More than 45 years after his final at-bat, Tony Oliva's stellar but truncated baseball career finally received the imprimatur that he and a legion of Twins fans had long craved: Hall of Fame.
Oliva, a three-time batting champion and the heart of a league champion and two division winners in Minnesota, received 12 votes — the minimum required — Sunday from a 16-member "Golden Days Era" committee of baseball players, executives, historians and journalists. And just like that, after 23 previous electoral disappointments, the 83-year-old outfielder and franchise fixture's wait was over.
Former Twin Jim Kaat, a longtime broadcaster who at 83 still works an occasional Twins telecast, was also elected with 12 votes. He's the Twins' all-time leader in victories. The lefthanded pitcher was a three-time All-Star and 16-time Gold Glove winner who won 283 games, 190 with the Senators/Twins.
Oliva and Kaat will be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame on July 24, 2022, in Cooperstown, N.Y. along with Gil Hodges and Minnie Minoso; Hodges got 12 votes and Minoso 14 from the Golden Days Era Committee.
The Early Baseball Committee elected Bud Fowler, whose career started in Minnesota, and Buck O'Neil.
Finally in the Hall
"I'd love to go to and see all the great players there. They're my friends," Oliva said earlier this week. "I've been several times. I went when Rod [Carew] got in, I went when Paul Molitor got in. Kirby [Puckett], too. I'd really like to have a reason to go next year."
He's got the best one now, though he began to suspect it wouldn't happen. It's been seven years since the last time the Golden Days Era committee, which considers overlooked players from 1950-1969, took a vote — one in which he received 11 votes, one shy of election — and the next chance is scheduled for 2026.
"We're all in our 80s now," Oliva, who immigrated from his native Cuba in 1961, said of the 10 Golden Days Era nominees, seven of whom have already died. "It's a long time to wait. I wish it didn't take so long."
Still, Oliva found himself getting excited as another vote approached. He and Gordette Oliva, his wife of 53 years, planned a get-together for family and friends at their Bloomington home, just in case the news was good.
"I want to win for my wife. [Hall of Fame disappointment] has been very hard on her," Oliva said. "I'll be happy, I'll be very happy. But she's been through it all with me. I want it for her."
Oliva was a lifetime .304 hitter in 15 seasons with the Twins, his only major-league team. He won batting championships in each of his first two seasons, 1964 and 1965, and again in 1971, winning Rookie of the Year for the first one. He was runner-up in AL Most Valuable Player voting in 1965 after helping the Twins reach their first World Series in Minnesota, and also in 1970. He racked up 1,917 hits, 597 of them for extra-bases.
But his career was cut short by knee injuries that began in 1971 and eventually limited him to serving as designated hitter for the final four seasons of his career, which concluded in 1976.
Kaat reaches the top
Perhaps the greatest fielding pitcher of all time, Kaat was 22 when he moved to the Twin Cities with the Washington Senators in 1961, and he spent the next 13 seasons in a Twins uniform. He spent another decade in the majors after departing, too, and therein lies his greatest strength: Durability.
Only 16 other pitchers in baseball history started more games than Kaat, who racked up 283 victories for six different teams, counting the Senators and Twins separately. He remains the Twins' all-time leader in wins, losses (152), innings (2,959), starts (422) and walks (694).
Kaat was an All-Star three times, pitched a complete-game 5-1 victory over Sandy Koufax and the Dodgers in Game 2 of the 1965 World Series (before taking the loss in Games 5 and 7), and won an astonishing 16 consecutive Gold Gloves as his league's best fielding pitcher. Only Brooks Robinson (16 at third base) and Greg Maddux (18 as a pitcher) have been honored more often.
Like his former teammate Oliva, Kaat didn't come particularly close to Hall of Fame election during his 15 years of eligibility on the BBWAA ballot, peaking at 29.6 percent in 1993. But the successful broadcaster, now 83,received more than 50 percent of the votes in his last five nominations toveterans committees before finally being elected Sunday.
He said Sunday he would go in with a Twins logo on the cap of his Hall plaque.
Starting in Minnesota
Fowler, who was born John Jackson Jr., was the first acknowledged Black professional baseball player — as a 20-year-old in 1878. In 1884, Fowler became the Black player in organized baseball when he played for Stillwater in the Northwestern League. Minneapolis and St. Paul also had teams in the 14-team league.
Fowler had a 7-8 record as a pitcher and batted .302 in 48 games for Stillwater, which had a 21-46 record. In 1895, Fowler helped form the Page Fence Giants, one of the first successful Black barnstorming teams. Early in the 1895 season, the Giants played a four-game exhibition series in Minneapolis against the Minneapolis Millers. Fowler was the player-manager of the team.
Ballots revealed
Here are the voting results, with 12 (75 percent) of 16 votes needed for election.
Golden Days Era Ballot: Minnie Miñoso (14 votes, 87.5%); Gil Hodges (12 votes, 75%); Jim Kaat (12 votes, 75%); Tony Oliva (12 votes, 75%); Dick Allen (11 votes, 68.8%); Ken Boyer, Roger Maris, Danny Murtaugh, Billy Pierce and Maury Wills each three or fewer.
Early Baseball Era Ballot: Buck O'Neil (13 votes, 81.3%); Bud Fowler (12 votes, 75%); Vic Harris (10 votes, 62.5%); John Donaldson (8 votes, 50%); Allie Reynolds (6 votes, 37.4%); Lefty O'Doul (5 votes, 31.3%); George Scales (4 votes, 25%); Bill Dahlen, Grant Johnson and Dick Redding each three or fewer.
