Hall of Fame Poll: John Olerud

by Tom Dakers on Dec 11, 2010 1:07 PM EST in Fun

It is John Olerud's first time on the Hall of Fame ballot. John had a 17 year major league career, 8 of those were with the Blue Jays. We traded him for, well, nothing really, Robert Person. He was never a favorite of Cito's and Carlos Delgado forcing his way onto the team, John or Joe Carter had to go. You'd think getting rid of the 36 year old Joe Carter would have been the easy choice. Gord Ash didn't see it that way.

Olerud was a first baseman in the Lyle Overbay mode, except better. He didn't have a lot of home run power, but hit lots of doubles, took lots of walks and played good defense. He hit 255 home runs, 500 doubles, 1275 walks and had a .295/.398/.465. He won 3 Gold Gloves and was on 2 All-Star teams. He had a couple of terrific seasons, 1993 for the Jays, when he hit .363/.473/.599 and 1998 for the Mets, when he hit .354/.447/.551. The rest of the time he was just good.

Poll

Would you vote John Olerud into the Baseball Hall of Fame?

Yes

227 votes

No

315 votes

542 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 12 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

Underrated, underappreciated, just not Hall-worthy.

I always felt bad that Larry Walker’s nonsense Coors Field numbers robbed Olerud of winning a batting title in both leagues. 1998 – Larry Walker (.418 at home / .302 on the road). Olerud – (.335 at home / .373 on the road). Not that this would make him a hall of famer, just think it’s worth pointing out.

by JesterOnTheSidelines on Dec 11, 2010 2:04 PM EST reply actions 1 recs

Heart says yes, head says no

One of my favorite players ever and a nice guy the one time I met him. Johnny O!

by James Kannengieser on Dec 11, 2010 2:28 PM EST reply actions

Heart says Yes. So I voted Yes.

It’s the hall of FAME. Fame is not build only on stats but on emotions as well…

Let alone that Olerud has the stats.

Festina Lente

by HESS2479 on Dec 11, 2010 4:50 PM EST up reply actions

He also was one

of those players that always seemed to be in the postseason. In total his teams made the playoffs 8 times (5 different teams).

by JaysSaskatchewan on Dec 11, 2010 3:01 PM EST reply actions

17) OK, I know everyone has been waiting for it. Alas, according to both parties involved, it’s not true. I wish it were. Heck, both Rickey Henderson and John Olerud have said they wish it were true. But it just didn’t happen.

The story went that a few weeks into Henderson’s stint with the Mariners, he walked up to Olerud at the batting cage and asked him why he wore a batting helmet in the field. Olerud explained that he had an aneurysm at nine years old and he wore the helmet for protection. Legend goes that Henderson said, "Yeah, I used to play with a guy that had the same thing." Legend also goes that Olerud said, "That was me, Rickey."

Henderson played with Olerud on the Blue Jays and the Mets.

From:http://www.faniq.com/blog/The-25-Best-Rickey-Henderson-Stories-Of-All-Time-Blog-15243

by JaysSaskatchewan on Dec 11, 2010 3:06 PM EST reply actions

I want this story to be true so badly

it’s one of my favourites

"Let us go forth awhile, and get better air in our lungs. Let us leave our closed rooms... The game of ball is glorious." - Walt Whitman

by hugo on Dec 11, 2010 3:10 PM EST up reply actions

I love this Rickey Henderson – John Olerud story too.

But if anyone’s inclined to take the red pill, here’s a NY Post article.

by jabalong on Dec 11, 2010 8:18 PM EST up reply actions

I still cannot believe you skipped Mondesi!

Festina Lente

by HESS2479 on Dec 11, 2010 4:53 PM EST reply actions

Cito sat the AL batting champion

Remember when Olerud was the batting champion in 1993 and Cito sat him in the World Series for a game. Looking back it turned out well. Cito played Molitor at 1B against a lefty in Philadelphia when there was no DH. All Molitor did was win the MVP for the series.

by leonard euler on Dec 12, 2010 8:32 AM EST reply actions

Well yeah, but....

Olerud’s benching was really more in favor of Ed Sprague than Molitor. Everyone knew Molitor wouldn’t sit.

by JesterOnTheSidelines on Dec 12, 2010 11:51 AM EST up reply actions

Sprague

Olerud played the next 2 games and Sprague sat when Philadelphia pitched a right hander. Molitor played 3rd in those 2 games.

by leonard euler on Dec 12, 2010 1:46 PM EST up reply actions

With 2239 hits

He was only a couple reasonable seasons or a few fewer injuries away from 3000 hits, which he was more than capable of. As well, his Gold Gloves came at the end of his career, in Seattle, which is pretty good (though he never really did get the attention he was due catching all of those balles tossed by Alomar).

by seekercuz on Dec 12, 2010 9:42 AM EST reply actions