MESA, Ariz — It took Matt Olson a while to get here. A while to feel comfortable enough at the plate to handle big league pitching. A while to feel like he can dominate like he did when he hit 13 home runs in the month of September last season, including homers in five straight games.



Hitting is difficult. It’s like art, it takes time. Great art takes even longer. But the reality of hitting is that time and hard work don’t guarantee success. There isn’t always a fairytale ending.



For Olson, time, a lot of work and open-mindedness did the trick.



On a 1-0 pitch last Friday afternoon in the A’s Cactus League opener against the Los Angeles Angels, Olson launched an absolute rocket to right-center field for a homer. It was his first at-bat of the spring.



A’s manager Bob Melvin smirked after the game when speaking about Olson. He acknowledged that it was just a spring training game; but some things...