Braves' Olson Puts Series Loss Behind Him

Like his teammates, Atlanta Braves catcher Greg Olson is enjoying his status as a member of the National League champions who came within an eyelash of a World Series title last season.
Atlanta, which finished in the cellar of the Western Division in 1990, captured the division title and defeated Pittsburgh in seven games for the pennant before dueling fellow last-to-first Minnesota in a dramatic seven-game series that ended in a 1-0 10th-inning defeat in the Minneapolis Metrodome.
But that 1-0 loss haunted Olson because he had another ending in mind for the miraculous season.
Olson has enjoyed the card shows and charity work that has come his way since October, such as the Braves Care-A-Van that made a stop at the Hoover Metropolitan Stadium last week.
But it’s excursions like this weekend’s visit to Montgomery for the Buckmasters Classic that enables Olson to put the 1991 season and the trappings that have come with it into perspective.
The Minnesota native had Super Bowl tickets, but decided to take the opportunity to participate in his second love instead.
“I couldn’t do everything that was offered to me,” Olson said. “I did get to go wild boar hunting in Texas on the ESPN Outdoors show. But I’ve always heard what a great event the Buckmasters is, so I decided to ski the Super Bowl and come over to Montgomery.”
Olson joked about one of the events the Buckmasters had in store for him and other baseball players like Boston Red Sox third baseman Wade Boggs.
“Jackie Bushman (Buckmasters founder/president) called me and said he was going to set up a hitting clinic for me and Wade Boggs,” Olson said.
“Boggs hits what, .340 lifetime, and I hit .250? That’d be a lot of fun.”
Lately, Olson has had his share of fun, but there was a time when he thought he was doomed to be a career minor-leaguer.
He was selected by the New York Mets out of the University of Minnesota in the seventh round of the 1982 June free agent draft and signed by the Minnesota Twins as a minor-league free agent in 1988 before the Braves signed him in 1989.
Olson was finally called up from Richmond in 1990 and became a blue-collar necessity in Atlanta’s stretch drive toward the division championship, catching all but two innings in 32 straight games from Sept. 1 to Oct. 5.
“Your mental attitude can take you a long way in any profession,” Olson said. “It helped me last year.
“It took me a long time to get here, and I’ll do anything to stay. The last place I wanted to be was on that bench. I got to fulfill a dream, and when you’re fulfilling a dream, it doesn’t matter how tired or banged-up you are.”
Olson finished the season with a .241 average, six home runs and 44 runs batted in, but batted .373 with runners in scoring position and two outs.
For quite some time after the Series, Olson couldn’t really appreciate what he and his teammates accomplished by bringing a championship to a city once dubbed “Losersville” by Sports Illustrated.
Finally, he was able to spend some time in the outdoors where he loves to be when away from home plate. That helped him contemplate Atlanta’s once-in-a-lifetime year.
“That was the only way I could ease my mind,” Olson said. My dog is really my second son and walking out in nature really helped because I was so down after the World Series. I wanted to forget all about it.
“But now I realize what a tremendous season it was. We used to have the voodoo stadium. This summer, it’s the hottest ticket in town. Everybody wanted to go to Fulton County Stadium and do the Tomahawk Chop. You just can’t put into words what the Braves did for the city last year. And to turn it around, you can’t put into words what the city did for the Braves.”
The same could be said for Olson’s contributions in his first complete season in the major leagues. Without his daily work down the stretch, the ending would doubtlessly have been quite different.
But Olson doesn’t foresee having to be the Braves’ iron man behind the plate again this season.
“I’m not sure it would be possible to do that again,” Olson said, “and I don’t think Bobby (Cox) would want me to. I’ll have Damon Berryhill backing me up, and I’m not sure what Mike Heath’s status is.”
Within a month, the Braves will begin work to defend their title when they report to West Palm Beach, Fla., for spring training. Olson acknowledges he expects the atmosphere to be markedly different from previous Atlanta springs, and he’s eager to get back to work.
“I got a chance to see some of the guys (pitchers John Smoltz and Tom Glavine and infielder Mark Lemke) at a banquet in Atlanta last week,” Olson said. “Seeing those guys again gives you that itch to put back on the cleats and get back in the clubhouse.”