Albert Oliver, Jr. (born October 14, 1946 in Portsmouth, Ohio) is a former Major League Baseball player who amassed an 18-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1968-77), Texas Rangers (1978-81), Montreal Expos (1982-83), San Francisco Giants (1984), Philadelphia Phillies (1984), Los Angeles Dodgers (1985) and Toronto Blue Jays (1985). He batted and threw left-handed.
Oliver was a durable hard-hitter and a fine center fielder that can also played left and right as well as the first base. He was signed by the Pirates as an amateur free agent in 1964.
In his rookie season Oliver hit .285 with 17 home runs, ending second in the 1969 National League Rookie of the Year voting. From 1970-76 he played on five Pirates division champions, including the team that defeated the Orioles in the 1971 World Series. The following season, Oliver batted .312, .321 in 1974, and .323 in 1976. It was his first of nine straight .300 seasons. In December 1977, he was sent to the Texas Rangers in the same trade that brought the pitcher Bert Blyleven to Pittsburgh.
Wearing the number 0 on his uniform, Oliver played in all of Texas's 163 games in 1980, and reached career highs in hits (209) and RBI (117). On August 17 at Tiger Stadium, he established an American League record with 21 total bases in a doubleheader (four home runs, a double and a triple). In March 1982, after became the Rangers' all-time leading hitter (.319) and reached the club's top ten in every batting category, he was traded to the Montreal Expos for third baseman Larry Parrish.
In 1982 Oliver hit a career-high .331 batting average to win the National League batting crown. He also led the league in hits (204), doubles (43), extra bases (67), total bases (317), and tied with Dale Murphy for the RBI lead (109).
After stints with the Giants, Phillies and Dodgers, Oliver returned to the American League in 1985 with the Blue Jays, for whom he hit a pair of game-winning singles against the Royals in the 1985 ALCS.
Al Oliver was a career .303 hitter with 219 home runs and 1326 RBI in 2368 games. Selected for seven All-Star games, he batted .300 or more ten times and retired with 2,743 hits (45th in the all-time list). He also ranks among all-time top-50 in games played (2368), total bases (4083), RBI (1326) and extra-base hits (825).
Highlights
- 7-time (1972, 1975-76, 1980-83)
- NL batting champion (1982)
- Led NL in RBI, hits, extra bases and total bases (1982)
- Led AL in games played (1980)
- Twice led NL in doubles (1982-83)
- 8-time Top 10 MLB hitters (1975-82)
- 3-time Top 10 MVP (7th, 1972; 7th. 1974; 3rd, 1982)
- First player to collect at least 200 hits and 100 RBI in a MLB season (1980, he repeated his feat in 1982)
- Won Silver Slugger Award for three straight years, at three different positions:
- 1980, left field, AL
- 1981, designated hitter, AL
- 1982, first base, NL
See also
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