A’s first baseman Matt Olson is doing just fine back in his home state of Georgia.
The two-time Gold Glover is very much in isolation mode, as he put it “staying home and doing my part” while the country continues to deal with the health crisis.
On Wednesday morning, we connected with Olson via FaceTime, who is also currently keeping up with as many baseball activities as possible.
On the “project” during isolation, to catch his girlfriend up with television classics:
“I finally convinced her to get into Breaking Bad which was, you know, hot in the streets about eight years ago. I’m rewatching that with her, and I’m working on Game of Thrones with her next. She’s a little stubborn in the fact that I tell her all the time she needs to watch it … that just pushes it off further. That’s my next quarantine challenge.”
Who is the chattiest player on the A’s team group text?
“Depends on the day. Chris Bassitt will rattle off some random stuff. But there’s not really that one guy who won’t shut up in the group text, and ruin it. Guys will throw in good stuff, here and there. We’re pretty good about spacing it out.”
On the daily speculation and reports of when MLB could begin a season:
“While we all want to be out there, and playing, this is a little bit over our heads. And there’s a lot of stuff that needs to happen before we have any say in it. The hurry up and wait scenario. Waiting to hear something from someone a little closer to the game, before I get too excited about it.”
On his relationship with Matt Chapman and being tied together so frequently:
“We really got to know each other playing in Nashville for the first time. We were living together. And yeah, I love being associated with him. I think we all know the guy is a hell of a baseball player, and a good dude too. We go out there and have some fun together. I’ll take me and him together as a package deal, if that’s what it is.”
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On the current pandemic and how live has changed in many ways:
“I try to find the positive in things. I could wake up every morning and tell myself how much this sucks we’re not playing baseball, and the whole world is thrown off its routine. I think you just have to take a step back and realize this is way bigger than us and just a thing we have to do. The world is starting to slow down a little bit, it’s easy to get caught up especially nowadays in everything that’s going on. I’m looking for every positive I can.”
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