By the fall of 1977, Al Oliver had become used to trade rumors.
Oliver was a lifetime .303 hitter. He came up with the Pirates in 1969 as a first baseman. By 1971, he was their starting center fielder, and stayed there until he was moved to left in 1977.
"Since the end of the season, not one day has passed when somebody hasn't come up to me and said, 'Al, hear you're being traded. Hope you're here next year,'" Oliver said in early December, 1977. "In a way, that makes me feel good. When I came to Pittsburgh, I didn't have much respect. But I've gained a lot of friends and earned the respect of a lot of people. For that I wouldn't want to leave Pittsburgh. It's the people. But for the Pirate organization, I wouldn't shed any tears if I have to leave. If I'm traded, I'm traded. You know, the only thing I wanted was to play baseball and become a starter. I've done that since 1972 and I've never had to look back, being disappointed."
He was a year from having veto power over a trade, as a 10-year veteran who'd spent the last five years with the same team.
_____________________
As the winter meetings took place in Honolulu, there were Oliver rumors that included St. Louis, Kansas City and San Diego, as well as hot ones involving the Rangers and Mets.
In the December 6 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Charley Feeney, who was at the Honolulu meetings, listed some rumors about possible deals for Oliver. The Mets wanted to offer Jerry Koosman, but the pitcher was willing to use his 10-and-5 rights to make sure he was close to his home in Minnesota.
Pirate manager Chuck Tanner shot down the idea that the Pirates would be willing to trade Oliver to the White Sox for Bobby Bonds after Chicago had acquired Bonds from the Angels.
And the Rangers were reportedly trying to package three or four players for Oliver. Two names that were mentioned were reliever Adrian Devine and Ken Henderson.
On Dec. 7, The Pittsburgh Press' John Clayton quoted Pirate general manager Pete Peterson as saying, "I have talked to every team in baseball, but am dealing seriously with about a half dozen."
In the Dec. 8 Press, Clayton narrowed things down to Texas wanting Oliver and the Pirates looking for a starting pitcher. One possibility was Bert Blyleven, although deferred payments on his $2 million contract that stretched past the year 2000 were supposedly a detriment.
Feeney reported that the Pirates and Rangers were within a player. He claimed that Oliver and a slick-fielding shortstop named Nelson Norman were Texas' targets, and that Pittsburgh was more interested in bringing back a package of players than Blyleven's seven-figure contract.
_____________________
Brad Corbett ran the Texas Rangers. After making his money in the plastic pipe business, he put together a group to buy the ballclub. Corbett was very much a hands-on owner, and he decided that his team really needed Al Oliver.
He offered Blyleven to Pittsburgh, but the Pirates wanted a bat back, as well. Someone like the Mets' John Milner.
So, as Mets manager Joe Torre told the New York Times, "Corbett started it. He asked if we wanted (Willie) Montanez. I knew that Montanez didn't play for him, but saw Bill Lucas of the Braves standing there and knew something was up. He also asked about Milner, who wound up with Pittsburgh, instead."
The Braves were looking for players who, in owner Ted Turner's words, "are more interested in playing baseball than they are in money." They got three for Montanez.
The Mets and Rangers included other players, including starting pitcher Jon Matlack. "I just hope the Mets don't foul it up," said Corbett as he waited for a decision from New York chairman of the board M. Donald Grant. And once that was approved, the Rangers had the pieces they needed to get Oliver.
So, on Dec. 8, a four-team deal took place. First, the Braves traded first baseman Willie Montanez to Texas for pitchers Adrian Devine and Tommy Boggs and outfielder Eddie Miller. Then the Rangers traded Montanez, outfielder Tom Grieve and a player to be named later to the Mets for pitcher Jon Matlack and first baseman-outfielder John Milner. (The PTBNL turned out to be outfielder Ken Henderson.) Texas then sent Bert Blyleven and Milner to Pittsburgh for Al Oliver and 19-year-old shortstop prospect Nelson Norman.
_____________________
"Oliver was our primary interest and Blyleven was the Pirates'," explained Rangers general manager Dan O'Brien. "But Oliver's 31 and Blyleven's 26. So we had to compensate for the age difference. Nelson Norman is a great prospect and Milner gives back the Pirates some of the hitting they lose in Oliver."
"We had to improve our pitching after we lost Terry Forster and Rich Gossage," said Peterson of two free agent departures. "We picked up one of the top three righthanders in baseball. Put him with John Candelaria and that's quite a pair."
"It was all very delicate," said Pirate vice president Joe O'Toole. "We started talking when we got here Friday. What's today? Thursday? That's how long it took."
Blyleven was already an eight-year veteran with one of the great curveballs in baseball. Minnesota traded him to Texas during the 1976 season after a salary dispute, and in November, 1977, Blyleven signed a six-year contract that would pay him more than $2 million by 2003.
His reaction wasn't too surprising. "I am going to have to go to the batting cage tomorrow. I haven't picked up a bat since 1972.
"In fact, who is the general manager? I don't know who to talk to. All I know is that I'm glad to be a part of the Pirate organization.
