There’s a paradox in baseball that complicates the lives of most major leaguers.
When they’re going well, few of them ever credit their performance for carrying a winning team. But let them go bad with the team slumping …
“It’s our nature,” Ichiro Suzuki said. “When you’re not playing well and the team is losing, it becomes personal. You take it on yourself.”
John Olerud has made it personal. A career .300 hitter in his first 13 seasons, the Mariners first baseman began the night Wednesday batting .271 with nine home runs and 77 RBI.
A year ago, he batted .300 with 22 home runs, 102 RBI.
Like most players in the Seattle lineup, Olerud has struggled lately – seven hits in his last 27 at-bats (.259), and the team has gone 6-8 in September.
“It’s easier to stomach when the team is going well and you’re not,” Olerud said. “That way, at least, you can tell yourself they’re winning without you. When you’re going good and the team is, too, you know it’s never just you.
“But the last few weeks, you look back over every at-bat, every situation where a hit might have made the difference and you didn’t come through.”
Olerud has spent an inordinate amount of time reviewing video of his swing, searching for something he hasn’t found.
“Sometimes your swing looks fine but it just doesn’t feel right,” he said. “It can be your hands, your feet, your back shoulder, your hips …
“The most frustrating thing is when you get a good pitch and don’t do something with it. There are pitchers who get you with good pitches, and then there are pitchers you face that shouldn’t get you out – but you can’t say that after they’ve pitched a good game.
“You can’t go 0-for-4 and lose and say afterward “He wasn’t that good, I got myself out.’”
And then there’s the complication of September.
“Runs are tough to come by in any pennant race, so when you miss chances it matters,” Olerud said. “I’m looking for a feeling up there, and I haven’t found it. I go back to ‘93 (when he batted .363), and I remember the feeling at the plate. I recognized pitches early, I didn’t chase bad ones – and I squared up the pitches I should hit and hit them hard.”
Olerud said he’s had that feeling at times since then, but never for a full season. And not much this year.
“We all want to do our best the rest of the way, but the truth is sometimes your best doesn’t look very good,” he said. “It’s not that you don’t care or you’re not trying. It’s probably just the opposite.”
Seattle concludes its series in Texas with an 11:05 a.m. (PDT)
game that will not be televised. Probable starting pitchers: Right-hander Freddy Garcia
(12-14, 4.75 ERA) vs. right-hander Joaquin Benoit (8-5, 5.75).
Larry LaRue, The News Tribune
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