I still kid him about it.". Who has blue ticket 92594? From the moment he came to the major leagues, as a 19-year-old with the Minnesota Twins in 1970, he has been considered a great talent. So did Steve Busby, Jeff Conine, Bill Singer, John Smiley, and Ron Fairly. Richie, you don't even exercise. For some reason it has taken Blyleven 3,422 innings, 468 games, 195 wins, 15 years and four teams to be appreciated. The Rangers received Al Oliver and Nelson Norman from the Pirates and Jon Matlack from the Mets. That, of course, would belong to Sandy Koufax. If you went back further, you could find guys whod risen up: Billy Williams, Luis Aparicio, Bob Lemon. Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven, who happened to be pitching coach for the Netherlands, didn't like what he saw during his team's loss to Puerto Rico. Upon his return, he was plagued by chronic stomach ulcers and a torn rotator cuff. The Twins ran short of pitching early, the crusher coming on June 1, when Luis Tiant was put on the disabled list. 19 7-4 over the Twins on the last day of the season. A .264 career batter, Kennedy hit .120 in 25 at bats against Blyleven, collecting three hits while striking out five times. Actually, the best spelling of his name appears on one of his license plates: BLY11. But someone with a far greater mind than any scientist put the optical illusion theory to rest. Mike Cuellar was one of the filthiest breaking ball pitchers the game has ever seen. He won 287 games, 27th-most all-time, and pitched 4,970 innings, 14th-most all-time. Blyleven, like so many Hall of Fame players, was driven to succeed. When he beat the Twins for Texas on July 26, 1976, Blyleven didn't mince words. Given his temperamental behaviour and (more happily) reputation as a practical jokester as a player, which have carried over somewhat into an occasionally prickly demeanor as a broadcaster, I wonder if Blylevens early debut in the majors is partially to blame for his personalitys lack of leavening. He chatted up all the passing foursomes and made sure the volunteer marshals switched holes so they wouldn't get bored. Sold to me for $25. I wondered how anyone could pitch 7,000 innings like Cy Young. Popular categories from this store. The list of 1-0 CG SHO, required the Play Index. Blyleven cared more that everyone was having a good time. ", In a list full of "Uncle Charlies" (a common nickname for a curveball), Doc Gooden's deuce is "Lord Charles.". On June 5, 1970, Rigney gave Blyleven his first start, against the Washington Senators. He ran cross-country and played basketball and baseball at Santiago High School, and the baseball scouts began to come around. 4.9. }, Cronkite School at ASU When youre constantly winning 15 or more games a year, you dont need too many 20-win seasons to make this list. If you grew up in the 1980s, you likely have a major memory of Blyleventhe guy who gave up all those homers. Autographed in English. "[19], By 2006, his total had increased to 53.33%. A dozen of his 1-0 complete game shutouts came from 1970-77. Enough to make your knees buckle. Normally a guy entering the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot with 287 wins is pretty impressive. "I have to say this for him, though. The day is cold and drizzly and awfully close to miserable, and if the setting didn't happen to include palm trees and the swell Riviera clubhouse, one might think one were in. "Hey, Bert, where'd you get the weather?" At the Blyleven the biggest celebrity, literally and figuratively, is Lou Ferrigno, television's erstwhile Incredible Hulk. 48 is from a one-hitter Blyleven threw against the Kansas City Royals on May 24, 1973. Cleveland president Gabe Paul said, "Bert Blyleven isn't going anywhere. Plus, he keeps us loose.". During his time with the Angels, the fire extinguisher in the team's clubhouse at Angel Stadium read: "In case of Blyleven: Pull". The one who didn't give up on him was Jesse Flores Sr. of Minnesota, and the Twins made Blyleven their third pick that June. Koosman's catcher in his Mets days, J.C. Martin, once said that Koosman could throw his 11-5 curveball "any time.". 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates, .avia-section.av-k6v62xgq-c0812a68936ee67ed4883eaa9d35be9b{ Blyleven had pitched only 21 games in the minors; by comparison, Dwight Gooden, last year's 19-year-old sensation, needed 38 games before he was brought up to the Mets. After I ran off the mound, I looked over at the St. Louis' dugout. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. It's hard to say anything based on one game, but he looks like he's got a great future ahead of him.". 1 fairway at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. In Blyleven's first spring training with the Twins, manager Bill Rigney watched him throw batting practice and yelled to his pitching coach, Marv Grissom, "Get him out of there. Blyleven had his problems from 1982 to early 1984, but he recovered, aging better than anyone not named Maddux on that list. And I could throw it over at any time, any count."[6]. "Mets Get Ken Henderson, Outfielder, From Rangers,", "From 1908 to 2018, Recorded no decision, as Starter, sorted by greatest number of games in a single season matching the selected criteria", "Indians' Blyleven The Subject Of Angel Trade Talks", "Ponson to play for Netherlands in World Classic", How a Part-Time Blogger Changed the Face of Baseball's Hall of Fame, The Official Site of Major League Baseball: News: Major League Baseball News, "Henderson, Rice elected to Hall of Fame", Alomar and Blyleven elected to Hall of Fame, Gallery Blyleven inducted into Twins Hall of Fame, Twins to immortalize Blyleven by retiring No. thrown with. He responded with a flippant gesture. Robin Roberts hung on a long time but was a shell of himself for many years. The Dodgers were ready to draft him in the first round in 1969, but in one of his last high school games, Blyleven got shelled. Upon being traded to the Cleveland Indians, Blyleven initially struggled with injuries, but then enjoyed a late-career resurgence, finishing third in the Cy Young Award voting in back-to-back years, with Cleveland in 1984 and also the following 1985 season that he split between the Indians and Twins. In 1985 he again led the American League in shutouts with five. Blyleven's third batter was Frank Howard. "There's not a lot of dropoff in his stuff. He struck out 109 batters in 43 innings in his first season and 172 in his 126 career innings in Class D. Much like Nolan Ryan, Satchel Paige did not use his curveball as his primary pitch, but he still had a damn good one. Blyleven wanted $85,000, which seems like a piddling sum now, and the Twins were offering $65,000. Blyleven was happy to oblige. Buyer pays for return shipping. Thanks in no small amount to a campaign led by Rich Lederer to get Bert Blyleven into the Hall of Fame, Blyleven saw his vote total gradually rise up, election after election, until he got in. Thats surprising. This is a free article. