Former Dodgers Two-Time World Series Champion Dies at 84

Nate Oliver helped hoist two World Series championships for the Los Angeles Dodgers over the course of his MLB career, but his work in youth baseball may have been just as valuable. He recently passed away at 84 years old in Oakland, CA.

Oliver began his professional baseball career on the Dodgers during the 1963 season and played in Los Angeles until the end of the 1967 season.

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Oliver was a member of the 1963 and 1965 World Series teams and even the National League pennant winning team of 1966.

After the 1967 season, Oliver was traded to the rival San Francisco Giants and played 36 games for them in 1968. He then split time with the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs in 1969 in what turned out to be the final season of his baseball career.

Although he played just one season in San Francisco, Oliver continued to be a pillar in the community for years to come by coordinating baseball lessons for hundreds of underprivileged youth in the Bay Area. In addition to his teaching, he would help give baseball gear to those who weren't able to afford it, allowing more to experience the love of this sport.

"The look and expression on their faces and the body language," said Oliver via CBS News in 2011. "It says it all. It's just fulfilling."

The #SFGiants held a moment of silence for Nate Oliver, a seven-year big league veteran who appeared in 36 games for SF in 1968. He was a youth baseball fixture in the community. He was 84. pic.twitter.com/Bw7ihlPWGK
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) April 9, 2025

Dodgers historian Mark Langill recounted a unique memory from Oliver that involved stepping in for a National Anthem performance pregame at a moment's notice.

"During his playing career," said Langill, "Oliver was known for his singing. When the Dodgers staged a St. Patrick’s Day party in Vero Beach, Florida during training camp in 1964, Oliver’s singing was one of the evening highlights along with instrumental performances by Maury Wills (banjo) and Tommy Davis (clavietta)."

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After playing in a Dodgers Oldtimers Day game in 1990 — an exhibition contest for the organization's alumni — Oliver was eating a sandwich in the clubhouse. He was then tasked to fill in for a late-scratch to the originally planned National Anthem singer, Ella Fitzgerald.

"Without missing a beat, the former infielder took his place in center field and delivered, starting the afternoon on a high note," Langill wrote.

Langill noted that Oliver used his singing skills to perform national anthems in Anaheim, Oakland, and Cincinnati over the course of his career.

The Dodgers have been lucky to have such talented baseball players don their uniform throughout the years, but for men with the character that Oliver possessed to be linked to the organizations will last a lifetime.

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