Let's go and give one of my favorite underrated stars of the 1970's, Al Oliver, a "Traded" card in the 1978 set:
Traded over to the Texas Rangers in a multi-player, multi-team
blockbuster in December of 1977, Oliver would not disappoint in his four
years in Arlington.
Topping .300 each and every year there, Oliver would garner two
Silver Slugger Awards as well as two all-star team selections before
moving on to Montreal, where he'd continue his assault on Major League
pitchers before retiring after the 1985 season.
By the time his 18-year career was over, he racked up 2743 hits,
1189 runs scored, 529 doubles, 219 homers, 1326 runs batted in and a
nice .303 batting average.
He batted .300 or more eleven times during his career, twice topped
200 hits (once in each league), took home a batting title in 1982 along
with leading the league in hits, doubles and R.B.I.'s, and was named to
seven all-star teams.
In my book he was also robbed of a Rookie of the Year Award in 1969
(losing out to the Dodgers' Ted Sizemore), and the fact that he was
"one and done" as far as Hall of Fame voting in 1991 when he garnered
only 4.3% of the vote is a joke.
But when your prime was during the era of Rose, Bench, Reggie, Carew et al, you can see how he flew under the radar I guess…
