For his first eight full big league seasons, few in baseball could conceive of a better hitter than Tony Oliva.
For his last five years, eight knee operations gradually robbed Oliva of his marvelous skills. But no injury could remove Oliva’s impression from those who saw the left-handed line drive master at his peak.
“There are a lot of other guys I’d rather see up there in a clutch situation," Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog said. "You can’t make a bad pitch on him.”
