The cover of Sports Illustrated was anything but subtle: “Best Infield Ever” the headline read. In 1999, the country’s most popular weekly sports magazine declared the Mets infield of Robin Ventura, Rey Ordonez, Egardo Alfonzo and John Olerud to be perhaps the best defensive infield in the history of Major League Baseball.
While he was only a Met for three seasons, John Olerud made his mark with the Shea Faithful. He was a model of consistency, never hitting lower than .294, never hitting fewer than 19 homers in a season and never playing fewer than 154 games while a Met. The club won at least 88 games each season during his Mets tenure and reached the NLCS in 1999 due in large part to Olerud’s contributions. He was also remembered for wearing a batting helmet in the field due in part to the fact that he suffered a brain aneurysm in 1989 while at Washington State.
The Mets acquired Olerud from the Toronto Blue Jays in one of the best trades in franchise history. They sent pitcher Robert Person to Toronto in exchange for Olerud, who wasn’t quite living up to the high expectations he set after hitting an AL leading .363 in 1993. Toronto even picked up a portion of Olerud’s salary to make sure the deal went through.
His first magic moment in a Mets jersey came on May 19, 1997, when Olerud blasted a two-run, walk-off homer with one out in the bottom of the ninth to help the Mets edge the Rockies 4-3.
On June 29, Olerud helped lead a memorable comeback as the Mets overcame a 6-1 sixth inning deficit and beat the Pirates 10-8 in Pittsburgh. The Mets hit five home runs over the final three innings of the game and Olerud hit two of them.
On September 11, 1997, Olerud hit for the cycle as the Mets beat the Montreal Expos 9-5 at Shea. Olerud drove in five runs in the game. His final hit was a bases loaded triple which was his first three-base hit in more than three years.
For the season, Olerud hit .294 with 22 homers and a team leading 102 RBIs. He also led the Mets in on base percentage (.400) and runs scored (90). He also tied Ron Hunt’s all-time club record when he was hit by a pitch 13 times.
1998 was Olerud’s best season in a Mets uniform. He broke Cleon Jones’ club record by hitting .354 for the season. He also led the Mets in on base percentage (.447), slugging percentage (.551) and RBIs (93) while hitting 22 home runs for the second straight campaign.
Olerud went on a hitting tear from mid-July to early-August, hitting in 23 straight games. During the streak, the Olerud hit an impressive .449 and collected 40 hits.
If the 23-game hitting streak was impressive, Olerud went on an even greater, if shorter tear in mid-September. In a five-game-span, Olerud collected 13 hits in 14 at bats including nine hits in a row, just one shy of the all-time NL record.
His best single hitting day came on July 11 when he hit two homers and added a pair of singles in four at bats during an 8-4 win over the Expos at Shea.
Olerud was also the catalyst of a triple play on August 5 against the San Francisco Giants when he fielded a grounder from J.T. Snow, threw out Jeff Kent at second, got the putout against Snow at first and then threw home to get Barry Bonds at the plate.
Despite Olerud’s impressive season, the Mets still fell short of the postseason after a late season slump. The Mets led the NL Wild Card race by one game with five games remaining on the schedule but New York lost all five contests and finished two games behind the Cubs.
In 1999, the Mets set a Major League record with just 68 errors in a season. The next lowest team was the Phillies with 100. Olerud continued to hit well, batting .298 with 19 homers and 96 RBIs. He played in all 162 games for the Mets, tying Felix Millan’s club record and broke the franchise mark with 125 walks in a season.
Olerud continued to have some outstanding hitting games. On April 11 against the Expos, Olerud went 4-for-5 including three doubles as the Mets triumphed 6-3. He also helped keep the Mets postseason chances alive when he blasted a grand slam off Atlanta’s Greg Maddux in a 9-2 win over the Braves at Shea that ended a critical seven-game losing streak.
The Mets eventually won the NL wildcard that season when they beat the Reds in a tiebreaking game behind Al Leiter’s two-hitter. It was the team’s first postseason appearance since 1988.
In the NLDS against the Diamondbacks, Olerud was on fire. He went 7-for-16 at the plate including a home run and six RBIs for a .438 average. He added three walks for an impressive .526 on base percentage. The homer came in an 8-4 win in Game 1. With the series even at one win apiece, Olerud drove in three runs in Game 3 as the Mets won 9-2.
Olerud hit .296 in the NLCS against the Braves adding two homers and six RBIs. He picked up a dramatic game winning RBI in Game 4 off Atlanta’s most hated reliever, John Rocker, when he singled up the middle with two outs in the bottom of the eighth. The series was dramatic but the Mets eventually fell in six games.
After the 1999 season, Olerud’s contract was up and he was eligible for free agency. The Mets decided not to re-sign him and Olerud joined his home town team, the Seattle Mariners. He won three straight Gold Gloves for the Mariners and was named to the All Star Game in 2001. He later briefly played for the Yankees in 2004 before ending his Major League career in 2005 with the Red Sox. Olerud finished his career with a .295 average, 2,239 hits and 255 home runs.
Olerud remains one of the most consistent hitters the Mets ever had. His steadiness at the plate and in the field was a major reason for the Mets renaissance in the late 90s and early 2000s. He has left his mark on the Shea Faithful.
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