1978 al oliver

al oliver was part of the big 4 team trade between the pirates, rangers, mets, and braves after the 1977 season. he went from pittsburgh to texas as indicated on his 1978 o-pee-chee card:

here's the topps front:

now the o-pee-chee back:

and the topps back:

when he arrived in texas, oliver chose uniform number 0 for the first time in his career. he wore it everywhere he played after texas as well. with the rangers, oliver had a strong 4-year run. he hit .319 during his tenure, won two silver sluggers, and was a top-16 finisher in the mvp voting 3 of the four years. the rangers traded oliver to the expos just before the start of the 1982 season, and he went on to have perhaps his finest season, leading the league with 204 hits, 43 doubles, 109 rbi and a .331 batting average.

oliver is on the short list of players that will be evaluated by the veteran's committee for hall of fame induction this winter. he has 2743 hits and a .303 lifetime average and had a pretty solid run for 11 or so years of his career. his is an interesting case, similar to harold baines and other smaller market 'pure hitters' with big accumulated career numbers. we'll see what happens.

oliver is also the last of the 1978 o-pee-chee variations. that means we have now completed the 1971, 1972, 1974 and 1978 variations. there are still plenty more though!

voici à vous, 1978 al oliver!