The Pittsburgh connection thing is so true. I've met so many other people who have moved away from Pittsburgh and it really creates a weird, immediate bond. I don't know if it's true for other places... it's not true for Seattle or Montreal (which are two places I've lived). But I know people not from Pittsburgh who spent some time living there and they have the weird Pittsburgh connection thing too.

Question #1 when I run into Pittsburgh natives in other places: "What neighborhood?"

If you are on Facebook and from Pittsburgh, I recommend that you join the group Pittsburgh Nostalgia and Trivia.

-- MWE

EDIT: We had a saying "Pittsburgh born, Pittsburgh bred, when I die I'll be Pittsburgh dead".

I looked up his stats and while I don't think he's a HOFer, I was kinda puzzled why he didn't at least have more support. 2700 hits, lifetime .300 hitter, Top 5 MVP balloting three times, seven-time All-Star. He's gotta be one of the best players of that era I really know nothing about.

Comps for Oliver:



There are few closely similar players, and this list tells us little we don't already know: long careers with fine but not dominant hitting need something, defense or speed or je ne sais quoi, to make a Hall. Chili Davis is a remarkably close comp in a lot of respects, and if he's not perhaps as highly regarded as Oliver, it's due to the spell cast by a .303 batting average. Davis's career BA was thirty points lower, his OBP fifteen points higher. (Their career SLG are identical; Davis had more HR power but Oliver was of course a fantastic hitter of screaming line-drive doubles.)

one of the best players of that era I really know nothing about

To flesh out the picture a bit, Oliver was sort of Jim Rice's elder brother in TEH FEAR category. He hit the ball as hard as anybody, and as I alluded to in #4, he didn't hit it high in the air. I've long had a set of players you hated to see come up in a crucial situation, because they'd immediately drive in 2 or 3 runs with a double. Oliver was the archetype (later members of the club would be Brett, Molitor, Garciaparra). As a defender, he was stowed at 1B early in his career because the Pirates had a boatload of great outfielders, and then traced a classic trajectory from being a decent CF to being a DH/PH type; but he never lost the ability to scare you to death with the bat.

BDC, in my memory, every bit as scary as fellow Pirate LHs Stargell and Parker.

What does the slash mean in your Pos column?

According to BB-ref, the anything after the / means less than 10 games played at that position. But that is usually for a season. Not sure what it means for career stats.

The Pittsburgh connection thing is so true.

Yep. My sophomore-senior dorm at college in NC had this little colony of expatriate Pittsburghers. Even when you leave town, you never really lose that part of your identity.

I loved Al Oliver as a kid. There was something about him being number 0 that made him so delightfully frightening as BDC alludes to.

Also, it's utterly meaningless but I remember against the Red Sox one time Jerry Remy was at bat and Oliver was about 10 feet from the left field line. I've never seen a player played in such an extreme fashion.

every bit as scary as fellow Pirate LHs Stargell and Parker

I followed the Phillies in that era, and the Pirates' LHB ruined many an afternoon. Who knows how much value Steve Carlton specifically added to the Phillies by being able to control those guys. Parker and Stargell (despite Stargell's famous "coffee with a fork" line) hit Carlton OK (.258 and .262 respectively). But Oliver hit .197 career off Carlton, a very impressive feat by Lefty.

I always think of Al Oliver as a slower, stronger Vada Pinson in my head. Given that both were before my time, I am sure the comparison makes no sense.

Huh? I never had that sense of "fear" with Oliver at the plate. He was a damn good hitter of course but he wasn't physically impressive and he wasn't gonna clobber a HR. I mean, I saved my fear for Stargell and McCovey and Morgan and Perez (that's a Cubs thing) -- if you were getting spooked by every Oliver that came along, you were on the edge of your seat a lot. :-)

If you adjust for era differences in power, he was maybe Cano as a 1B/CF (or Pedroia or prime Vidro) ... b-r also turns up VMart or Billy Butler as reasonably similar hitters but Oliver had a lot more defensive value than Butler obviously. The big changes in K-rates and ISO make it hard to find obvious contemporary comps for Oliver (Melky?).

The Pittsburgh connection thing is so true. I've met so many other people who have moved away from Pittsburgh and it really creates a weird, immediate bond. I don't know if it's true for other places... it's not true for Seattle or Montreal (which are two places I've lived). But I know people not from Pittsburgh who spent some time living there and they have the weird Pittsburgh connection thing too.

My Mom lived in Pittsburgh for several years, and never seems to give it a moment's thought (she's always been far more Memphis than anything).
On the other hand, my brother has never been to Pittsburgh, but has been a Steelers fan since 30 seconds after they won the Super Bowl for the first time.
People are funny.

When Oliver first came up, the Pirates promoted him as their next superstar, their next Clemente. That didn't happen, but the two were very similar in their aggressiveness at the plate; they pretty much swung at anything, and they both plastered line drives all over the field. Oliver was a very, very good player, but probably not a Hall of Fame player. If he had played his whole career in center field, then a better case could be made for him, but he was really a left fielder/first baseman, and that's where he ended up playing most of the time with the Pirates, Rangers, and Expos.

The Yankees wanted him very badly in the early eighties, and came close to getting him in a trade with Texas, but Oscar Gamble vetoed the deal. If the trade to New York had happened, Oliver would have received a lot more attention. A fun player to watch.

If you are on Facebook and from Pittsburgh, I recommend that you join the group Pittsburgh Nostalgia and Trivia.

There's also a very funny set of "Pittsburgh Dad" videos that are being compiled on youtube by a Pittsburgh DJ. Basically everything your father ever said to you about sports, the thermostat, closing the screen door, etc.