The Oliver Experiment Doesn’t Seem to Work

Al Oliver is the only player who wears his fielding percentage on his uniform.

Another day of watching Oliver against the Cardinals, trying to field line drives off his chest, and forcing his cutoff man to run from shortstop into foul ground to take a throw, I can only hope that the Oliver experiment is soon coming to an end. He will never produce as many runs as he gives up, and with the Dodgers’ pitching, it doesn’t make much sense to gamble that he might. An outfield of .250 hitters with good defensive skills would keep the Dodgers closer in games that they’ve been blown out of--and as I recall, a balance of pitching and defense was worth several pennants in the early 1960s.

MIKE GLYER

Van Nuys