Bert Blyleven is a former
Major League BaseballMajor League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
pitcherIn baseball, the pitcher is the player who throwsthe baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the...
who played from to , and was best known for his
curveballThe curveball is a type of pitch in baseball thrown with a characteristic grip and hand movement that imparts forward spin to the ball causing it to dive in a downward path as it approaches the plate. Its close relatives are the slider and the slurve. The "curve" of the ball varies from pitcher to...
. Blyleven was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. He is currently the color commentator for the
Minnesota TwinsThe Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
on Fox Sports North.
Early life
Blyleven was born in the Netherlands, but raised in
Garden Grove, CaliforniaGarden Grove is a city located in northern Orange County, California. The population was 170,883 at the 2010 census. State Route 22, also known as the Garden Grove Freeway, passes through the city running east-west. The city is known outside the Southern California area for being the home of Robert H...
. His father moved the family to Canada when he was 2, and then to Southern California when he was 5. He became interested in baseball as a young boy watching
Sandy KoufaxSanford "Sandy" Koufax is a former left-handed baseball pitcher who played his entire 12-year Major League Baseball career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers...
pitch for the
Los Angeles DodgersThe Los Angeles Dodgers are a professional baseball team based in Los Angeles, California. The Dodgers are members of Major League Baseball's National League West Division. Established in 1883, the team originated in Brooklyn, New York, where it was known by a number of nicknames before becoming...
and listening to
Vin ScullyVincent Edward Scully is an American sportscaster, known primarily as the play-by-play voice of the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team on Prime Ticket, KCAL-TV and KABC radio...
and
Jerry DoggettJerry Doggett was an American sportscaster who called games for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball from 1956 to 1987.-Early days:...
announce the Dodgers' radio broadcasts. Blyleven was quoted as saying, “My dad built me a mound in the backyard with a canvas backdrop over our horseshoe pits, and I would go back there and just throw and throw and throw until I developed it, and it became my curveball. And I could throw it over at any time, any count.”
Baseball career
Blyleven starred on the Santiago High School baseball team, also running cross country to build up his stamina and leg strength. He was drafted straight out of high school by the
Minnesota TwinsThe Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
in the third round in , where after only 21 minor league starts he found himself called up to the Majors at age 19 on June 2, 1970. In his first season, his sharp curveball helped him to ten victories and he was named AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year by
The Sporting NewsSporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...
. In 1973 he pitched the most shutouts of any AL pitcher, with 9.
However, Blyleven's early career with the Twins was not always pleasant as he was hounded by critics and fans. Becoming more vocal, Blyleven was traded to the
Texas RangersThe Texas Rangers are a professional baseball team in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, based in Arlington, Texas. The Rangers are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League, and are the reigning A.L. Western Division and A.L. Champions. Since , the Rangers have...
on June 1, 1976. He pitched well with the Rangers, having a 2.76 ERA in his first season and throwing a
no-hitterA no-hitter is a baseball game in which one team has no hits. In Major League Baseball, the team must be without hits during the entire game, and the game must be at least nine innings. A pitcher who prevents the opposing team from achieving a hit is said to have "thrown a no-hitter"...
against the
California AngelsThe Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are a professional baseball team based in Anaheim, California, United States. The Angels are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The "Angels" name originates from the city in which the team started, Los Angeles...
on September 22, 1977, just two weeks after being sidelined with a groin injury. His 2.74 career ERA with the Rangers remains the best in team history.
Then, following an incident in which Blyleven blatantly gave the
fingerIn Western culture, the finger , also known as the middle finger, is an obscene hand gesture, often meaning the phrases "fuck off" , "fuck you" or "up yours"...
to a television camera obviously focused on him during one of the Rangers' rare nationally-broadcast games, Blyleven was again traded on December 8, 1977 to the
Pittsburgh PiratesThe Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They play in the Central Division of the National League, and are five-time World Series Champions...
as part of the first four-team trade in Major League Baseball history. With the Pirates, he led the team in ERA, strikeouts and complete games in and helped them to a
World SeriesThe World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball, played between the American League and National League champions since 1903. The winner of the World Series championship is determined through a best-of-seven playoff and awarded the Commissioner's Trophy...
victory in .