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, All Rights Reserved. The curveball of the '50s belonged to Camilio Pascual. How to separate run support from that murky third factor? You cant do a simplistic, reductionistic system. Bert Blyleven Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | MLB.com | baseballsavant.com Bert Blyleven P | B/T: R/R | 6' 3" 207LBS | Age: 71 Draft: 1969 | Rd: 3, #55, Minnesota Twins | Santiago HS (Garden Grove, CA) Stats Standard Splits Game Logs Minors Batting Pitching Fielding Visuals Standard MLB Pitching Statistics From 1970-77, Blyleven went 122-113 despite an ERA+ of 134. How much did this cost him? He had thought all his life his given name was "Rikaalbert". "Then we'd sneak down into the dugouts and grab whatever we couldresin bags and broken bats. CLEVELAND'S NETHERLANDS-BORN STAR, PITCHER BERT BLYLEVEN, PUTS HIS PEDAL TO THE METAL ON THE FIELD AND OFF Steve Wulf TABLE OF CONTENTS ORIGINAL LAYOUT Bert Blyleven addresses the ball.. Jerry Koosman was a two-time, all-star for the New York Mets and, like most lefties, relied heavily on his curveball for success. window") of the runner is at least 30 ft/sec. "Aw bleep, that was for him [Griffith] and his family." Blyleven thinks little of drugs, pitch count. Heres the chart showing how he shakes out year-by-year by this system: Looking at it above, how come he didnt win more games when pitching so great in the early part of his career? Major League and Minor League Baseball data provided by Major League Baseball. When Blyleven and Sutcliffe were together in Cleveland, their teammates had to be on constant lookout for pranks. Thanks for the link at WGOM, by the way. In his last game with the Twins in 1976 before being traded, he made an obscene gesture to the crowd while walking off the mound. Hal Newhouser barely won 200 games. "I told our third baseman, Steve Braun, to watch for a bunt," says Blyleven, "but Spanky laid a perfect one down. 1979 - Blyleven goes 12-5 on 37 starts and the Pirates win the World Series. Well, its that murky third factorthe luck/pitch-to-the-score/sunspots one. Shipping speed. He began teaching the pitch to himself, learning to throw a drop in junior high. He keeps a collection of baseball memorabilia in his study. And as for Reggie Jackson, well, hed just as soon take the day off as hit against Blyleven, who struck him out 47 times and held him to a .214 career average. "Somebody had a sign that read, 'We drove 660 miles from Detroit Lakes,' I . He also suggested publicly that the Indians might be better off trading him to a contender for younger talentas they would soon do with his friend Rick Sutcliffe. Do I hear $275? Hmmm, I wanted the color TV. Hey, wait a minute, Francisco, where are you going? The tournament follows a scramble format, in which all four team members play from the same lie, as determined by the foursome's best previous shot. In Texas, Blyleven got blamed for something he never did. ", Not only does Blyleven pitch for the Indians, he actually likes being an Indian. Stanky quit on his own. See all categories. But since no one close to 280 wins showed up after Blyleven, it helped him rise up over the years. "When they asked us who wanted to play in the Instructional League in the fall of '69, I was the first one to raise my hand," he says. It wasn't until he got married in 1971 that he noticed on his birth certificate that he's really Rik Aalbert. as Active Spin. In those years he was 59-66 (.472) at the break and 53-38 (.582) afterwards. The worst election by any of 20 guys who had gone on to election was one time Tony Perez finished exactly one vote shy of 50 percent. Blyleven became the first Dutch-born player to earn induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Brett Butler was presented with an autographed picture of his favorite soap opera star. player has saved over his peers. Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 13 business days. (And the difference between Blylevens actual record and the second projection quantifies that murky third factor, but well get back to that in a second). But Gossage and Sutter are relievers, and the Hall is still trying to figure them out. He also won a World Series in 1979 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He tried out for the Twins again in the spring of 1993, but did not make the squad, which made his retirement official. Maye hit it out of the park. He also tied for third in shutouts, with four, and for fourth in complete games, with 12. Even back in 1969 Blyleven had his sensational curve. Despite retiring at age 30, Sandy Koufax recorded 2,396 strikouts, won four World Series Championships and three Cy Young Awards. This past baseball season he merely cut up American League batters, finishing as the third-leading vote getter in the Cy Young Award balloting, behind relievers Willie Hernandez and Dan Quisenberry. "We've got some baseball memorabilia donated to us by the players," Blyleven says, "and the money will go to help Ed Kirkpatrick back there. ", Bert also inherited a love of the Dodgers from his father; he worshiped two in particular, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. When the Angels came to nearby Anaheim in 1966, Bert didn't switch his allegiance, although he did become one of the stadium rats. However, ESPN.com columnist Jayson Stark said, "No player has everand again, that word is 'ever'had his Hall of Fame candidacy helped more by the sabermetrics boom than Blyleven. From 1984-89, he went 95-71 with a 115 ERA+. Even though he put more miles on his arm in his 20s then nearly all of them, he kept on going. You've got work to do. He's fifth on the active list in shutouts, sixth in strikeouts, eighth in victories and eighth in innings pitched.
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