[citation needed], MLB Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson said of Blyleven: "[his curveball] was nasty, I'll tell you that. In the '60s, Koufax had it. He's being serious, although whimsy soon bubbles to the surface. But thats the problem, you had to go way back. Blyleven reaches rare mark with 250th win | Baseball Hall of Fame Then theres Blyleven. There's the looping 12-6 curveball, which drops off the table just as the hitter thinks he has a read on it. Blyleven received only 17.55% of the vote for Hall of Fame admission in 1998 (his first year of eligibility), and his vote total dropped to 14.1% in 1999. Bert Blyleven timeline: A lifetime of baseball - Star Tribune Shipping speed. Robin Roberts hung on a long time but was a shell of himself for many years. Blyleven was one of baseball's most notorious dugout pranksters during his playing days. It's like the fellow at the golf tournament said. exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. He tied for second in the league in wins and was second in winning percentage (.731), third in ERA (2.87) and fourth in strikeouts (170). Updated: Saturday, March 4, 2023 3:30 AM ET, Park Factors The answer is 11. "I know that stuff sounds silly," says Smith. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) "I always played for my island," Alomar said in his induction speech. "Brought it in from Cleveland," comes the host's reply. On September 22, 1977, just two weeks after being sidelined with a groin injury, Blyleven no-hit the California Angels 60 at Anaheim Stadium. He's now 200-173. There are 16 names, but only one 300-game winner. Even alone Blyleven is a terror, whether he's giving a hotfoot, tying clothes in knots, cutting neckties or pulling down McMahon's pants. 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. I just wish we had more fans. Add in assorted aces Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Catfish Hunter, Mickey Lolich, Luis Tiant, and thats some list. Thats easy to figure: Take the difference between his actual win-loss record and what he should have had based on a pythaging of his actual run support and his actual RA/9IP. Actually, the best spelling of his name appears on one of his license plates: BLY11. On a recent afternoon Blyleven went to see Todd play basketball for his seventh-grade team. Call it sunspots for all I care, it aint run support. Bert Blyleven Stats by Baseball Almanac. 1. A Bolt is any run where the Sprint Speed (defined as Or 40 percent. The incident occurred when Rose was commentating on a Phillies game last year and sharing a story when he said . But the injuries may have been a blessing in disguise, because they made him a better pitcher. Also, while I think Blyleven is a better pitcher than Kaat, I wrote a column on Kaat years ago arguing in 1967 he had the greatest stretch run by a pitcher ever in a pennant race: [23] "It's been 14 years of praying and waiting," he said on a conference call from Fort Myers, Florida. One fan posted, "Pete Rose in the Phillies booth "he threw a c**k high fastball". He blanked Milwaukee on four hits in his first start, followed by a three-hit shutout at Kansas City five days later. In the early days it was fashionable to deny that a curveball actually curved, many scientists even claiming it was nothing but an optical illusion. Half of them blew their arms out right after turning 30. Pittsburgh thought so little of him that it traded him and Manny Sanguillen to Cleveland after the '80 season for Victor Cruz, Bob Owchinko, Rafael Vasquez and Gary Alexander. Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett would be describing Koufaxs curve that he threw off that high mound, Blyleven recalled. [21] In 2009, he gained only two votes, for a total of 338, 62.7%. For a batter, Best Speed is an average of 50% of his hardest hit balls. Now, does that really seem like an answer to the question of run support? Enough to make your knees buckle. In between, while a Pirate in 1980, Blyleven jumped the team in midseason, flying to his home in California and demanding a trade. Kid Nichols is the all-time champ. But someone with a far greater mind than any scientist put the optical illusion theory to rest. Thats especially the case for the guys who finished near the top of the list (and where Blyleven would be if he didnt weirdly have those 17 missing wins). Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt became something of an expert on the curveball during his career. Almost everybody says this of Blyleven: "He wants the ball." 4.9. The youngest player to ever be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame at age 34, Sandy Koufax is the best left-handed pitcher to ever take the mound. Statcast refers to the spin that contributes to movement He currently ranks 5th all-time in strikeouts, 9th all-time in shutouts, and 27th all-time in wins. In his second stint in Minnesota, Bert Blyleven helped the Twins win the 1987 World Series and won his 250th career game a year later. They just started throwing me the curveball.. If you went back further, you could find guys whod risen up: Billy Williams, Luis Aparicio, Bob Lemon. Angels pitcher Bert Blyleven throws a pitch during a game against the Baltimore Orioles on May 3, 1990 . We'd go from one dugout to the other, our backs pressed against the backstop while we heard the typewriters going in the press box. It's hard to say anything based on one game, but he looks like he's got a great future ahead of him.". Ten years ago he took Twins owner Calvin Griffith to arbitration, and Griffith screamed. Blyleven's commentary was occasionally risqu for a baseball broadcast but provided interesting and friendly conversation between him and play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer. Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted He also won a World Series in 1979 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He never surrendered more than 24 home runs in any year before, and after the 198687 campaigns, he averaged 21 allowed homers per season over the course of his career. "But I thought it was kind of nice. He was 17-5 for the Angels last season, allowing only 14 home runs. Bert Blyleven - Baseball-Reference.com At the Blyleven the biggest celebrity, literally and figuratively, is Lou Ferrigno, television's erstwhile Incredible Hulk. No two curveballs have the same rotation speed, velocity toward the hitter, arm delivery angle, or break. He has to have it. The Rangers received Al Oliver and Nelson Norman from the Pirates and Jon Matlack from the Mets. Even the guys who didnt completely implode aged poorly. 1997 Fleer Star Stickers Baseball #10 - Bert Blyleven - Minnesota Twins Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 13 business days. "We left one month-old piece in there, and I think Chris ate it." When I first discovered Retrosheet eons ago, the first thing I wanted to do was look at Blylevens run support. I used to say about myself that I knew the day I would have to grow up and get a real job- it was the day, in Babe Ruth League in Seattle in the summer of 1957, when a guy named Ron Waara threw me a curveball that scared the living daylights out of me. The only problem was that his name was published as "Blylevan," which is the way the Twins spelled it in those days. At that time only 15 to 20 percent of the electorate supported him. xBA measures the likelihood that a batted ball will This semicelebrity affair at Riviera was the second off-season charity event Bert has sponsored. player has saved over his peers. Most people familiar with Blyleven's case for the HOF know that he stands fifth all-time in strikeouts. He needed elbow surgery in '82 after throwing only 20 innings, and in '83 he missed most of the last two months with a right shoulder injury. He also claims his heritage has something to do with his curveball, which is the one against which all others in the big leagues are judged. The Baseball Analysts: Optimal Fastball-Changeup Speed Separation *Examining the Past, Present, and Future* Lineup Card Rich Lederer Baseball Beat Patrick Sullivan Change-Up Jeremy Greenhouse Touching Bases Dave Allen F/X Visualizations Sky Andrecheck Behind the Scoreboard Marc Hulet Around the Minors Al Doyle Past Times Monte tried to throw a curve, and something in his elbow snapped. "I thank the baseball writers of America for, I'm going to say, finally getting it right. Position: Starting Pitcher Bats: Right Throws: Right 6-3, 200lb (190cm, 90kg) . One of the nicknames for a curveball is a "yakker." Bert Blyleven. That was the. How fast, in miles per hour, a ball was hit by a batter. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1997 Fleer Star Stickers Baseball #10 - Bert Blyleven - Minnesota Twins at the best online prices at eBay! I checked all pitchers with at least 25 SHO from 1920-2011. "I think the world of Chuck Tanner," says Blyleven now. Given another five years of success, Blyleven will have Hall of Fame credentials. All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, Scheinblum's son, Monte, who's active in SADD at Villa Park High School in Villa Park, Calif., asked Blyleven if he'd help him organize a tournament. Two years ago, when brush fires swept through the surrounding hills, Blyleven ascended to his roof, to water it down lest a flying spark set it afire, and fell off, breaking his left elbow. . His 2.74 career ERA with the Rangers remains the best in team history. Says Roy Smith, a rookie pitcher who dressed next to Blyleven last season, "Because his stuff is so good, it really doesn't do me any good to ask him what he throws to certain hitters. Blyleven recorded 3,701 career strikeouts, the fifth-most in MLB history. This led to a fundraising campaign with the Parkinson's Foundation and a sponsorship with the Minnesota Lottery. Only 16 other pitchers have at least 3,000 career strikeouts. 300, a la Early Wynn. Fine pitchers, but a definite step down from what had come before. "I saw him when he was 19 and I've seen him now," Howser says. Here he is, a workhorse with superlative ERAs and a world-renown curveball, but he only made the All-Star team twice, in 1973 and 1985. ", Royals manager Dick Howser is also a Blyleven fan. [2] From 1996 to 2020, he was a color analyst for Minnesota Twins television broadcasts.