Photo: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images
By: Kike Frías
Photo: Jim McIsaac / Getty Images
By: Kike Frías
To your 80 years old and with a nostalgic look in his eyes, the former Cuban baseball player Tony Oliva received the news that he was inducted into the Hall of Fame of Baseball through a teleconference.
“At last that call came (…) As you know, I have 83 year old. Many people told me that I should have been chosen ago 40 years. It is better to be alive to enter the Hall of Fame and to be able to say hello and thank people ”
Tony Oliva
Next to Oliva was also exalted to Cooperstown the talented Minnie Miñoso , died in 2015, so he and Oliva will not be able to share the celebration. Both were part of the six figures chosen to enter the Museum of the Immortals.
They are accompanied by Buck O’Neil, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat and Bud Fowler.
Oliva and Kaat, both from 83 years and also former teammates in the Minnesota Twins, they are the only two new members still alive. It is highlighted that Dick Allen, who died in December of 2020, he was only one vote away from entering the HOF.
Saturnino Orestes Armas “Minnie” Miñoso received 14 votes of the 16 members of the Golden Days Era Committee. He came to the Major Leagues as third baseman but his greatest achievements came from playing left field.
He went to the All-Star Game nine times and a pioneer who became the first black Cuban to wear the White Sox uniform when he homered off Vic Raschi of the Yankees on May 1, 1951 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
He was the only one in Major League history to have participated as player in five different decades: his first game was the 19 April 1949 and the last one on October 5, 1980.
“It exemplifies everything that is supposed to be a member. Hall bro, on and off the field ”
Bob Kendrick, president of the Museum of the Negro Leagues
One of the most beloved figures in Minnesota club history, Oliva was finally chosen as part of the group to enter the Hall of Fame at the 2022 after you received the 75% of votes required by the 16 Age members of the Golden Age Committee. Oliva will be exalted on 23 July 2022, along with his Twins teammate Jim Kaat, who was selected by the same committee on Sunday.
He played his entire career with the Twins, since 1962 until 1976. He led the Young Circuit in hits on up to five occasions and even became the first player in major league history to win batting titles in his first two seasons.
At 64 ′ won the American Rookie of the Year. Then in the 65 ′ led Minnesota to its first American League title.
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