Family First -- Olerud Takes Kin Over Cash And Brings His Bat Back To Seattle

When Pat Gillick finally reached Lou Piniella with the news, the Mariner manager told his boss he had been at the hospital where his daughter-in-law had delivered a granddaughter, Sophie.

"We've had a delivery here, too," Gillick told him.

"Who?" Piniella asked.

"We just signed John Olerud," Gillick said.

"Wonderful!" the manager shouted into the phone. "That is great news."

Piniella's heartwarming announcement yesterday fit neatly into the day Olerud came home to play, for in the end, the return of the native was all about family.

Earlier at his introduction to the Seattle media at a Safeco Field press conference, the former Interlake High School and Washington State University standout said he had prioritized the pros and cons of leaving the New York Mets to come back to the Pacific Northwest.

The first baseman comes home as the most notable free agent Seattle has ever signed, and with a three-year, $20 million contract that includes a limited no-trade agreement, the highest paid.

"It came down to thinking of our son, Garrett, who is 15 months old," Olerud said. "I think as a husband and father I'd like to be regarded as a guy who puts family first. The decision came down to what was best for our family."

Kelly Olerud said she appreciated her husband's thoughtfulness. But it hardly surprised her.

She had known John when both attended Interlake, where her volleyball talent earned a scholarship to Arizona State.

"We were just friends, but he was someone I admired," she said. "Later, after we each went off to college I realized he had qualities I liked in a man."

Kelly's team was at WSU for a match a year later when the two talked and clicked.

"We said we should get together," she recalled. "That Thanksgiving back home we did and that was it."

Expectations locally were that Olerud obviously would come back to play, where he had left for the Blue Jays after the June draft in 1989. There was geography and familiarity, not only with the area but with Gillick, the former Toronto GM who became a friend and signed him more than a decade ago.

The Seattle club had made Olerud, in the words of CEO Howard Lincoln, "our top offseason priority" and backed it up with an offer of $20.3 million. But most of all, there was family. Northwest roots run deep.

"Selfishly, I'm thrilled with his choice," said Lynda Olerud, John's mother. "It's a little bittersweet, since there are disappointed people back in New York. But this is a great moment for us. I'm sure John (Dr. John Olerud) will be happy, too."

Lynda Olerud had been home babysitting Garrett John. "Just one of the many benefits of playing at home," she said with a laugh.

John smiled at the thought of his mother's joy. "I knew my mom and dad wanted what was best for me and my family, and I knew mom wanted me to play in Seattle," John said. "But there were great reasons on both sides of this decision."

As natural as the return of the native seemed, he did not leave New York easily. He had made good friends in three years with the Mets, and helped that team climb from the netherparts of the National League East to the playoffs last season. In the Division Series upset of Arizona, his .438 production included a home run off Randy Johnson, rare for a left-handed hitter.

"I weighed the baseball decision, the financial, the personal," Olerud said. "I tried to look from both sides. I'd decide one day to stay in New York, the next to come to Seattle. Then I'd flip-flop. I never expected it to be this difficult. One top of it all, I'm slow when it comes to making decisions."

While John agonized, the Mariners did, too, all last week and over the weekend when they had expected to hear.

They called Joe McIntosh, Olerud's Seattle-based agent - at the office, at home, in his car, once at his son's soccer game.

They knew Benny Looper, their farm director, had been a teammate of Dr. John Olerud in the minor leagues, that Chuck Armstrong, team president, once had an office on the same floor in a Seattle office building. Gillick was so close to the Oleruds he was fined $5,000 for calling them to say he was coming to the Mariners.

But they knew McIntosh had been a teammate of Met Manager Bobby Valentine at San Diego. What did any of it mean?

"I couldn't tell them a thing, I tried to stay neutral," said McIntosh, a rare advisor/agent who stays in the background. "I felt for them, but I couldn't tell them a thing. It was entirely in John's hands."

Finally, late Monday, Olerud called Gillick to tell the Seattle GM he had won the player's handshake again, as he had back more than 10 years ago.

"John makes slow decisions," Gillick said with a smile, "but he makes good ones."

Olerud, a .301 hitter who won the American League batting title at .363 in 1993, will wear No. 5 and hit somewhere in the run-production zone of the lineup.

"Depending on how we look after we're done making moves," Piniella said, "John will likely hit third, maybe fifth."

Speaking with admiration of Olerud, who had 291 RBI the last three years in New York and 27 RBI in 36 postseason games with the Mets and Blue Jays, the manager had called him a left-handed Edgar Martinez. Olerud acknowledged that when he is hitting well, like Martinez, "I try to use the entire field."

Like Martinez, Olerud puts the ball in play. Don Welz, one of Toronto's top scouts who may soon be with Seattle, watched him play a week in Alaska between the 1989 draft and when Olerud signed with the Jays.

"He swung at pitches 81 times," Welz said in his report, "and made contact every time."

Piniella's reference to "moves" was the hang-fire trade status of Ken Griffey, who has occupied the No. 3 slot in front of Martinez for the past decade. Griffey's agent, Brian Goldberg, said the outfielder was happy to hear that Olerud had signed.

"Kenny thought this was a great step for the Mariners. He was very positive about what it means for the team," the agent said.

Jay Buhner, who was supposed to be the focus of yesterday's noon press gathering, agreed with Griffey.