"All I want to do is pitch and would like to settle down in a place."
"I am glad to be leaving the Pirates," said Oliver, "but I hate to be leaving Pittsburgh. It was a long time coming. For the last three years, I felt I was going to leave here. There was a lot of guessing and thinking when you'd get the call."
When he got the call, Oliver hung up on Peterson. "'We sold your contract to Texas,' Peterson said. Then he said, 'you know how we always felt about you.' That's when I hung up.
"I know how the Pirates felt about me. If they felt anything about me, they wouldn't have traded me."
He wasn't sure that the trade would benefit the Pirates. "I don't know who's going to hit. It's going to put a lot of pressure on Dave Parker. Parker's a super ball player, but he can't carry the club by himself."
Ultimately, though, Oliver knew why he was traded.
"What it boiled down to," he said, "is that the Pirates wanted to get rid of me. They were afraid of the ten-year rule, the rule which gives me the right to veto a trade.
"I'm in the prime of my career. They knew that in two years, I could threaten to play out my option. It was a tough position for management to be in. They can see players getting in my position. That I am my own man had a lot to do with it."
And Oliver had learned to love the city. "Looking back over the seasons I've had, '76 stands out. It's the year I finally started getting the breaks. When I'd come to the plate, the crowd roared. It was a great feeling, their approval and appreciation. It's a super feeling.
"That was the year the people began to understand me. Deep down, they respected me. There were compliments when I'd walk down the street. But, best of all, they told me I never changed. And I won't. I'll always be Al Oliver.
"I'll always stand up for what's right and fair -- for me, my teammates and my friends."
_____________________
Atlanta got two mediocre years (0.6 WAR from baseball-reference.com) out of Devine before sending him back to Texas. Boggs was mostly a starting pitcher for six years who went 19-34 with a 4.15 ERA (2.1 WAR) before he ended his career with four ugly games for the Rangers in 1985. Miller spent the next three years in Triple-A, with occasional callups, before playing 50 games for the 1981 Braves and then being sent to Detroit in a minor deal. In 94 games in Atlanta, his slash line was .251/.300/.275. (-0.6 WAR)
Montanez was the Mets' regular first baseman for most of two years, with a slash line of .247/.303/.362 (-1.6 WAR) before they sent him to Texas for the Rangers' 1979 stretch drive. He bounced around after that, even coming to the Pirates in 1981 in a deal where Milner went to Montreal. The Bucs released him in the middle of 1982. Grieve's best days were behind him; he slashed .208/.273/.297 (-0.3 WAR) in 54 games for the 1978 Mets before moving on. Henderson was also near the end of his career. He played all of seven games in New York, with -0.2 WAR, before being traded in May.
Matlack was actually a useful pitcher for the Rangers, if often hurt. In six years, he went 43-45 with a 3.41 ERA (12.5 WAR). Norman was Texas' starting shortstop in 1979, but didn't pan out. In four years, he played in 194 games, slashing .225/.260/.268 (-0.4 WAR). He played in three games for the 1982 Pirates and one for the 1987 Expos.
Milner became the left-handed part of a left field platoon with Bill Robinson, and also served as Willie Stargell's backup at first. He slashed .264/.358/.413 in his 3 1/2 years with the Pirates for 2.1 WAR before the trade with Montreal. After the Expos released him in 1982, he came back to Pittsburgh for the last 33 games of his career, 32 as a pinch-hitter. During the 1985 drug trials, Milner testified that he'd used cocaine from 1978-84. He died from lung cancer in 2000.
Blyleven spent three years in Pittsburgh, going 34-28 with a 3.47 ERA in 103 starts, good for 8.6 WAR. In 1979, his complete game in Game 3 of the NLCS clinched the pennant for the Pirates. He started Game 2 of the World Series, then pitched four shutout innings in relief of Jim Rooker as the Bucs stayed alive in Game 5. On April 30, 1980, frustrated by Tanner's preference for going to his bullpen, Blyleven demanded a trade and left the team, returning to California. After no trade was made, he rejoined the team May 9, and pitched the rest of the season. In the offseason, the Pirates traded "The Crying Dutchman" to Cleveland along with an old Manny Sanguillen for four players who didn't amount to anything. Blyleven still had a lot left, though. He pitched for the Indians, Twins and Angels until 1992, winning another championship with Minnesota in 1987, and getting elected to the Hall of Fame in 2011.
Oliver was in Texas for four years. He slashed .319/.358/.466; the .319 represents the Rangers' all-time leader in batting average. He played left field for three years and DHed in 1981, putting up 11.6 WAR as a Ranger. He was then traded to Montreal, where he had a couple of good years playing first base, and then he bounced around in 1984 and '85. He ended up with 2,743 hits in his 18 years, and while he wasn't enshrined in the Hall of Fame, there's a good chance he could still roll out of bed today at age 71 and hit line drives.
That was the great four-team trade of 1977. The Pirates were the only participant who could claim it helped win them a championship.
(All quotes are from the original newspaper coverage.)