FORT MYERS, Fla. — Rod Carew usually arrives at Twins practice after Tony Oliva. Therefore, the Panamanian did not know what to do when he arrived in Fort Myers before the Cuban, his former roommate.
“You feel lonely?” she wondered to her as she paced back and forth.
Yes, I was. And who blames him?
During the last decade and a half of the 55-year friendship between the two franchise legends, spring training is an almost metronomic event for Carew, Oliva and their wives. It’s your time to enjoy being in the company of Minnesota players and share your wisdom.
It gets weird seeing this pair more than three feet apart during this time of year, so imagine how difficult it must have been when they were over 2,000 miles apart this time last year due to the COVID pandemic. -19. Oliva was at home in Bloomington, Minnesota, and Carew in Southern California. It’s easy to imagine how much getting together meant to them when Oliva arrived at Hammond Stadium on Wednesday.
“Being able to come back again this year, it’s hard to explain,” Oliva said. “You lose a year and you’re in your 80s and you’re like, ‘Am I going to go back to spring training at some point?’”
It took them a whole day to get back into their groove.
When Oliva arrived in Fort Myers on Wednesday, his hotel room wasn’t ready, so Carew told him to go to the stadium. By the time the Cuban arrived, Carew had already left. And once Oliva got back to the hotel, Carew was so tired that it took them hours to get back in touch.
In a normal spring, Carew drives from his hotel to Oliva’s apartment every day to take him to the stadium. This time, because they stayed in the same hotel, Oliva decided to drive – and ended up taking a different route than Carew wanted.
“I didn’t want to go down the highway,” Oliva said. “Good colleagues don’t always agree. It is no problem”.
They’ll soon find their groove and once they do, Carew has a question for his great friend.
“Now that you’re a Hall of Famer and making so much money, why don’t you give me a loan or something?” she says between laughs.
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Carew, Oliva reunited in training