"We all know what a great guy and great hitter John is," Buhner said. "This is great for the team, great for me."

The last comment meant that Buhner can focus on preparing to play outfield. In Olerud, Seattle has acquired a solid defender at first, a man who helped the Mets set a record of only 33 infield errors.

Thus, on the fourth anniversary of the day Tino Martinez signed a five-year, $20 million contract with the Yankees, Roger Jongewaard saw a player come in that had once gotten away.

"I had liked him since I watched him play on the same Eastside select team as my son," Jongewaard said. "We've always known he was going to be a good one, but when he hit that homer off Randy in the playoffs, he had done it all for me. Tino got to be first baseman on the 1988 Olympic team instead of John, but it should have been John. He's better."

Seattle missed him in the 1989 draft, then had a first baseman when Toronto traded him in 1996, then did not have funding when he was a free agent in 1997. This time, with the payroll increased, there was a fit.

"I feel blessed to have gone and played big-league baseball other places and now to come back where I started," Olerud said. "I guess this completes the circle."

NO PROGRESS ON OTHERS

Aside from the contract with their No. 1 free-agent target, the Mariners said there was no movement on any of the other seven free agents they had offers contracts: pitchers Aaron Sele, Chuck Finley, Graeme Lloyd and Arthur Rhodes; outfielders Tom Goodwin and Stan Javier; utilityman Mark McLemore.

"It's been a slow free-agent market," Gillick said. "Maybe Olerud's signing will break the logjam."

Olerud's contract is the biggest Seattle has given a free agent, topping the $16 million for three years it gave Buhner in December 1994, and the $14 million for four years they gave Chris Bosio in November 1992.

As part of his deal, Olerud has a limited no-trade agreement. Each year Olerud can name 10 teams to which he would agree to a trade.

OLERUD NOT READY TO PITCH

Although his bat has been his calling card, Olerud once had aspirations of pitching in pro ball. As a changeup specialist for the Cougars in 1988, he was 15-0 with a 2.49 earned-run average as well as hitting .464 in 66 games to win Baseball America's NCAA Player of the Year honors.

"After I signed in 1989, the Blue Jays let me pitch a few times in the instructional league that fall," he said. "I did all right. But the day of the first workout of the next spring camp, they told pitchers to go to the half-diamond for workouts and position players to go to the main stadium. I thought if they wanted me to pitch, they'd call me to the lower field. They never called."

NOTES

-- With John's baseball background and Kelly's volleyball scholarship to ASU, Jongewaard said: "The Mariners now have right of first refusal to their children. They should be good athletes."

-- Armstrong joked that part of the deal included an effort "to find better season tickets for John's mom and dad." "I laughed when I heard that part," said Lynda Olerud, John's mother. "We've had season tickets to the Mariners for four years."

---------------------------------------------------------.

Olerud bio

Position: First base. Bats: Left. Throws: Left. Height: 6 foot 6. Weight: 220. Birthday: Aug. 5, 1968. Birthplace: Seattle. Family: Wife, Kelly; son, Farrett, 15 months. Personal: Won letters in three sports at Interlake High School . . . Attended Washington State, where he he hit .434 with 33 homers and 131 RBI in 131 games. As a pitcher in the 1988 season, he was 15-0 with a 2.49 ERA. . . . Underwent surgery Feb. 27, 1989, to remove a brain aneurysm. . . . In 1989, became the 16th player since the start of the amateur draft to make his pro debut in the big leagues. . . . Won two World Series titles, in 1992 and 1993, with Toronto. . . . Won the AL batting title with a .363 average in 1993. . . . Was traded to N.Y. Mets in exchange for pitcher Robert Person on Dec. 20, 1996, ending eight years with the Blue Jays. . . . On Sept. 11, 1997, hit for the cycle for the first time in his career. . . . Batted a combined .315 with 63 home runs and 291 RBI during his three seasons in New York.

----------------------------------------------------------------.

Olerud's major-league statistics

Year Team AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB OBP 1989 Toronto .375 6 8 2 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 .375 1990 Toronto .265 111 358 43 95 15 1 14 48 57 75 5 .364 1991 Toronto .256 139 454 64 116 30 1 17 68 68 84 2 .353 1992 Toronto .284 138 458 68 130 28 0 16 66 70 61 5 .375 1993 Toronto .363 158 551 109 200 54 2 24 107 114 65 2 .473 1994 Toronto .297 108 384 47 114 29 2 12 67 61 53 1 .393 1995 Toronto .291 135 492 72 143 32 0 8 54 84 54 7 .398 1996 Toronto .274 125 398 59 109 25 0 18 61 60 37 0 .382 1997 N.Y. Mets .294 154 524 90 154 34 1 22 102 85 67 9 .400 1998 N.Y. Mets .354 160 557 91 197 36 4 22 93 96 73 5 .447 1999 N.Y. Mets .298 162 581 107 173 39 0 19 96 125 66 2 .427 Total .301 1396 4765 752 1434 322 11 172 762 820 636 8 .406

----------------------------------------------------------------.

Olerug by the numbers.

Career batting average: .301.

Career home runs: 172.

Career doubles: 322.

Career hits: 1,434.

Number of times hit for cycle: 1.

Number of batting titles: 1.

Number of World Series rings: 2.

Jersey number with Mariners: 5.

Career runs: 752.

Career on-base percentage: .406.