GHS59-BobOliva

TEMPLETON When he was a freshman baseball player at Gardner High in 1956, left-handed hitting Bob Oliva found himself stepping out of the bucket when he swung the bat. So, he sought out some professional advice. Fan letters to both Ted Williams and Mickey Mantle were answered, giving him the information he was in search of.

“You could write letters to athletes back then,”€ said Oliva, who celebrates his 80th birthday today. “Williams told me ˜Spike your right foot down and swing at the ball.” Mantle wrote me, too, but I don’t have that letter anymore.”

The simple batting tips served Oliva well through his seasons with the undefeated Nichols College baseball team, as a member of the fast-pitch Napoleon Club softball team, and while he patrolled third base for the City League softball champion Family Rx, Bill’s Rx and Hakala Brothers teams through the 1970s.

He recalled it was Joe Bishop who got his baseball career started in Little League when he was nine-years old.”He looked at me and said,€˜You’re a catcher,” and I put the chest protector on, and it dragged on the ground”,€ he chuckled.

His Red Sox team, coached by Richard “Red”€ Binnall, was headlined by Ken Graves, who was the team’s star pitcher.

When he wasn’t playing with his Little League teams, he would while away the days at Greenwood Playground. There, he followed the older guys to the ballpark, among them his uncle Marty Lore who “taught me everything I know about baseball,”€ he said.

Oliva continued to catch in Babe Ruth baseball and also played a season of JV baseball at Gardner High under Marty Anderson, but then went to work. On weekends he would team up with the Gardner Panthers semipro team.

After his 1959 graduation from Gardner High, he attended Becker Junior College for two years, took a year off to work at Gem Industries, and then moved on to Nichols College. He made the baseball team there, which he called his “first real experience with organized baseball.” During his senior year, the 1964 baseball team at Nichols finished as the only undefeated baseball team in the history of the school with a 15-0 record under head coach Hal Chalmers. Oliva was one of the team’s top hitters with a .371 average, four home runs and 23 RBIs.

Over the course of the season, he had been scouted at various times by Washington, the Red Sox and Detroit. “When I heard about that, man, I had goosebumps,”€ he recalled. However, when they found out that Oliva was going to be 23-years old, “it was bye-bye,”€ he said with a sigh. That baseball team was inducted into the Nichols College Hall of Fame in 2019.

After graduation from college, Oliva took a job with Temple-Stuart as an assistant office manager, a position he held for 15 years. He later took a job as steward of the warehouse overseeing the shipping of about 55,000 pounds of furniture per day. Instead of pursuing baseball any further, he joined the new modified-pitch Gardner Softball City League as one of the younger guys on the Jackson Eagles squad.

Led by his Little League mentor Bishop, he was surrounded by many veteran Gardner stars like Ed Stromski, Hawk Pellerin, Mike Morgan, Ed Zifcak, Hank Ares, Ziggy Sund, John Kiosses and George Caron, among others. “We had some very good players back then, former athletes and they liked to win,”€ Oliva said. “Very competitive guys and we had a lot of fun.”€ The squad won back-to-back league championships for the 1963 and 1964 seasons.

After that team dissolved, Oliva moved on to play with the fast-pitch Napoleon Club squad which traversed New England playing weekend tournaments for several seasons. “We had some good games back then, of course it was all pitching,”€ he said, noting that he hit .287, which was a solid average against windmill hurlers who threw in the 70s or 80s.

The Napoleon Club played its last season in 1968, at which time many of those players joined established City League softball teams. Oliva became the regular third baseman with the Family Rx, Bill’s Rx and Hakala Brothers teams, making them one of the most formidable squads in league history. From 1968-75, the team played in the City League finals seven times in eight years, winning the championship outright four times. Knuckleballer Bill Rushia was the team sponsor and pitcher, while Art Murdock was the catcher. Oliva held down the hot corner at third, while the rest of the infield was made up of shortstop George Graves, Bruce Coffin at short-field, Al Evans at second and Paul Cilley at first. Jim Dufort was the centerfielder,flanked by Paul Valley in left and Al Des marais in right. Several other players like John Brown, Ben Stuart, Lew Bishop, Bill Chapman, Bruce Valley, Roy Grandone, Al Martin, Bruce Taylor, Tref Jolly and Roger Lovewell all dotted the lineups over the years.