[3]. (Lou Sauritch/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) Shop 10 things I didn't know about Bert Blyleven | The Hardball Times A range-based metric of skill that shows how many outs a The story goes that he was tearing up the Grapefruit League, leading his wife to ask if she should begin house hunting in his new major-league city. 1 fairway at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. His heart is invariably in the right placeit's just that his foot sometimes ends up in his mouth. Heres a list, with how much theyd won before the big 3-0: Its easy to forget how young Blyleven debuted, just two months past his 19th birthday. This likely hurt him in the early Cooperstown voting. Bert Blyleven Statcast, Visuals & Advanced Metrics | MLB.com The Orioles legend has four 20-win seasons, a World Series title and a Cy Young Award to his name. [14] The Pirates traded him to the Cleveland Indians on December 9, 1980. Thanks for the link at WGOM, by the way. If you just take his actual RA/9IP and pythag it with league-average, park-adjusted run support, it comes out that he should have gone 21-13 over 34 decisions. The Blyleven tribe includes Kimberly, 10; wife Patty; Timothy, 3; Bert; Todd, 12; and Thomas, 17 months. You cant do a simplistic, reductionistic system. Stand behind a tree 60 feet away and Ill whomp you with an optical illusion, challenged Dizzy Dean. He repaid some of his debt to Flores this off-season when he hosted a tournament to benefit the Hemophilia Foundation; Flores's grandson has that disease. The Pirates won the World Series in 1979 and Blyleven went 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in the Fall Classic after throwing a complete game in Game 3 of the NLCS. However, during his time in the Mexican League, he was coached by Dolph Lugue, a curveball mastermind, which helped him rely on the pitch upon returning to the majors. 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. Things went so sour in Minnesota that in Blyleven's last game as a Twin, some fans serenaded him with "Goodby, Bert, we're glad to see you go." And let's not forget the classic knee-buckling curveball that has made countless hitters look foolish. Aside from that, he never led the league. The only thing Blyleven hates more than pitch counts is the use of . [15] Blyleven was unhappy playing for the lackluster Indians and forced a trade back to the Twins,[16] where he passed the 3,000-strikeout mark and helped the Twins to a 1987 World Series victory. Being close to his 100th win is. Those who throw it refer to it as The Hammer, The Yakker, even Public Enemy No. And once he came up, he stuck around. 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? pitch. I remember talking to scout Jesse Flores and Ed Roebuck, the pitcher, about the rotation. The likelihood, in percent, that an outfielder will be He got him to fly out. Blyleven often looked back and saw players in the opposing dugout covering their face with their gloves as they laughed at a hitter who had ducked out of the way of a curve that had broken sharply across the heart of the plate, many of them ending up one of Blylevens strikeout victims. Julio Franco, who had been arrested the previous winter for possession of a gun without a permit, received a toy pistol. Digging a little deeper into the numbers, it looks like it really was just luck, because Blyleven was at his best when it counted the most. According to baseball-reference Cy Young won 195 games befroe his age 30 season. It wasn't until he got married in 1971 that he noticed on his birth certificate that he's really Rik Aalbert. I assumed Blyleven had no chance with the current BBWAA. Ill be home soon. the ERA scale, A measurement of a player's top running speed, expressed background-color:#ba3434; Blyleven was born in the Netherlands, one of only nine major leaguers to have been born in Holland as of 2020 (several major leaguers were born in the Kingdom of the Netherlands outside Holland). That, of course, would belong to Sandy Koufax. The evening is winding down, and there are only a few more souvenirs left to be auctioned. Blyleven has reigned as the curveball champion longer than either Pascual or Koufax. He just hasn't played on too many clubs that scored a lot of runs for him.". He also has balls from his 14 complete-game 1-0 victories, which put him third on the alltime list, tied with Christy Mathewson, behind Walter Johnson (an uncatchable 38) and Grover Cleveland Alexander (17). "He's a great guy," says Judy Kirkpatrick. Former Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven on 1987 World Series, today's game I still kid him about it.". He's fifth on the active list in shutouts, sixth in strikeouts, eighth in victories and eighth in innings pitched. Adrian Devine, Tommy Boggs and Eddie Miller were traded from the Rangers to the Braves. produces a result. Bert Blyleven (born Rik Aalbert Blijleven, April 6, 1951) is a Dutch-American former professional baseball pitcher who played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1970 to 1992, primarily with the Minnesota Twins. He left in the eighth to a standing ovation from the Municipal Stadium faithful, 8,239 strong. Hes going in. "But I'll be grateful to him for one thing in particular. For instance, he referred to Paul and Phil Seghi, the Indians' general manager, as "two old men sitting up in the booth playing checkers." His answer told you all you need to know about the major-league curveball: Dont bother. Bert Blyleven is one of the great command pitchers in baseball history! And I could throw it over at any time, any count."