1/2/2023 0 Comments Flick home run golden bats![]() ![]() ![]() Career: 131 adjusted OPS+, 43.0 WAR ( Wins Above Replacement).Tony Oliva ( mlb.com & the Star Tribune , December 6th, 2021) I never dreamed that something like that would happen to me.” “I was wondering if the phone call would come today or not, because I have a lot of people here in the house, and I don’t want to disappoint them one more time… I’ve been waiting for this moment for 45 years. Oliva was elated when, on Sunday, he got the call from the Hall of Fame’s Chairman of the Board, Jane Forbes Clark. But all of that disappointment was erased with Sunday’s happy news. ![]() Oliva was openly disappointed, even bitter, at falling just one vote shy of the Hall. Kaat got 10 votes with Wills getting 9, Minoso 8. In a vote that will forever be infamous, Oliva and Allen each received 11 votes, one measly vote shy of the 12 required for a Cooperstown plaque. For that committee vote (called the “Golden Era” Committee), Oliva was on a ballot that included Allen, Wills, Hodges, Boyer, Minoso, Kaat, Pierce, Luis Tiant, and Bob Howsam. Then 76 years old, the Cuban-born Oliva was last on a “second chance” ballot for Cooperstown in December 2014. The other candidates were Ken Boyer, Maury Wills, Roger Maris, Billy Pierce, and Danny Murtaugh. Minoso was elected with 14 votes, while Dick Allen fell one vote shy, with 11 votes. On the Golden Days ballot, Oliva, Kaat, and Hodges made it to the Hall of Fame “on the number,” with each player getting 12 out of 16 votes (75%) from the committee members, the minimum vote tally required for a plaque in Cooperstown. The other inductions will be made posthumously, to first baseman Gil Hodges, left fielder Minnie Minoso, Negro Leagues player/manager/ambassador Buck O’Neil, and a 19th-century legend, Bud Fowler, the first black professional baseball player. The two former Twins are part of a Class of six inductees (so far) for the Hall’s Class of 2022. Oliva (who turned 83 this July), will be joined on stage next summer in Cooperstown, New York by his longtime Twins teammate, pitcher Jim Kaat. On Sunday, former Minnesota Twins right fielder Tony Oliva, 45 years after playing his final game in Major League Baseball, was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum by the Golden Days Eras Committee. ![]()
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