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Tony Oliva had a rookie year to remember. The Minnesota right fielder led the league in batting average, hits, runs, doubles, and total bases. He received all but one of the first-place votes in Rookie of the Year balloting.

The season was no fluke. He followed it up in ’65 by winning his second straight batting crown and finishing second in MVP voting. An All Star in his first 8 full seasons, Oliva wore out American League pitchers for nearly a decade.

In the collection is this Topps rookie card of Oliva signed by the three-time batting champ.

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If not for bad knees, Tony Oliva is a sure-fire Hall of Famer. The Rookie of the Year in 1964, Oliva was the AL batting champ. The rookie season was outstanding. Oliva also paced AL hitters in runs, hits, and total bases.

From 1964-1971 Oliva won three batting crowns, topping the .320 mark four times. He was an All Star all 8 seasons. During that period he averaged 22 homers and 90 RBI per season while slugging .507. The Gold Glove outfielder was on his way to Cooperstown.

Then he injured his knee. Oliva was never the same.

He played in just 10 games in 1972. For the remaining four years of his career he never hit .300 again. For decades Oliva was the subject of a fierce Hall of Fame debate. In 2022, the Veterans Committee agreed with Oliva’s supporters and elected him to Cooperstown.

According to baseball-reference.com, Oliva made as much as $100,000 in a season only once. Players sometimes had off-season jobs and also relied on money from endorsement deals.

In the collection is one such endorsement. Signed just nine games into his big league career, this contract calls for Oliva’s signature to appear on souvenir baseballs with stamped signatures of the team’s players.

Not exactly a money maker for Oliva, the deal calls for him to make one cent per ball sold.

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The 1964 Rookie of the Year, Tony Oliva was purely dominant for his first eight seasons before injuries slowed him. Shown here is a 1966 batting leaders card featuring and signed by Frank Robinson, Oliva, and Al Kaline.

Robinson hit .316 to win his only batting crown and the AL Triple Crown. Three-time batting champ Oliva finished second.

In the eight-year period from 1964-1971, Oliva won three batting crowns. He finished in the top-10 each of those seasons and had seven top-3 finishes.

Oliva is widely regarded as one of the best players not inducted into the Hall of Fame.

 

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The Major League Baseball Players Association sent out questionnaires like this one to its players to determine what endorsements each man had. Today’s players compliment their baseball salary with off field endorsement but that wasn’t always the case.

This document filled out by Tony Oliva on July 18, 1970 shows him to have only one endorsement — from Mac Greagor sporting goods. It was a fine year for Oliva who finished second in MVP voting. The left-handed batter hit .325 with 23 homers and 107 RBI while leading the league in hits and doubles.

Oliva signed his name at the bottom. Directly under his signature, Oliva penned “Minnesota Twins”, the team he player for not only in 1970, but for the entirety of his 15-year career.

The Cuban-born Oliva won three batting crowns and played in eight straight all star games from 1964-1971. He was inducted into Cooperstown in 2022.

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The Minnesota Twins created their team Hall of Fame in 2000. Their first induction class included All Star Kent Hrbek, owner Calvin Griffith, and Cooperstown men, Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, and Kirby Puckett.

The 1964 Rookie of the Year, Oliva spent all 15 of his big league seasons in Minnesota. A three-time batting champ, Oliva was selected to eight straight All Star teams starting in 1964.

Twenty-two years after the Twins put him in, Cooperstown called.

Shown here is a letter from Killebrew to Jack Lang, the secretary-treasurer of the Baseball Writers Association of America (BBWAA) from 1966-1988. The role entrusted Lang with counting Hall of Fame votes and notifying those who made it.

The correspondence is dated January 16, 1984, just one week after Killebrew received the good news.

He writes in part, “What a thrill to hear these words from you last week…It is the greatest thrill of my life and we look forward to being with you and the rest of my friends along with Don Drysdale and Luis Aparicio on August 12.”

The slugger signs his name at the bottom of the letter.

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After retiring in 1976, Tony Oliva waited the mandatory five-year period before appearing on the Hall of Fame ballot. For the next 15 years he never received half the vote, topping out at 47.3% in 1988. Despite his vote totals, many believed Oliva worthy of baseball’s ultimate honor.

His long wait for the Cooperstown call ended in 2022 when the Veterans Committee selected him. Oliva joined an induction class of seven that included longtime teammate Jim Kaat. In addition to the Minnesota pair, the Veterans Committee also took Buck O’Neil, Bud Fowler, Minnie Minoso, and Gil Hodges. The lone writers choice was Boston designated hitter David Ortiz.

Shown here is a 1960 Topps rookie card signed by Oliva’s Twins teammate of 11 seasons Jim Kaat.