However, Blyleven became disgruntled with the Pirates and threatened to retire during the season if he was not traded. Eventually, the Pirates did trade him, to the
Cleveland IndiansThe Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...
on December 9, 1980. Blyleven sat out most of the season with an elbow injury and struggled again in , but came back in with one of his best seasons: a 19–7 record with a 2.87 ERA. He missed a second 20-win season that year when he was forced to miss a couple of starts after breaking his foot when joking around in the bullpen. In he again led the American League in shutouts with 5. That year he also pitched 293 ⅔ innings and completed 24 games, a feat never repeated (Only one pitcher has completed even ten games in a season since 2000.) Blyleven was unhappy playing for the lackluster Indians and forced a trade back to the Twins, where he passed the 3,000-strikeout mark and helped the Twins to a
1987 World SeriesThe 1987 World Series pitted the Minnesota Twins versus the St. Louis Cardinals.Minnesota was victorious in a World Series that was the first in which the home team won every game...
victory.
Blyleven's first two full seasons back with the Twins also produced major league records for home runs allowed in a single season (50) and in back-to-back seasons (96). He never surrendered more than 24 home runs in any year before and after the 1986–87 campaigns, averaging 21 allowed per season over the course of his career.
Blyleven went to the California Angels in and pitched a 2.73 ERA for a 17–5 record in his first season, and led the league for his third and final time in shutouts (5). He then missed the entire season following
rotator cuffIn anatomy, the rotator cuff is the group of muscles and their tendons that act to stabilize the shoulder. The four muscles of the rotator cuff, along with the teres major muscle, the coracobrachialis muscle and the deltoid, make up the seven scapulohumeral muscles of the human body.-Function:The...
surgery. He came back in , but was mostly unproductive, going 8–12 with a 4.74 ERA. He retired following that season with a career 287–250 record with 3,701 strikeouts (only 16 other pitchers have at least 3,000 career strikeouts) and a 3.31 ERA. He tried out for the Twins again in the spring of , but did not make the squad, making his retirement official.
MLB Hall of Fame
third basemanA third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run...
Brooks RobinsonBrooks Calbert Robinson, Jr. is a former American professional baseball player. He played his entire 23-year major league career for the Baltimore Orioles . Nicknamed "The Human Vacuum Cleaner", he is generally acclaimed as the greatest defensive third-basemen in major league history...
stated "[his curveball] was nasty, I'll tell you that. Enough to make your knees buckle. Bert was a terrific pitcher — a dominating pitcher."
Blyleven was a pitching coach for the Netherlands in the
2009 World Baseball ClassicThe 2009 World Baseball Classic was an international baseball competition. It is the only international baseball tournament to feature a large number of players from the major leagues of North America and Asia. It began on March 5, 2009, and finished March 23, 2009.Japan emerged victorious for the...
.
Honors
After his first year of eligibility in 1998, Blyleven was widely considered to be the best eligible pitcher not yet in the
Baseball Hall of FameThe National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
. According to
Matt WelchMatt Welch is an American blogger, journalist, andlibertarian political pundit. Since 2008, he has been the editor-in-chief at the monthly libertarian journal, Reason. From 2006 to 2007, he was an editorial page editor for the Los Angeles Times...
of
Reason Magazine, "there had long been a strong case that the Dutch-born curveballista was the most deserving player on the outside of
CooperstownThe National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 25 Main Street in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests serving as the central point for the study of the history of baseball in the United States and beyond, the display of...
looking in." Still, it was not until his 14th year of eligibility in that he was elected, with 79.7% of the vote. He currently ranks 5th all-time in Strikeouts, 9th all-time in Shutouts, and 27th all-time in Wins. At the time of his election he was the only eligible member of the 3000 strikeout club, and the only person with 50 or more shutouts, not in the Hall of Fame.
