Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Gregg Olson starred at Omaha Northwest and Auburn before moving into professional baseball as a first-round pick (fourth overall) in 1988. He was the American League rookie of the year for the Baltimore Orioles in 1989 when he was 5-2 with a 1.69 ERA and 27 saves, and he saved 27 or more games in each of his first five seasons and six times overall. In 14 seasons, the right-hander was 40-39 with a 3.46 ERA and 217 saves, still 39th on the all-time saves list. Currently an advance scout for the San Diego Padres, Olson has collected favorite stories from contacts throughout the game and whittled his list down to 60 for a book, "We Got to Play Baseball," which he has co-authored with Ocean Palmer. Olson will be back in Omaha for a book signing from 11 a.m to 1 p.m. Saturday at DJ's Dugout, 636 N. 114th St.
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World-Herald: Many aren't familiar with the various types of scouts that baseball teams employ. Can you explain what you do as an advance scout?
Gregg Olson: I go three days in front of the Padres (to scout the team's next opponent). I'll tell them about one or two of the starting pitchers they'll see. With so much on TV now and all the other systems available, I don't keep charts on what they're throwing, but I can let them know if a guy was maybe struggling with his breaking ball the last time out or here's his (delivery) time to the plate. I'll tell our pitchers how people have been getting out (Albert) Pujols, or maybe there's another guy who isn't swinging as well as normal. I try to pick up something from a catcher that's giving away a particular pitch. Any little thing I can pick up to help the Padres.
WH: Is this type of career something you'd thought about pursuing while you were still playing, or are there any other career plans you might have?
GO: I was looking to do something in baseball, and with four kids, coaching wasn't a good fit because I didn't want to be gone eight or nine months of the year. This way, I'm gone about three months of the year — if I've seen a team recently, I don't need to travel to see them again. This is a pretty good gig, and it works best with my family and with my business (Toolshed USA, a performance athletic apparel manufacturer that supplies base layer underwear to sports organizations). We've got 25 major league teams wearing our stuff, a couple of NBA and NFL teams and a bunch of Division I schools.
WH: Let's go back in time a bit. If you hadn't gone to Auburn, where would you have gone? Straight into pro ball, or another school?
GO: I really didn't think pro ball was a good fit for me out of high school. I needed the sheltered environment. Auburn had a great coach, and I fell in love with the school. If not there, I probably would have gone to Mississippi State. It was real important to me that I felt like I could go somewhere and be the No. 2 or No. 3 starter right away, and I felt like I could do that.
WH: Your curveball was your signature pitch. How did you develop that?
GO: It was a progression. My dad (former Northwest coach Bill Olson) and Gene Hines started working on it with me when I was 13 or 14, and we'd spend a lot of time in the backyard spinning it. My dad wouldn't let me throw it in a game until I was about 14, and then it was only one or two a game. Once I got to college, I learned how to throw it harder by adjusting my body.
WH: You had so much success so fast professionally, got to the majors three months and 24 innings after you were drafted and then rookie of the year in 1989. What do you remember about that part of your career?
GO: I just went out there and played. I mean I took care to know who I was facing and what I was doing, but my bottom line was, 'Did we win or did we lose, and did I do my job or didn't I?' Later on, you start to see stats like blown saves and ERA and you start to realize that baseball is a business and you start wondering about whether you're going to be a free agent or your contract. But just going out and playing is what made those first couple of years fun.
WH: You had a 1.60 ERA and 29 saves when you had your elbow injury (which required surgery) in 1993. How did that affect the rest of your career?
GO: The first thing it did was mess up my mechanics for a year. Then I think I lost that feeling of invincibility that I had. I never had that edge again.
WH: What was the inspiration behind your book?
GO: There's been thousands of major league baseball players, and everyone's got a story. But it's kind of a sad thing now that because of things like YouTube and camera phones, guys aren't always able to have quite as much fun and be themselves when they're with their buddies.
WH: How did you come up with your material?
GO: I've been working on it for the last three years, getting hold of people, telling them I'll be there tomorrow and that you've got 24 hours notice — give me one or two of your favorite stories, preferably clean, and I don't want anyone thrown under the bus. I only had a couple tell me they didn't have any stories, and I only had a couple tell me they didn't have any clean ones. I've got 180 of them, and all but two of them I tape-recorded myself (the others were newspaper articles). My co-author and I each picked our favorite 40 and we each had 30 different ones, so we've got it down to 60 stories.
WH: Of all the hitters you faced in your career, I think it's probably fair to say that the future World-Herald sportswriter you faced from Grand Island in the 1982 midget state championship game, the one you struck out (after he hit a weak foul ball into the first-base dugout) and then walked was probably one of the toughest, right?
GO: I'm not sure if that's how I remember it. I probably fell behind in the count and tried to spot a fastball on the walk.
WH: You didn't waste any of your one or two curveballs on me, did you?
GO: I don't think so.
— Rob White
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