Ben Oglivie was caught off guard when a call came yesterday from the Dominican Republic informing him of his selection to the recently formed Latino Baseball Hall of Fame. The Colon, Panama native was one of six post-1959 era players selected as part of the 2012 class. Each Latin American country (Puerto Rico, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Venezuela) had one player chosen for enshrinement, which will take place in February.
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| Ben Oglivie / Author's Collection |
Given that this group is only their third class, Oglivie while green to its existence, was eager to learn more.
"I didn’t know exactly how it worked, but tonight I will find out a lot about it," Oglivie said via telephone "I am honored to be mentioned and to find out that I was accepted into it."
Wrapped up in his duties as the hitting coach for the Detroit Tigers Class-A West Michigan Whitecaps, the 16-year major league veteran had little time to process his selection.
"I haven’t been able to take it in as I just got the call yesterday," he said, "but now that it is right in front of me I probably will now just exercise it. Now it’s kind of starting to sink in and it is a real honor."
As his first season with West Michigan comes to an end, Oglivie continues to enjoy having the opportunity to guide the next wave of major leaguers.
"This is a good level," he said. "What we have here, we have a number of guys that potentially can be major leaguers. We have three or four [major league] prospects on this team and it’s good to work with them. Being that I played in the major leagues, you have an idea [of what it takes], and I want to be able to help them get there."
For now. he hopes that the young players he is helping to mold heed the parables of the newly minted Hall of Famer.
"I’ve just been trying to make sure that they get good advice, whether it is how to be a major league player, or how to be a professional on and off the field."
* This was originally published September 2, 2011 for Examiner.com