Blyleven received only 17.55% of the vote for Hall of Fame admission in (first year of eligibility), and his vote total dropped to 14.1%
the following yearElections to the Baseball Hall of Fame for 1999 followed the system in use since 1995. The Baseball Writers Association of America voted by mail to select from recent major league players and elected three: George Brett, Nolan Ryan, and Robin Yount...
. No player who had debuted on the ballot since 1970 had a vote total that low and later won election to the Hall. However,
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columnist
Jayson StarkJayson Stark is an American sportswriter who mainly covers baseball. He attended Syracuse University, where he earned a degree in newspaper journalism.-Biography:...
stated that "no player has ever — and again, that word is 'ever' — had his Hall of Fame candidacy helped more by the
sabermetricsSabermetrics is the specialized analysis of baseball through objective, empirical evidence, specifically baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. The term is derived from the acronym SABR, which stands for the Society for American Baseball Research...
boom than Blyleven." Specifically, according to Welch, "the president and chief investment officer of Lederer & Associates Investment Counsel in
Long Beach, CaliforniaLong Beach is a city situated in Los Angeles County in Southern California, on the Pacific coast of the United States. The city is the 36th-largest city in the nation and the seventh-largest in California. As of 2010, its population was 462,257...
, a guy by the name of Rich Lederer, began spending some of his off-hours writing analysis on the
InterwebsThe Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
about Blyleven's overlooked case."
By , this total had increased to 53.33%. In , Blyleven's total dipped to 47.7% (75% is the minimum required for admission to the Hall). In , he received 336 votes, or 61.9% of the vote. In 2009, he gained only two votes, for a total of 338, 62.7%. In 2010, Blyleven had 74.2% of the votes, missing admission to the Hall of Fame by only 5 votes (0.8%).
Blyleven was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 2011 after receiving 79.7% of the vote on his 14th attempt. "It’s been 14 years of praying and waiting,” he said on a conference call from Fort Myers, Fla. "I thank the baseball writers of America for, I’m going to say, finally getting it right." Blyleven will be the first Dutch-born player inducted.
Blyleven was inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in 2002, and was chosen to the fan-elected "Wendy's- Minnesota Twins All-Metrodome Team" on July 28, 2009. On July 16, 2011 the
Minnesota TwinsThe Minnesota Twins are a professional baseball team based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. They play in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. The team is named after the Twin Cities area of Minneapolis and St. Paul. They played in Metropolitan Stadium from 1961 to 1981 and the...
formally retired Blyleven's number.
Commentating career
In , Blyleven became a color commentator for the Twins. Blyleven's commentary is occasionally risqué for a baseball broadcast, but provides interesting and friendly conversation between him and play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer.
Off-color comments
Blyleven has been known to make off-color remarks during some Twins television broadcasts. Play-by-play announcer
Dick BremerRichard J. Bremer is a sports broadcaster for Fox Sports North. He does the play-by-play announcing for the Minnesota Twins and Minnesota Gophers men's basketball and other Minnesota sports...
frequently responds to these comments with silence or with an attempt to change the subject.
- During a 2006 broadcast, the topic of conversation with a guest shifted from George Brett
George Howard Brett , nicknamed "Mullet", is a former Major League Baseball third baseman, designated hitter, and first baseman. He played his entire 21-year baseball career for the Kansas City Royals. Brett's 3,154 career hits are the most by any third baseman in major league history, and 15th...
to singing in the shower. Blyleven mentioned that he had showered with Brett, and the guest expressed surprise. Blyleven exclaimed "Well, there were other guys there! ... although they did say not to bend over."
- During the pregame show on September 3, 2006 which was broadcast on WFTC
WFTC, channel 29, is a MyNetworkTV owned and operated television station licensed to Minneapolis, Minnesota, and serving the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area...
