Tony Oliva Connects Generations of Stars For Growing Latino Fan Base in Twin Cities
By Pat Borzi
MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Twins officially list Tony Oliva as a special assistant, though the eight-time All-Star’s primary job is being Tony Oliva — a smiling, bubbly, bilingual link to the club’s first two decades in Minnesota.
Most days Oliva can be found strolling through the Twins’ clubhouse at Target Field or leaning against the batting cage, observing and advising the growing number of young Twins Latino stars. In that role the club took him on a West Coast trip in May, reuniting him with Hall of Famer Rod Carew, his old road roommate who lives in California.
On the trip Oliva watched the fledgling Bomba Squad crush six home runs May 18 in Seattle, then top that five days later with eight homers in Anaheim. The latter tied the club record set in 1963 and matched on April 20 in Baltimore. Seven of those eight homers travelled more than 400 feet. In all the Twins clubbed 22 homers in seven games on the trip, a sliver of their major-league record 307 for the season.
The power display left Oliva flabbergasted.
“This year was a special year for the Minnesota Twins, because everybody in this lineup was able to hit home runs,” said Oliva, 81. “It wasn’t (Nelson) Cruz every day, or (Mitch) Garver, or (Max) Kepler. A lot of those guys got hurt. Kepler hit 36 home runs and didn’t play for a month.
“It was something beautiful to see. One of those years that come up once in a lifetime, where everybody was able to contribute, everybody was able to hit home runs. It’s hard to explain why they hit so many home runs. We had guys who never hit 30 home runs before. Something like that, I never saw.”
Oliva played seven games for the 1963 club that held previous club record with 225 homers. The following season the Twins nearly matched it with 221, 32 by Oliva, the American League Rookie of the Year. Oliva was one of six players on the ’64 team with at least 20 homers, topped by Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew’s 49. That club record that stood until eight Twins hit 20 or more this season.
“I told people that year (1964), all the home runs we hit, a lot of guys hit for high average,” said Oliva, who batted .323 that season for the first of his three A.L. batting crowns. “Many times they say so-and-so is going to pitch tomorrow, and then it comes out that guy got sick the night before, because he knows Minnesota was coming. That was great. But I never experienced anything like this year.”
The ’64 Twins carried a significant Latino presence with Cuban exiles Oliva, shortstop Zolio Versailles (the American League MVP in 1965) and 15-game winner Camilo Pascual, plus first baseman Vic Power from Puerto Rico. This year’s Twins boast a lot more. Eighteen contributed in ways large and small, a mix of Dominicans, Puerto Ricans and Venezuelans, along with Jonathan Schoop from Curaçao. Eleven made the Division Series roster.
Games of dominos, with mainly Venezuelans at one table and the Dominicans at another, are a daily scene in the Twins clubhouse, often while salsa music pumps through the sound system. It’s a more rollicking place now under rookie manager Rocco Baldelli, and Oliva loves it.
“I’ve been in baseball for 50 years, and spent about 40 years in the big leagues, coaching, playing, all those things,” Oliva said. “The beautiful part for me is the way that everybody gets along. The Americans and the Hispanics, the way they talk, the way they play, the way they play around. And that has a lot to do, I think, with Rocco and the coaches. They treat every single one the same.”
A growing Twin Cities Latino baseball community is embracing the Bomba Squad. Carmen Robles, a local writer/editor and baseball fan, said a number of Puerto Rican families relocated here in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017. They joined a Latino population that is largely Mexican, with a sprinkling of Dominicans, Cubans, Ecuadorians, and others from the Caribbean. Minneapolis is 9.8 percent Latino, and St. Paul 9.7 percent, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau figures.
“At one time, there wasn’t that big a community in Minnesota,” Oliva said. “There are more Hispanic people now, from all over. And they love baseball.”
Oliva measures the growth of that community in a personal way. A new generation of baseball fans knows Oliva not as an All-Star but as a radio analyst, teaming with play-by-play partner Alfonso Fernandez to call 50 Twins games in Spanish.
“When I’m at the store and I open my mouth, sometimes they look at me and go, `You’re the guy on the radio,’” Oliva said, flashing his trademark smile. “It’s nice to see that.”
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