Oliver talked good game with bat while with Pirates

Monday, August 18, 2003

By Rich Emert, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Al Oliver is 56 years old and does a lot of motivational speaking. He usually gives his talks three or four times a month, although he wouldn't mind doing more.

How long Oliver, who played first base and center field for the Pirates from 1969 through the 1977 season, has been a lecturer is subject to debate.

He retired as a major-league player in 1985 after 18 seasons. That's when he started on the speaker's circuit, but he had been honing his skills for a long time.

"Wilver [Stargell] used to say that I'd been giving talks since I was 20 ... as long as he had known me," Oliver said with a laugh. "He said I was always giving sermonettes. He was right, too."

Never at a loss for words, Oliver is one of the better hitters who played the national pastime. A left-hander, he had a smooth, powerful swing that seemed to produce nothing but line drives. Even the balls he hit that were outs were loud outs.

He finished his career in the top 50 all time in the major league in games played, hits, total bases, RBIs and extra-base hits. His career batting average was .303 and he compiled 2,743 hits.

That he is 257 hits away from the cherished 3,000-hit total leaves the door open as to whether Oliver will make the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He will be eligible for the old-timers list in 2007.

"If I hadn't been platooned as a hitter my last couple of years I think I could have reached 3,000," he said. "I thought I was still hitting left-handers as well as right-handers, but others didn't see it that way."

When the Pirates won the World Series in 1971, Oliver was in center field flanked by Roberto Clemente in right and Willie Stargell in left. Oliver contends that was one of baseball's greatest outfield trios, especially in 1971 when Stargell hit .295 with 48 homers, Oliver hit .282 with 14 homers and Clemente hit .341 with 13 homers.

"I'd like to think that Willie and Roberto are just waiting for me to join them in the Hall of Fame," Oliver said. "Wouldn't that be something to have three outfielders from the same team in the Hall?

"But I'm not the type of person who sits around and worries about something like that. I think if I'm going to get in, it'll be early. If it doesn't happen early [with the old-timers committee] it probably won't happen."

Oliver lives in his hometown of Portsmouth, Ohio, with his wife. He has two children and is a grandfather. He is also an ordained Baptist Deacon and still enjoys playing racquetball, a sport he got hooked on at the Downtown YMCA while with the Pirates.

"I think I have a message because I went through some tough times," he said of his motivational speeches.

"My mother died when I was 11 and my dad passed away on the day I was called up to the big leagues. I didn't have it easy, but I managed to hang in there and things worked out."

A seven-time All-Star, Oliver went to the Rangers for four years and then had briefs stints with the Expos, Giants, Phillies, Dodgers and Blue Jays.

In 1982, he was the National League batting champion with a .331 average while with the Blue Jays.

What's surprising is that no team asked Oliver to become a hitting coach after he retired. He says he would have been receptive to job such as that.

"My friends feel the same way, that baseball lost out," Oliver said. "I wouldn't have minded doing that or getting into managing. But baseball closed it's eyes on me ... closed the doors. I don't dwell on it that much. I figure it was baseball's loss."

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