Baseball Remembers: Al Oliver

I was going to start this edition without telling you who the subject was. I wasn’t going to put his name in the title and even had a cool graphic all prepared to compare the careers of three guys who mostly played for the Pittsburgh Pirates to see if you could pick out the one who isn’t in the Hall of Fame. Here, I’ll use it anyway to show you where I was going:

A few more details before going further.

• Player A: Led the league in triples once but otherwise never led in anything else of note. Was part of a World Series winner, had a .293/.341/.488 batting line in two postseason appearances. Was not a great defender (-32 career fielding runs), but was a decent base runner (+15 career base running runs). Best finish in MVP voting was 6th.

• Player B: Won a batting title, also led the league in hits, RBI, and total bases once each, and in doubles twice. Was part of a World Series winner, had a .229/.297/.402 batting line in six postseason appearances. Was not a great defender (-38 career fielding runs), but was a decent base runner (+8 career base running runs). Best finish in MVP voting was 3rd.

• Player C: Led the league in runs, hits, and doubles once each. Never won a World Series, had an excellent .400/.471/.600 batting line in one postseason appearance. Was a decent defender (+17 career fielding runs), and decent base runner (+14 career bae running runs). Best finish in MVP voting was 5th.