On The Right Track

Commuting to work this season, Mets first baseman John Olerud has sometimes taken the subway, a 17-stop odyssey on the Flushing No. 7 line from his apartment on Manhattan's East Side to Shea Stadium in Queens. During these trips, Olerud insists, not a single passenger on the crowded train has ever recognized him, which speaks partly to the blasé nature of New Yorkers but also to Olerud's shrunken celebrity.

After all, just four seasons ago Olerud was baseball's cover boy, a 25-year-old with a smooth lefthanded swing who chased the elusive .400 mark into August and helped the Blue Jays win their second straight World Series. However, after batting .363 that year, Olerud had three consecutive disappointing seasons, and his stock dipped so dramatically that Toronto traded him last December to the Mets for Robert Person, a righthander with just five major league wins. In fact, the Blue Jays were so eager to jettison Olerud that they agreed to pay $5 million of the first baseman's $6.5 million salary in '97, a record for cash included in a baseball trade.

Toronto brass will be pleased to learn that while Person was 0-4 with a 6.39 ERA through Sunday, at least Olerud is earning his bucks from the Blue Jays. At week's end he was among the National League's top 10 in seven batting categories. "I don't blame Toronto for trading me, because I had a big contract and I was coming off some mediocre years," says Olerud, who becomes a free agent after this season. "It was clear that I needed a fresh start."

After finishing that brilliant '93 season with the American League batting title, 24 homers and 107 RBIs, Olerud slipped to .297, 12 homers and 67 RBIs in the strike-shortened '94 season. The following spring Toronto manager Cito Gaston suggested that he concentrate on hitting for more power by pulling the ball. As a result Olerud's stroke deteriorated, and by last season his average was down to .274. "I could've swung the bat the way I thought was best, but I didn't," Olerud says. "I did what they asked because I wanted them to stick with me. I learned a lesson that you have to stay with whatever style makes you successful."

Toronto G.M. Gord Ash isn't convinced that Olerud is any different than he has been the last few years, and he says, "NL teams don't know how to pitch him yet, plus they aren't positioning themselves the way teams in the AL did."

Says Mets manager Bobby Valentine, "It's like taking a Picasso, putting it in another frame and calling it a Rembrandt. John's swing is what it is."

Olerud went to spring training this year determined to rediscover his natural stroke. New York hitting coach Tom Robson gathered video from Toronto's '93 season, and Olerud identified some subtle flaws in his more recent mechanics. Through Sunday, Olerud was tied for ninth in the league in average (.333), walks (30) and RBIs (40); tied for fifth in runs (39) and ninth in total bases (105); and he was hitting .511 with runners in scoring position (chart, below).

Olerud cautions that he has not fully recaptured his '93 form, but he is feeling more and more comfortable at the plate. "It's fun to get back to swinging like I should swing, because at times the last few years I was an easy out," Olerud says. "I'm back to hitting the ball where it's pitched, hitting to all fields. Basically, I'm hitting like John Olerud again."

Tater Tots

Eight inside-the-park home runs were hit between May 24 and 29, the most over a six-day span in at least 50 seasons, according to home run historian David Vincent. The variety of misplays that set off the races around the bases was nearly as astounding.