There are nomads with more permanent mailing addresses than Tim Olson.

Since Olson, a 1997 St. Mary's graduate, embarked on his pro baseball career in 2000, he's only had two summers where he's played 100 games with the same team.

But, amid 14 stops in six leagues, there's always been the Texas League. On Thursday, Olson enters the Texas League fray for the fourth time, this spring at Tulsa, Okla.

"Iguess you could say it's temporary because Icould very easily be there all year or a few weeks," said Olson, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound infielder. "I've kind of reached that point in my career now where Icould be in AA or I could be in the big leagues. You never know."

Olson's first three stops in the AATexas League were at El Paso in the Arizona Diamonds farm system in 2001, 2002 and 2003. Since he has had two stints in the National League - 49 games with Arizona in 2004 and three games with Colorado in 2005.

Last year he played 13 games with the Texas Rangers' AAAteam in Oklahoma City and 48 with the Toronto Blue Jays' AAAclub in Manchester, N.H.

He was signed to a minor league contract as a free agent by Colorado on March 1 and found his way back to the TL.

"They had a couple of guys penciled in to go there (to Tulsa) who got injured," Olson said of his return to the Lone Star state. "So they asked me if I'd go and play second base there. Idon't really know how long or anything, but … for now I'm still a Rockie going to Tulsa."

The 28-year-old Olson is coming off a frustrating 2006 season in which the most prominent statistic was probably the 57 days he spent on the disabled list.

Six games into the Pacific Coast League season at Oklahoma City, Olson was struck by a sliding runner See Olson, Page 5D

and suffered a broken bone in his left arm. He came back after almost two months on the DL and played in only seven games in almost three weeks.

Texas sent Olson to the Blue Jays in a July 1 trade.He finished the season at Manchester of the AAEastern League where he hit .268 with six home runs in 168 at-bats.

With Oklahoma City he got only 39 at-bats in13 games, hitting .128.

Olson said he's been swinging the bat well this spring, most of which has been spent in the Rockies' minor league camp at Tucson,Ariz.

"I'm probably hitting about .400 for spring training," he said. "It went really well. I've played with the AAAteam the whole spring."

In spring training, Olson has been able to spend time with minor league hitting coach Carney Lansford, a former American League batting champion.

"CarneyLansford helped me out quite a bit this spring," Olson related. "… And Frank Menechino, who played for the Blue Jays and A's has been my roommate this spring. He's an older veteran guy and he's helped me out, too. … When you're surrounded with those guys they can share their wealth of baseball knowledge."

Olson was called up to the Rockies for about five spring training games, but played only twice. "I got three big league at-bats and went 2-for-3 with a triple and a walk, so I did well there,"he said.

The domino effect bounced Olson from AAAto AA.

"The infielders on the 40-man roster who didn't make the 25-man roster were sent to AAA and that dropped me down to AA," Olson said.

The Tulsa Drillers broke camp following a Saturday game. They open the Texas League season Thursday against San Antonio.

It's a bit ironic that Olson earned a shot at Tulsa as a second baseman.

"I've played all over (this spring), mostly in the infield" Olson said. "Iplayed one game in the outfield, but not much at second base at all."

Klug released by A's

Mike Klug, a high school and Legion infielder at Mandan, is done with pro baseball after two seasons as an Oakland A's farmhand.

"They released me back in October,"Klug said. "… They said they could keep me on but I probably wouldn't get much playing time."

Klug was drafted in the 28th round by the A's in 2005 after a standout college career at Kansas City (Kan.)Community College and the University of North Alabama. At North Alabama he was a two-time Division IIAll-American.

Klug hit .182 in 29 games with the A's Arizona League rookie team. Last summer he played in 45 games with the Vancouver Canadians, a short-season Class A team in the Northwest League. He hit .183.

"Ididn't really get much opportunity to play that last year,"Klug said. "… I started out slow and they stopped playing me. I only played once or twice a week so I was clueless up at the plate. Ididn't have any rhythm."

Klug said he might be interested in playing amateur baseball, but right now his plans include "working and fishing."

Given the chance, Klug said he'd do it all again.

"Idon't regret it…. I enjoyed it and I got to see a lot of things," he observed. "There were ups and downs and I learned a lot so Ican't complain."