St. Louis Cardinals Gameday – June 2018

Players are known to undersell an

ache or pain to stay in the lineup. What’s

your approach to getting the full story?

OLSEN: It’s a combination.

There are objective benchmarks

with tests and re-tests. We assess

the athletes daily and know how

their bodies move. If they’re not

moving appropriately, we do things

to get them back to baseline. That’s

preventive work. If we can’t return to

baseline, we will involve the coaching

staff and learn what they’re seeing. If a

player can’t perform his normal duties,

that’s where we have to dig deeper into

intervening.

Fans view athletes as fearless, but do

big needles and unpleasant procedures

sometimes make them uncomfortable or

unwilling patients?

OLSEN: Just like the general

population, you have people of all

kinds with ballplayers. Even with the

biggest, strongest athletes, some may

pass out at the sight of a needle. We

have lab work during spring training,

and we generally know a couple of the

guys who have issues with that, so we

tailor our bedside manner accordingly.

With treatments, it comes down

to trust, which we build during the

course of the year. They know we have

their best interests at heart, and we

have relationships with them, so that

usually helps the process.

Does anything made you squeamish?

OLSEN: It’s funny – it’s not

the big injuries. It’s fingernails and

teeth. I’ve seen teeth knocked out or

fingernails bent the wrong way. I’ll put

on a brave face, but those things make

me a little squeamish.

Tuning out a crowd is routine for Olsen, who
develops “tunnel vision” when checking on a player.

30 CARDINALS MAGAZINE

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