Saturday, October 10, 2020

Hall of Fame? Rookie Card - Al Oliver

I got a PWE in the mail yesterday from Matt (Diamond Jesters) with these three cards for my 1973 Topps set.  These cards are in great shape and are some good names. Thank you Matt!

Greg Luzinski had a nice career, Red Schoendienst is a Hall of Famer and Al Oliver is a near Hall of Famer in my opinion. 


In fact, I recently purchased an Al Oliver rookie card and this gives me the perfect opportunity to show it off and talk about his near Hall of Fame career.


Al broke into the big leagues in September of 1968 and played through the 1985 season. Over those 18 seasons he batted .303 with 2,743 hits. The 7 time All-Star played his first 10 seasons with the Pirates before spending 4 years with the Rangers and 2 years with the Expos. He would split time between the Giants and Phillies in 1984 and the Dodgers and Blue Jays in 1985. Oliver won the batting title in 1982 and batted over .300 in 1983 and 1984. In 1985 Al dealt with injuries and played less than 100 games in a season for the first time in his career and his batting average dipped to .252. Oliver couldn't get a new contract for 1986 and retired claiming collusion among owners. With a few additional seasons, he gets to 3,000 hits and be a lock for the Hall of Fame.

2 comments:

  1. Any player that plays in over 2k games and ends their career with over a .300 batting average is a winner in my book. Nice pair of Olivers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Glad I could help out! Poor Oliver debuted on the Hall of Fame ballot with Rod Carew - voters probably couldn't help comparing the two, meaning Oliver had no chance and was an unfortunate "one and done". I honestly think he deserves a closer look - anyone with MVP votes in 10 different seasons was someone who was obviously respected.

    ReplyDelete