TONY O’ BELONGS IN COOPERSTOWN

Monday the Minnesota Twins Caravan pulled into Faribault and off the motor coach bus came legendary Twin Tony Oliva.  Admittedly I was a fan of Tony O' as a kid.  I tried to mimic his stance in the batter's box and had a Tony Oliva bat. My success obviously was not as good.  On January 11, 1973 the owners of America's then 24 major league baseball teams allowed teams in the American League to adopt the designated hitter rule. The rule was a career saver for Oliva.  His knees were in very rough shape. It was painful to watch him walk, let alone run and the rule extended his career by four years.  Tony Oliva was the first DH to hit a home run in a game.  It was a first inning pitch off Catfish Hunter of the Oakland A's.  The first six years of his career Oliva was simply a joy to watch on the baseball field.  If Cooperstown is indeed the place where the game's best players are remembered then Tony Oliva belongs there.  Remember another former deserving Twin who's career was cut short by injury made it,  Kirby Puckett.  Tony O' was Puck's batting coach when the Twins won the 1987 World Series, 22 years after Tony O' played for the Twins against the Dodgers in another 7 game heart stopper.  Oliva is the only major leaguer to EVER win a batting title his first two seasons in the majors.  He was rookie of the year in the American League in 1964 and captured 3 batting titles.  He led the league in hits 5 years, doubles 4 years and hit over 20 homers 5 times.  His first six seasons Oliva also tallied double digit stolen bases.  In his first 8 seasons he was in the MVP voting, finishing fourth his rookie year...second in 1965 and 1970 and in the top ten two other times.  Oliva was an all-star 8 times (that's more than recently announced HOF selection Frank Thomas)  Tony O' led the American League in slugging percentage in 1971, was intentionally walked more than any other American League batter in 1968 and was the league leader in sacrifice flies in 1965 and runs scored in 1964.  Yes, the career totals pale in comparison to other Hall Of Famers, but nobody can argue during that 8 year span he was among baseball's best and most feared hitters.  He practically missed all of 1972 with just 28 at bats in 10 games and with a full season surely would've finished his career with over 2,000 hits.  He came up just 83 hits shy.  1, 917 hits in 1,676 games played.  329 doubles, 48 triples, 220 homers and 947 RBI.  He was intentionally walked 131 times.  According to a study conducted in 2007 the average career of a major league baseball players is 5.6 years.  Just use a decade of Oliva's accomplishments on the field and I think most baseball fans would agree from the mid 1960's through the mid 70's he was among the best in the game and that is what the Hall Of Fame is supposed to preserve. There are people in the HOF with over 3 thousand hits that never had a batting title,  Tony O' had three and there are people in the HOF never in the voting for league MVP. Let me know what you think.  I'd love to hear from you.