Blyleven Padding His Hall of Fame Portfolio

[bernieh]

[i:fd9b0da6e2]by Patrick Reusse
photo: Janis Rettaliata
originally printed: The Sporting News, March 31, 1986[/i:fd9b0da6e2]

[size=18:fd9b0da6e2]After 16 Seasons, He's Still a Smoothie[/size:fd9b0da6e2]

<img src="http://fantasygames.sportingnews.com/images/baseball/stratomatic/1986/story_photos/bert_blyleven_150x206.jpg" align="left" style="margin-right: 10px;" /> ORLANDO, Fla. — When Bert Blyleven left the Minnesota Twins in 1976, it was under rowdy circumstances. Blyleven had engaged in a public brouhaha with club president Calvin Griffith and he had been criticized by selected local sportswriters.

On the last night he pitched for the Twins in Metropolitan Stadium, Blyleven was booed lustily by a small crowd and he responded with a defiant salute as he left the mound.

The next day, Blyleven and the late Danny Thompson were traded to the Texas Rangers for Roy Smalley, Mike Cubbage, Bill Singer and Jim Gideon. As recently as last summer, while he was still pitching for the Cleveland Indians, Blyleven wasn't sure if those old wounds in Minnesota had healed.

"There were rumors the Twins had been trying to get me so I was wondering how the crowd in the Metrodome would react when I was introduced at the All-Star Game last year," Blyleven said. "They cheered and that felt good."

Three weeks later, on August 1, Blyleven was traded to the Twins for pitcher Curt Wardle, infielder Jay Bell and outfielder Jim (Dream) Weaver.

In 1970, Blyleven was invited to his first training camp at Tinker Field as a non-roster player. Pitching coach Marv Grissom told manager Bill Rigney, "You should see this kid's curveball."

"Don't let me see him, I'll want to keep him," Rigney said.

Two months later, the Twins had injuries on the pitching staff and Blyleven, after a total of 21 career appearances in the minor leagues, was called up.

"The 16 seasons have gone fast," Blyleven said. "I went to Minnesota as a 19-year-old kid. Grissom didn't like the way I stepped toward the plate. I had a tendency to throw across my body.

"So he took me off to the side at Met Stadium and put a chair on the mound. If I threw across my body, I would step on the chair. Marv was trying to hurt me. I fooled him. I started stepping the right way."

That was the final refinement in a delivery that has allowed Blyleven to keep throwing that curveball. He's had only one significant arm injury - elbow surgery early in the 1982 season. In the 1986 season, Blyleyen could reach 4,000 innings pitched (he needs 283.2) and 3,000 strikeouts (he needs 125) in his career.

"You see some kids who take a big, flat stride and put all of the pressure on their shoulder," said Ray Miller, the Twins' manager. "You know the odds are 100 to 1 they are going to have arm problems. Bert's delivery always has been smooth, loose, a lot of leg drive, everything going forward at the same time. It's the type of delivery that allows a guy to hold up
year after year."

Despite pitching for mediocre teams in Minnesota, Texas and Cleveland (he also was with Pittsburgh in the Pirates' world championship year of 1979), Blyleven has a career record of 212-183. His earned run average is 3.01 and he has 51 shutouts among his 200 complete games. His strikeouts-to-walks ratio is nearly 3 to 1, with 2,875 whiffs and 1,014 bases on balls.

Blyleven, who will turn 35 on April 6, is developing a Hall of Fame portfolio.

"I want to stay around longer than the pitchers who were at the top when I came into the big leagues," Blyleven said. "I don't want to be gone and have all of the old guys - Seaver, Carlton, Ryan and Sutton - still pitching. I got rid of Palmer, now I want to outlast the rest of them."

There are people who will tell you that Blyleven, because of the aggressiveness with which he goes after hitters, is better than ever in his mid-30s.

"I wouldn't say that," Blyleven said. "I felt more overpowering a few years back. In 1976, the season I split between the Twins and Texas, I had an ERA under 3.00 and a half-dozen shutouts. I pitched as well that season as any time and I had a 13-16 record. Wins can be tough to get in this league."

Byleven said the effectiveness of his pitching can usually be traced to the consistency of his fastball. "The low-and-away fastball is the best pitch in baseball," Blyleven said. "If I'm getting the fastball there, then I'm usually going to be tough."

As effective as a low-and-away fastball can be, it is the Blyleven curveball that has built his reputation.

"The big curve I use didn't start until I was 17," Blyleven said. "My high school catcher, Steve Keithly (in Garden Grove, Calif.), helped me develop it. We found out I could get a big bend by releasing the curve from straight over the top.

"One curve I'll always remember was when I was pitching for Pittsburgh. Terry Kennedy was a young player with St. Louis. I threw him a two-strike curve and it snapped. Terry's reaction was to swing straight down, like he was chopping the plate with an ax.

"It was the last out of an inning. After I ran off the mound, I looked over at the St. Louis dugout. There were players rolling around on the floor. Poor Terry. I'll have to admit that was a hell of a curveball."

[JEFFJACKSON]

Bert belongs in the Hall of Fame. They were talking about it in 1986, a year before he'd get his second World Series ring, and they're still talking about it now.

He had 287 wins on mostly bad teams. There shouldn't be this much of an argument. Bert Blyleven belongs in the Hall of Fame.