Olerud paying big dividends on small investment

NEW YORK (AP) — John Olerud was salvaged from the baseball scrap heap at a bargain basement price. Now he's paying off big for the New York Yankees.

The sweet-swinging first baseman hit a two-run homer off Pedro Martinez, helping New York beat the Boston Red Sox 3-1 Wednesday night for a 2-0 lead in the AL championship series.

”It's just a lot of fun to be a part of it,” Olerud said.

The first four months of the season were no fun at all for him. After slumping at the plate, Olerud was released on July 27 by the last-place Seattle Mariners, his hometown team.

”It's not anything that you want to have happen to you,” he said. ”I was hoping that I would get another opportunity to play.”

Experts and scouts said he had lost the quick hands and bat speed that made him a .297 career hitter coming into the season.

The Yankees didn't buy it. He was only 35, and good players just don't lose their skills all of a sudden, manager Joe Torre said.

The timing was perfect. New York needed a reliable replacement for slugger Jason Giambi, sidelined by a benign tumor. So the big-budget Yankees grabbed Olerud on the cheap — for about $100,000 after he was making $7.7 million in the last year of his contract with Seattle.

He said four teams expressed interest, and all were in the playoff hunt.

”There's a lot of things that go into making a decision when you have some options,” the soft-spoken Olerud said. ”New York was definitely the best fit for me.”

He's been worth every penny and much more since he signed on Aug. 3. His soft hands improved the infield defense, and he's come around at the plate.

”You get a guy that hits a lot of line drives, that plays really good defense. He's been a really big help for us,” second baseman Miguel Cairo said. ”That was a big thing, that they signed him.”

Olerud batted .280 in 49 games for the Yankees, and his sharp eye helped produce a solid .367 on-base percentage. He hit four homers and drove in 26 runs, mostly from low in the lineup.

Those numbers are a far cry from 1993, when Olerud won the AL batting title with a .363 average and helped Toronto win its second consecutive World Series.

Now he's closing in on another pennant.

”I got to the World Series pretty early in my career, and I think having not made it back to the World Series I think just lets you know how difficult it is and how special it is. So I think that's the thing that hits home,” he said.

The two-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner went 3-for-14 with two doubles in the division series against Minnesota. Then he came up big in Game 2 of the ALCS against New York's biggest rivals.

With his pregnant wife watching from the stands, Olerud stepped to the plate with a runner on first in the sixth and lined a 1-2 pitch over the right-field fence to make it 3-0.

”I would say it ranks right up there,” Olerud said when asked if it was the biggest hit of his 16-year career. ”It's definitely the freshest in my mind, that's for sure.”

It was his ninth career postseason home run.

”I wanted it away,” Martinez said. ”The ball cut. I didn't release it well. And he took full advantage of it. I just have to give him credit and say it was my mistake.”

Olerud was hitting only .245 with five homers and 22 RBIs in 78 games when the Mariners let him go shortly after he turned down a trade to San Francisco.

”I've definitely struggled, but I believe I can turn it around,” Olerud said right after joining the Yankees. ”I don't feel like I'm that far off. I think I'm still that same player.”

The Yankees thought the same way, and now they're reaping the rewards.

”He's always been a tough out,” teammate Derek Jeter said.