Saturday, January 12, 2019

MISSING IN ACTION- 1974 BEN OGLIVIE

Today I post up a card I’ve been meaning to create for years, a “missing” 1974 card for former outfielder Ben Oglivie, who easily could have had a card in the Topps set after a decent amount of playing time during the 1973 season:


Oglivie appeared in 58 games for the Boston Red Sox that year, batting .218 with 32 hits over 147 at-bats and 161 plate appearances. Certainly enough playing time to get a card in the 1974 set.
He would get traded to the Detroit Tigers in the off-season for Dick McAuliffe, where he would continue to be played as a platoon-player over the next four seasons, averaging about 100 games a year, but nevertheless playing well as he showed power and a decent batting average hovering around .280.
However it wasn’t until he was traded to the Milwaukee Brewers for pitcher Jim Slaton that he’d finally find full-time work, eventually becoming a legitimate slugger who’d lead the American League in 1980 with 41 homers, along with a career-high 118 runs batted in and 94 runs scored.
He would play with the Brewers through the rest of his 16-year career, until 1986, before going on to play in Japan for two seasons with Kintetsu, where he’d his 46 homers combined.
Overall in his MLB career, Oglivie batted .273 with 235 homers and 901 RBI’s, with 1615 hits over 5913 at-bats and 1754 games, getting three All-Star nods and a Silver Slugger for his Home Run champion 1980 season.

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