Gregg Olson's batting career: 1-4, BB, HR, 1.400 OPS

[Barnaby Graves]

Gregg Olson was a career relief pitcher (never started a game) who was known for his astonishing curveball.  Sometimes he played for the Baltimore Orioles but also sometimes he did not.

On April 20th, 1998, at age 31, he was pitching for the Arizona Diamondbacks.  He hadn't taken a live Major League at-bat since 1994.  In the bottom of the 7th, he crushed a 3-2 pitch from Óscar Henriquez into the left-field bleachers, scoring Devon White.

What could Gregg have been thinking as he trudged into the batter's box?  Was he thinking, here's a spot for a home run?  I'm looking fastball on the full count?  Here's where I get 2 of my 2 career RBIs?  Was he just saying, aw (freaking heck, jeez Louise), look at all this (stuff) my job is making me do?  And then he launches one.  Sends the big leathery boy into the night.  What was he looking for, trying to do?  Was he going for the big fly, or just trying to put it in play?  How do you hit a 4-bagger if you're going for contact?  Gregg must've been going for it.  He came, he saw, absolutely conquered.

What was his reaction?  Diamondbacks crushed the game, his donger was just a grave dance on a defeated opponent, but holy heck.  A live, major league home run you were never supposed to hit.  You'd be psyched for a year.  You'd be giving your significant other the extra spicy treatment for the next decade.  I tell you friends, I'd feel like a god forever.  Here I am, trying to do one job in professional baseball, getting sucked into another, and straight crushing it.  Metaphorically and literally hitting the jackpot.  I'd tell that story to anyone I ever met forever.  Yeah I pitched professional baseball, but let me tell you about the time they made me hit.  Oh, what do you do, sell insurance?  Shut up nerd, I destroyed a baseball on live television.

I don't even CARE about opposing pitcher Óscar Henriquez.  I don't even know who the guy is.  Was he a fan-of-the-month they let pitch, and that's why I hit a dinglerooski off him in a 15-4 game?  Go ahead and audit my home run, tell me I'm not legit.  I'm in Baseball-Reference, permanently.  People who do not like it can call the police.

What does Gregg Olson do now?  Does he ever think about that home run?  Because I do and it inspires me when I need it to.

[scOtt]

Zach/k Britton career:

5 H, 1 2B, 1HR, 2 RBI, .625/.625/1.750

[GuidoSarducci]

Maybe he was like converse of Roy Hobbs. Started out as a great hitter before his career got sidetracked.

Edit: On the other hand maybe not.  Of his 5 plate appearnces, 3 were strikeouts.  Would Gregg Olson have hit better than 2018 Chris Davis ? 

Edited April 9, 2020 by GuidoSarducci

[scOtt]

10 minutes ago, GuidoSarducci said:

Maybe he was like converse of Roy Hobbs. Started out as a great hitter before his career got sidetracked.

Edit: On the other hand maybe not.  Of his 5 plate appearnces, 3 were strikeouts.  Would Gregg Olson have hit better than 2018 Chris Davis ? 

Most ML pitchers were pretty decent to great hitters in their earlier years. Pitch one day, play the OF or somewhere for 4 days. Right up until pro ball.

[DrungoHazewood]

4 hours ago, scOtt said:

Most ML pitchers were pretty decent to great hitters in their earlier years. Pitch one day, play the OF or somewhere for 4 days. Right up until pro ball.

They were 90th or 95th percentile hitters in high school.  Major League hitters are 99.999th percentile.

[DrungoHazewood]

This thread triggered something deep, deep within the recesses of my brain: Gregg Olson went 0-for-1 as a batter for the Orioles, despite the fact he only played for the O's prior to interleague.  He was the only Oriole pitcher to get an at bat between 1973 and 1996.  Several others had pinch ran, or appeared in the box score as hitters after some kind of DH switch, but no one else ever actually batted.

It was this game against the Royals in '93. Chris Hoiles had started at DH, with Jeff Tackett behind the plate.  Brady pinch hit for Tackett in the 6th, necessitating Hoiles catch, meaning they lost the DH for the remainder of the game.  I guess they ran out of position players, so in the 8th Olson had to bat against Billy Brewer and struck out.

Looks like there were 81 AL pitchers who got at least one PA from '73-96.  That's more than I would have thought. Ken Brett, George's brother, is the only AL pitcher I know of who batted for himself all game in a DH league.  The White Sox voluntarily didn't use the DH in two of his starts in '76.  Both times he went 0-for-3, the second of which he batted 8th.