John Olerud Named to Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame Weeks Before Daughter Jordan's Death

John Olerud and his family are mourning the loss of his daughter Jordan as she died after [...]

John Olerud and his family are mourning the loss of his daughter Jordan as she died after suffering from a rare chromosome disorder she was diagnosed with when she was born in August 2000. This comes at a time when Olerud was recently voted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. The announcement came in early February and he's one of four men to be enshrined with Canada's all-time great baseball players.

"When I heard that I was going to be inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, I was very surprised. It was so unexpected," Olerud said per Sporting News. "I am very honoured to be selected."

Olerud will be inducted along with Justin Morneau, Duane Ward and Jacques Doucet. Of the three players and one commentator in the Class of 2020, Olerud spent the most time in the MLB as he played for five different teams in a 17 year span. As far as the Baseball Hall of Fame in the United States goes, it's unlikely Olerud will make it to Cooperstown, New York.

"Olerud is one of the very few players who skipped over the minor leagues completely," Mike Axisa of CBS Sports wrote back in 2018. "He was drafted in the third round of the 1989 draft and the Blue Jays brought him right to the big leagues, where he spent the rest of his career. The knock against Olerud was that he was a first baseman without a ton of power. His career high was 24 home runs in 1993, and only five times in his 17 seasons did he reach 20 homers."

Olerud may not have had a lot of power, but he was one of the better hitters in the MLB during the 1990s. He finished his career with only 255 home runs in 17 seasons, but he recorded a .295 batting average he drove in 1,230 runs and he notched 2,239 hits. Olerud spent the majority of his career with the Blue Jays, and he helped the team win the World Series in 1992 and 1993. He was also named an All-Star in 1993 and in 2001.

The former Blue Jays star is also member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame as he was a standout pitcher and first baseman at Washington State University from 1987-89.

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