on balls and 86 stolen bases in 1,676 games played. In 13 postseason games, he batted .314 with 3 home runs and 5 RBI. He was selected to the All-Star team his first eight seasons, surpassing Joe DiMaggio's previous record of six selections. In addition, he was a powerful-armed Gold Glove outfielder who led AL right fielders in putouts 6 times, double plays 3 times, and assists twice. In a 1976 Esquire magazine article, sportswriter Harry Stein published an "All Time All-Star Argument Starter", consisting of five ethnic baseball teams. Oliva was the right fielder on Stein's Latin team - an impossible snub of Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, but a clear measure of how highly regarded Oliva was in his day. In 1981, Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig included him in their book The 100 Greatest Baseball Players of All Time. They explained what they called "the Smoky Joe Wood Syndrome", in which a player of truly exceptional talent but whose career was curtailed by injury, in spite of not having had career statistics that would quantitatively rank him with the all-time greats, should still be included on their list of the 100 greatest players. In 1991, Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter named Oliva the toughest hitter he ever had to face because "he could hit any pitch anywhere... he didn't have any weaknesses." In 2006, Cy Young Award winner Dean Chance said that Oliva and Carl Yastrzemski were the two toughest hitters he had to face in his career. In 2021, three-time All-Star Luis Tiant wrote that Oliva was the toughest hitter he had to face in his career. Personal life Oliva started dating Gordette (DuBois) in the mid-1960s. They were married in Hitchcock, South Dakota in 1968 and settled in Bloomington, Minnesota. He currently lives in a house he bought in 1972 and all of his four children live within of their parents. As of 2015, Oliva also had four grandchildren. See also List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders List of Major League Baseball career games played as a right fielder leaders List of Major League Baseball career putouts as a right fielder leaders List of Major League Baseball hit records List of Major League Baseball players from Cuba List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise List of Minnesota