John Olerud and Chip Hale, two former members of the Peninsula Oilers, were recently honored by being named to the Pac-12 Conference All-Century baseball team. Olerud was further honored by being named the conference’s Player of the Century. Olerud, a Washington State University pitcher who played for the Alaska Baseball League’s short-lived Palouse Empire Cougars during the 1988 season, joined the Oilers for their National Baseball Congress postseason trip to Wichita, Kansas, that year.
As an Oilers team member, Olerud still holds several batting records at the NBC World Series. Olerud returned to the Cougars for the 1989 ABL season and at the conclusion of the Alaska season signed with the Toronto Blue Jays and went directly to the American League team, becoming the only player in ABL history to play in the Alaska Baseball League and the major leagues during the same summer.
Joining Olerud on the All-Century team is current Arizona Diamondbacks manager Chip Hale, who was a member of the 1986 Oilers team. Hale played third base at Arizona University, and spent six years with the Minnesota Twins and one with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The All-Century team includes venerable names such as USC’s Mark McGwire and Randy Johnson, UCLA’s Jackie Robinson and Chase Utley, Arizona State’s Barry Bonds, Arizona’s Terry Francona and Washington’s Tim Lincecum.
The 2016 team roster has been updated with the addition of West Virginia University freshman right-handed pitcher Cody Wood of Lone Tree, Colorado, and University of Tennessee-Martin Junior infielder Tyler Albright from Algonquin, Illinois.
Submitted my Mike Baxter, chairman of the Peninsula Oilers Baseball Operations Committee.
