Tony Oliva: "they made a statue of me in Minnesota and that is incredible for a country boy"

February 20, 2023

All reverence from his native land toward a player like Tony Oliva will always seem insufficient. Pinar del Río, the province where he was born in Cuba, seems unable to finish placing within its immense list of immortals the figure of this man, with whom the Major League Hall of Fame, after an inexcusable delay, settled its debts with his legacy.

Tony Oliva returned once more to his land, but there was no ceremonial act nor extraordinary sessions to present any of those shields or parchments that someone or several decide to grant. For this native of Pinar, those honors seem to be forbidden, but, from his humility, he does not feel them necessary.

Fortunately, the initiative of a few remains to try to make up for such institutional ignorance and fulfill that verse by Rubén Blades when he sang to us: "forbidden to forget."

The gathering of Professor Juan Antonio Martínez de Osaba, Sports and Culture, at the headquarters of the Centro de Promoción y Desarrollo de la Literatura Hermanos Loynaz, in the city of Pinar del Río, was the space to honor Tony Oliva, who was accompanied by his brother Juan Carlos, in addition to other luminaries of Cuban baseball such as Luis Giraldo Casanova, Rogelio García, and pitching coach José Manuel Cortina.

That day, I had only 10 minutes face to face, very little time for so many stories to tell. Although it left us much to investigate and recover from his past, which is also part of the history of our national pastime, this is Tony Oliva, an immortal of Cuban baseball.

What does Tony Oliva feel each time he returns to Cuba?
I didn't have the opportunity to play professional baseball in Cuba and they didn't see me play here, but every time I come I feel very good. All my family is here, also my friends: it is very important to me.

Would you have liked a coaching offer in Cuba?
I know I had the opportunity to be a coach, maybe they would have given it to me, or I don't know, because since I was a professional and previously they didn't allow it, but I think now they do. Minnesota Twins gave me the opportunity to be a coach with the team, in the Major Leagues for 9 years and in the Minor Leagues for 16 years, and I'm still with them at 84 years old and 62 years in professional baseball. Now, when I return to the United States, I go to spring training for three weeks to help.

Last year we had Yennier Cano for a bit, but he didn't succeed with us and was traded to Baltimore. I would like for us to have a few Cubans within the organization.

Which Cuban ballplayers impress you the most in the Majors?
José Dariel Abreu is special and has had very good consecutive years. Also, there are Yordan Álvarez, Yulieski Gurriel, and Luis Robert. He has a lot of power, started very well and got injured, but that kid has no limits.

"I feel like I have been in the Hall of Fame my whole life, I went to the United States, but I thought I was never going to play professional or Major Leagues, to have the opportunity to play in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, in Mexico."

Tony Oliva returns to Cuba: "I feel like I have been in the Hall of Fame my whole life"

How has the affection toward Tony Oliva been within the Minnesota organization and in the community?
They have treated me very well all these years, and I have treated them well too, otherwise I wouldn't be there. It is the best community in all of the United States for me from the beginning, when I arrived in 1961 and then when I stayed playing regularly in 1964. They have always treated me very well, not just me, but my family too. They made me a statue, that is incredible to me, for a country boy from the fields of Corralito.

How do you assess current Cuban baseball?
The guys are doing good work. It is very difficult for teams to have everything, pitching, hitting, but here you have to keep pushing forward and keep playing baseball the same way it was played before: with heart. Now, I don't know how, the coaches here work on that, but the baseball we saw in the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s is going to be difficult to see, in the United States either, because now there are many people directing in front of computers, everything is computers.

At a certain point in his career he was criticized for his swing.

If you produce, they shouldn't bother you, if you don't produce, a good coach sees you once and detects the difficulties. I have dealt with ballplayers who have been batting 200 and I advise them, I work with them for a day, we're going to do this, and it fails and they say they can't, you can't, but if you don't produce and can't make a change, they're going to cut you: the intelligent ballplayer stays alongside intelligent people.

"That Hall of Fame thing had failed so many times, I felt worse for my wife than for me, and my friends and fans suffered more than I did, they knew they were doing an injustice, other ballplayers came who didn't have my credentials, there are many things that count that are not just the numbers, you have to be clean, you have to receive God's help so everything is well."

Do they approach Tony Oliva during training?
I go to them before they come to me, if they were smart they would come to me, but they don't come to me much because they are afraid. Each team has several instructors, but they have one who is in charge. I'm helping now, but I'm not one of those coaches. There are little things I don't like about training, how am I going to waste half an hour batting in a place where the ball doesn't move? I tell the guys not to waste time batting with that, that even my 7-year-old granddaughter can hit it.

Don't you think Pinar del Río owes you greater recognition?
No, I say that what I did is done. God is very great and gave me that opportunity to play, because leaving Corralito without training—I didn't play any professional or amateur baseball—and reaching professionalism in the United States and succeeding, is something immense for me: so everything they do for me is great.