“I had never played third base in my life, but they needed me to play there and I had fun with it,”€ Oliva said. “We enjoyed playing and we had some real good ballplayers on the teams.”€

Bill’s Rx lost to House of Sports in the 1968 finals and then they lost to Richard’s Realty in the 1969 finals.

Between 1970-71, the Family Rx team set a record in the City League with 29 consecutive victories before their streak came to an end against the Royal Steam team, 4-2, after beginning the season with 16 straight wins.

Just the same, Family Rx made it two consecutive championships when they swept House of Sports in the finals for the second year in a row, 3-0.

In 1973, Family Rx became Billâ€™s Rx, and the House of Sports became Red Onion, and the two squads waged City League wars over the next two seasons. Billâ€™s captured a five-game series in 1973 while the marais in right. Several other players like John Brown, Ben Stuart, Lew Bishop, Bill Chapman, Bruce Valley, Roy Grandone, Al Martin, Bruce Taylor, Tref Jolly and Roger Lovewell all dotted the lineups over the years.

â€œI had never played third base in my life, but they needed me to play there and I had fun with it,â€ Oliva said. â€œWe enjoyed playing and we had some real good ballplayers on the teams.”€

Billâ€™s Rx lost to House of Sports in the 1968 finals and then they lost to Richardâ€™s Realty in the 1969 finals.

Between 1970-71, the Family Rx team set a record in the City League with 29 consecutive victories before their streak came to an end against the Royal Steam team, 4-2, after beginning the season with 16 straight wins.

Just the same, Family Rx made it two consecutive championships when they swept House of Sports in the finals for the second year in a row, 3-0.

In 1973, Family Rx became Bill’s Rx, and the House of Sports became Red Onion, and the two squads waged City League wars over the next two seasons. Bill’s captured a five-game series in 1973 while the Red Onion came back the following year to best the Rx squad in another five-game classic. Oliva usually hit second in the order behind Dufort.

“Jimmy and I had the communication, even without saying anything. He was on ase and I knew he was (stealing), and he’d give me the eye and I€’d try to spray the ball,”€ Oliva said. “I learned that at Greenwood Playground as a kid.”

In 1975, Gardner hosted the state softball championships and Bill’s Rx changed sponsors to Hakala Brothers and advanced all the way to the state final game. The Hubbardston-based squad lost in an exciting championship game against Circe’s of Worcester.

Hakala rebounded to win the City League finals in four games over John’s Sports Shop, with Oliva’s infield grounder in the top of the eighth plating Dufort with the game-winning run in the deciding game, 4-3.

After that season, work commitments forced Oliva to curtail his city league play, but not his involvement with sports. Through his job at Temple-Stuart he had the opportunity to take many sales trips and rub elbows with many professional athletes.

He developed a friendship with former Red Sox infielder Ted Lepcio which led to playing golf with the likes of Gordie Howe, Bob Cousy and George Blanda. He also received many Bruins and Red Sox tickets over the years, including the classic sixth game of the 1975 World Series which was won by Carlton Fisk‘s 12th inning home run.

In later years, he restarted his softball career with the Rehabs in the Hubbardston League, playing games at the Russell Hakala Field until around 1985 when he suffered a back injury which forced him to give it up.

Oliva and his wife Mary live in East Templeton and are the parents of three: daughters, Laurie Wiita is Director of the Board of Health in Templeton; daughter Christine Kumar is the Assistant Assessor in Littleton, and son Rob, is the DPW Director of the town of Lunenburg. They also have six grandsons, a granddaughter and a great-grandchild..