(Channel 29), Blyleven twice used the word "fuck" while he was live on air after getting caught up in his words during commentary. Blyleven stopped his commentary and muttered "We're gonna do this fuckin' thing over again, cause I just fucked it up." Upon being told by fellow broadcaster Anthony LaPanta (who was filling in for Bremer) that they were actually broadcasting live, Blyleven said "Oh we're live? I didn't know that." In the first inning of the game, he apologized. Blyleven was originally suspended by the network for two telecasts, but was then suspended three additional games. During his suspension, fans were occasionally spotted holding "Free Bert" signs at the Metrodome.
Personal
He currently resides in
Fort Myers, FloridaFort Myers is the county seat and commercial center of Lee County, Florida, United States. Its population was 62,298 in the 2010 census, a 29.23 percent increase over the 2000 figure....
.
Blyleven appeared as himself in the 1990
James BelushiJames Adam "Jim" Belushi is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is the younger brother of comic actor John Belushi.-Early life:Belushi was born in Chicago...
film
Taking Care of Business. During a 2006 broadcast, Blyleven forgot the name of the movie and had to be reminded of it by a technician in the broadcast booth.
Blyleven was one of baseball's most notorious dugout pranksters during his playing days. He earned the moniker "Frying Dutchman" by frequently setting fire to his teammates' shoelaces, a practical joke known as a
"hot-foot."The hot foot is a prank where the prankster sets the victim's shoe laces on fire with a match or lighter. There are several other versions of the hot foot prank, but all involve using a source of flame near a victim's foot...
During his time with the Angels, the fire extinguisher in the team's clubhouse at Angel Stadium read: "In case of Blyleven: Pull."
Blyleven did not know his correct name until he was about to get married. He had thought all his life his given name was "Rikaalbert"; when he was about to get married and got a copy of the birth certificate issued to his parents in Zeist, needing the certificate to fill out the marriage-license application, he saw his name for the first time as Rik Aalbert Blijleven.
Career statistics
| W In professional baseball, there are two types of decisions: a win and a loss . In each game, one pitcher on the winning team is awarded a win and one pitcher on the losing team is given a loss in their respective statistics. These pitchers are collectively known as the pitchers of record. Only...
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L |
PCT |
ERA In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched and multiplying by nine...
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G Games played is a statistic used in team sports to indicate the total number of games in which a player has participated ; the statistic is generally applied irrespective of whatever portion of the game is contested.-Baseball:In baseball, the statistic applies also to players who, prior to a game,...
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GS In baseball statistics, games started indicates the number of games that a pitcher has started for his team. A pitcher is credited with starting the game if he faces the first opposing batter...
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CG |
SHO In team sports, a shutout refers to a game in which one team prevents the opposing team from scoring. While possible in most major sports, they are highly improbable in some sports, such as basketball....
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SV In baseball, a save is credited to a pitcher who finishes a game for the winning team under certain prescribed circumstances. The number of saves, or percentage of save opportunities successfully converted, is an oft-cited statistic of relief pitchers...
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IP In baseball, innings pitched are the number of innings a pitcher has completed, measured by the number of batters and baserunners that are put out while the pitcher on the pitching mound in a game. Three outs made is equal to one inning pitched. One out counts as one-third of an inning, and two...
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H |
ER In baseball, an earned run is any run for which the pitcher is held accountable . Any runner who tags his base and reaches home plate is scored against the pitcher as an earned run...
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R |
HRIn baseball, a home run is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to reach home safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team in the process...
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BB A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08...
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KIn baseball or softball, a strikeout or strike-out occurs when a batter receives three strikes during his time at bat. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters....
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WP In baseball, a wild pitch is charged against a pitcher when his pitch is too high, too short, or too wide of home plate for the catcher to control with ordinary effort, thereby allowing a baserunner, perhaps even the batter-runner on strike three or ball four, to advance.A wild pitch usually...
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HBP In baseball, hit by pitch , or hit batsman , is a batter or his equipment being hit in some part of his body by a pitch from the pitcher.-Official rule:...
|
| 287 |
250 |
.534 |
3.31 |
692 |
685 |
242 |
60 |
0 |
4970 |
4632 |
1830 |
2029 |
430 |
1322 |
3701 |
114 |
155 |
See also
External links