything just went our way. We just got all the breaks. We felt like it was our year for sure. We had a ton of confidence and just thought we were going to mow through the playoffs and win it all. That was really disappointing to sort of get cold come playoff time. We struggled a little bit with the Indians, squeaked by them in five games, With the Yankees we got behind them early, than you're pressing trying to get back. You figure you're going to have cold streaks during the season and we just didn't. But it came at the wrong time."
John Olerud is just one of the numerous student-athletes at Washington State who have earned the prestigious the prestigious Gray "W." For more information on the Gray "W" Varsity Club click HERE
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