I know squat about his pre-ML career, so I have no idea if he's a HoMer or not.

But a helluva name.

But a helluva name.

You got that right, Ivan. :-)

Is Alonzo Perry also a 68er? Or is he eligible in 1969?

Isn't Perry '69? His last year in the Mexican League was '63.

The 1991 Baseball Research Journal has an article on him by Dr. Jose de Jimenez (no Bill Dana cracks, please.) In the Dominican League, he was 86-46 in 11 seasons, leading the league in wins twice and ERA once. Had the best career ERA for pitchers with at least 1000 IP (2.11), as well as the most wins and strikeouts.

He pitched in the Mexican League for 5 years, leading in wins and strikeouts his last year, 1959. Olivo pitched only 3 years in American minor leagues, all in the International League, and only one full season, 1961, when he had a 2.01 ERA with 118 K's in 130 IP.

Apparently there was no professional ball in the Dominican Republic between his age 19-31 years. He played professionally in Puerto Rico in 1947 (at least) but the article doesn't have stats for that season.

Any more info on this guy forthcoming from any of the usual suspects?

These are from Peter Bjarkman's Diamonds around the Globe: The Encyclopedia of International Baseball. For the Dominican League stats I'm not sure if he gathered them via original research of box scores or via previously published sources.




The W-L record and ERA match what Cblau cites in #6. But, clearly something is wrong with the stats in '58-'59. Given his ineffectiveness the previous winter, and the low IP total and number of decisions, I was thinking maybe he got hurt and only pitched in relief that year. 17.2 innings in 21 games would be a bunch of really short stints, worthy of a modern LOOGY, but it's not impossible (and he was a left-hander), but clearly 66 Ks and 65 Hs make no sense in that context. Something is out of whack; it could be the IP, but that doesn't explain his fairly low number of decisions, if he really did start 21 games (and had the IP to match). But I suppose that could have been a fluke thing. Also, the totals are from the book, as when I add them up, I don't get the same numbers. Everything adds up except IP (well, I can't verify ERA, without ERs, but everything else), where I get 1091.

And in addition, even ignoring '58-'59, his K/9 rates are all over the place. Using 1073.1 (the amount I calculated, minus the listed total for '58-'59) as his IP and 676 as his Ks, his career rate in the Dominican is 5.67. But his yearly rates are:

'51 5.47
'52 6.17
'53 5.34
'54 3.41
'55-'56 3.15
'56-'57 3.76
'57-'58 7.08
('58-'59 34.53)
'59-'60 7.60
'60-'61 10.14
'63-'64 2.92

Not sure what to make of that. For what it's worth, his MLB K/9 rate was 7.1 in 107.1 IP, and his AAA K/9 rate at Columbus and Altanta in the IL was 7.9 in 280 IP. Both, obviously, at very advanced ages.

Anyway, some years in the minors are also listed in the book:



He was also in Columbus in '60 before being called up to the Pirates, and in Atlanta in '64, but those years are on BR, so I'm not going to bother typing it out. (Technically, '61 is there as well, but it's missing Ks, so I included it here). Also, he was born in 1919, so this is still only half his career or so, as even the DSL stats start when he was 32. Before that information is sketchy, but he seems to have been playing with Licey in the Dominican at least at times. However, between the infamous '37 campaign when Trujillo imported a bunch of NgLers for his personal team, and '51 when the Summer League restarted, professional teams existed in the DR, but there was no organized league play.

He also seems to have been a pretty good hitter for a pitcher. Bjarkman mentions Olivo played the outfield on his off days as a younger player (though provides no stats), and while his MLB stats are nothing special, in a very small sample of 20 PA, his AAA numbers are pretty decent for a pitcher. He went 20 for 90 with 1 BB and 4 doubles in his time in the IL.

Anyway, this is for what it's worth. Obviously he was a very good player, but given some uncertainty about his stats, and (more importantly) lack of context for the leagues he played in, whether he was truly great is a matter of speculation. Though either he or Vargas is typically cited as the greatest early Dominican player, so he does have the reputation.