| John Olerud never spent a day in the minor leagues. He went straight into the majors, where, in his fourth season, he won the American League batting title for the Toronto Blue Jays by hitting .363.
"It was a great year!" Olerud says. "I won the batting title, was in the All-Star game, and we won the World Series. I'd just gotten married. I thought I had things figured out."
But the next three seasons Olerud hit .297, .291, and .274-pretty good numbers, unless you've shown the fans you can hit .363. Expectations were high. Pressure was on. Olerud didn't have it all figured out after all.
"A good year does bump up people's expectations," Olerud says. "When I started to slide, I wasn't able to get back to the same level of play, and that was very frustrating."
Olerud had committed his life to Jesus in the summer of 1990. A gradual growth in his faith accelerated after he struggled through a couple of bad years.
"It's funny how people can be so high on you, praising you, in a year when you're performing well," Olerud says. "Then, a couple years later, when you are struggling, they're questioning whether your heart was ever into it or whether you ever had fun playing the game. But it's in those tough times that your Christian faith grows.
"God uses all kinds of tough times to teach us. But, knowing the Lord is in control and has a purpose in all you're going through is very important."
John trusts the Bible more than any coach or friend.
"The Bible is the one thing you can have confidence in that it is true," John says. "That's what you go back to whenever you have doubts about anything. The Bible gives us direction in all aspects of life: how to handle ourselves in the workplace, with our wives and kids.
Through the Bible, we have the ultimate model, Jesus Christ, to emulate. Asking Jesus into my life was the best thing that ever happened to me."
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