Imagine breaking into the major leagues and winning a batting title in your rookie year.
What do you do for an encore? Win another batting title in your second season just to show that the first was no fluke.
That’s what former Minnesota Twins standout Tony Oliva did in 1964 and 1965, and he added yet another batting title to his glittering resume in 1971.
Oliva was considered one of baseball’s elite hitters during his 15-year major league career (1962–1976), all spent in a Twins uniform. But for decades after he retired there was one thing missing from the list of accomplishments of the player fans affectionately called “Tony O” — he wasn’t in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
He came ever so close in 2015, missing election by just one vote. He’d have to wait another five years before being considered again by a Hall of Fame veterans committee. But that vote, scheduled for December 2020, was postponed due to COVID, when the voting committee could not convene. Meanwhile, Oliva, now in his 80s, wasn’t getting any younger. Finally a vote was slated for December 2021.
“I thought I had a good chance of getting in this time — maybe my best chance — because I came so close in 2015,” the left-handed hitter said.
Still, it was no sure thing. Oliva, 83, admits to being worried that if he didn’t get elected this