[6]. Nice. Theres a better factoid, though: Blyleven won 15 different 1-0 complete games, more than anyone else since Walter Johnson. Cleveland president Gabe Paul said, "Bert Blyleven isn't going anywhere. With the power of the internet, Lederers persistenceand, oh yeah, Blylevens own solid casehell have a nice weekend in upstate New York this year. We do. This was especially pronounced in his first seven full seasons, 1971-77, when he was in his prime. Others will call it pitching to the score. ", During a lull at the banquet, Scheinblum talks about Blyleven. Bert Blyleven grew up in Garden Grove, Calif., less than 10 miles from Anaheim Stadium. When the Angels came to nearby Anaheim in 1966, Bert didn't switch his allegiance, although he did become one of the stadium rats. Hank Aaron, Warren Spahn, Lew Burdette, Joe Adcock, Eddie Mathews. Sold for $150. How high/low, in degrees, a ball was hit by a batter. Blyleven's first two teams, the Twins and Rangers, usually weren't very good, and even though the Pirates won the World Series in '79, Blyleven had some philosophical differences with manager Chuck Tanner. 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. 5.0. In the middle of the 1976 season, he was traded to the Texas Rangers, where he threw a no-hitter in his final start for the team. Blyleven dominated batters for more than two decades with one of the best curveballs the game has ever seen and an underappreciated fastball. outfield. In the last part of his careerhis second go-around in Minnesota and his final seasons in Californiahe came out eight games ahead. Wait a minute. Though his age-28 season, Blyleven tossed 2,624 innings, more than anyone since Pete Alexander. From 1971 (his second year in the majors but first full season in a big league rotation) through 1975, Blyleven struck out 200-plus batters each season (224, 228, 258, 249 and 233, respectively).. However, Blyleven's early career with the Twins was not always pleasant as he was hounded by critics and fans. BASEBALL'S DUTCH TREAT - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com Blyleven was inducted into the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in 2002[25] and was chosen to the fan-elected "Wendy's- Minnesota Twins All-Metrodome Team" on July 28, 2009. one base to another, like Home To First. That was where I learned to throw and control the pitch.. Rice benefited from an orchestrated movement by the Boston press corps. By this approach, Blyleven comes out nine wins behind. Blyleven wanted $85,000, which seems like a piddling sum now, and the Twins were offering $65,000. To answer the question, I went to my usual modus operandi: I looked at recent historical trends. }, Cronkite School at ASU a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight 1971 TOPPS # 26 BERT BLYLEVEN NICE CARD | eBay ", Last year Blyleven was 4-0 with a 1.44 ERA against the American League West champion Royals. For some reason it has taken Blyleven 3,422 innings, 468 games, 195 wins, 15 years and four teams to be appreciated. But those were entire careers. In 1985 he again led the American League in shutouts with five. Blyleven married Patricia Ann Whitehead, a friend from high school, during his second season in the majors, and they have raised a happy family. [8] He pitched well with the Rangers, posting a 2.76 ERA. Blyleven also won so many games because he was a great workhorse. Normally a guy entering the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot with 287 wins is pretty impressive. Popular categories from this store. Blyleven became the first Dutch-born player to earn induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. "This is for a free membership to Racquetball World. Do we have $225? On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. "Here's a ball autographed by the 1957 Milwaukee Braves. Friendship may be the tie that binds Blyleven and Scheinblum, but occasionally Bert can get snippy. If anyones curious, heres a list of the most 1-0 CG SHO for post-Walter Johnson pitchers: Nice lead for Blyleven. But bleep them. What makes his statistics even more impressive is that he missed five starts after he broke a bone in his right foot; while shagging flies in the Milwaukee outfield in May, he stepped on a ball hiding in the grass. That's why he gave up so many solo shots late in games - he was throwing his pitch with a comfortable lead and didn't care if the batter knew it was coming. Lets back up for a second. The Twins responded by trading him to the Texas Rangers. Baseball '90 PREVIEW : ONE PITCH FROM STARDOM : Speed is not enough. In Blyleven, like so many Hall of Fame players, was driven to succeed. He still he ranks fifth all-time in that department. He knows how to pitch. They have a right to act any way they like.". Joe's brother, Cor, had gone to the U.S. before the war, and because it was easier to enter from Canada than from Holland, the Blylevens emigrated to Saskatchewan when Bert was two. Of course, it's never as nice as the one he cut.". Communication. "I have to say this for him, though. "[17], Blyleven was a pitching coach for the Netherlands in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Buyer pays for return shipping. If it weren't for drug and injury issues late in his career, he easily could have reached the 3,000-strikeoutplateau. Blyleven was a terrific pitchera dominating pitcher," Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson once said. Nolan Ryan and Bert Blyleven had the tightest rotation and velocity combination," Schmidt was quoted as saying in a recent Associated Press story.