Nicknamed "the Barber," Sal Maglie commanded the corners of the plate as well as any pitcher in the history of baseball. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1971 Topps Bert Blyleven #26 Rookie Minnesota Twins at the best online prices at eBay! Nice. Others will call it pitching to the score. 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. velocity and launch angle. Bert Blyleven was a big part of that championship season and went 1-1 in the World Series. Blyleven was happy to oblige. Poor Terry. 122), his five one-hitters, his eight two-hitters and his five three-hitters. "[24] Blyleven was the first Dutch-born player inducted, and his Hall of Fame plaque depicts him with a Minnesota Twins cap. Those stats hit me in the face. Only 16 other pitchers have at least 3,000 career strikeouts. Please note the delivery estimate is greater than 13 business days. When I first discovered Retrosheet eons ago, the first thing I wanted to do was look at Blylevens run support. This isn't a tournament along the ropes of, say, the Hope or the Crosby. [9], Following an incident in which Blyleven blatantly gave the finger to a television camera obviously focused on him during one of the Rangers' rare nationally broadcast games,[10] he was dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first four-team blockbuster deal in Major League Baseball history on December 8, 1977, that also involved the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and a total of 11 players changing teams. "Thirty-one of them must have left by the third inning." Angels pitcher Bert Blyleven throws a pitch during a game against the Baltimore Orioles on May 3, 1990 . The Baseball Hall of Shame II first clued me in to some of those stories. He went out and used it to dominate high school hitters, and by age 19 found himself winning 10 games in the major leagues as a rookie for the Minnesota Twins, the start to a career that would last until he was 41. Bert Blyleven is one of the great command pitchers in baseball history! 1 fairway at the Riviera Country Club in Pacific Palisades, Calif. In 22 seasons, Blyleven had more than 3,700 career strikeouts, including more than 2,000 of those in 11 seasons with the Twins. No. A little more than three years ago he was in an automobile accident that put him in a wheelchair for life and left him unable to speak clearly. Like the first time, it doesn't go well, as he allows two runs in two innings and the NL wins, 6-1. Normally that would be a random fact, but here it goes to the heart of things. Jump is a Statcast metric that shows which players have It was the last out of the inning. If you had to pick one starting pitcher to serve as in/out line for induction, Id go with Stan Coveleski. 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. A batted ball with the perfect combination of exit Ill be home soon. So close he might hang for No. Blyleven method: work hard, laugh harder - Orange County Register If youre a fan of sabermetrics, and of internet-based populism, this weekends induction ceremony is thus a double victoryone for Blyleven and one for Lederer. How far, in feet, a runner is ranging off the bag at the And so he ended his career, waiting and wondering if he would get into the Hall of Fame. Brian yeah, if you look at pre-1920 guys its really nuts. Those who throw it refer to it as The Hammer, The Yakker, even Public Enemy No. Bert Blyleven: Pitching History and The Hall of Fame From a Cooperstown point of view, the debate is semantics. "I would like to say to my family, to my fans, to all the Puerto Rican people and . Former Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven on 1987 World Series, today's game I just wish we had more fans. Even the guys who didnt completely implode aged poorly. Who? A dozen of his 1-0 complete game shutouts came from 1970-77. He came back in 1992 but was mostly unproductive, going 812 with a 4.74 ERA. He just hasn't played on too many clubs that scored a lot of runs for him.". Then theres Blyleven. I'll have to admit that was a hell of a curveball.". [1] He serves as the pitching coach for the Netherlands national baseball team, having done so in the 2009, 2013 and 2017 and 2023 World Baseball Classic. "It was nice of him to come anyway," says Blyleven. In 15 years with four teams he has 195 wins and a 3.00 ERA. When the Angels came to nearby Anaheim in 1966, Bert didn't switch his allegiance, although he did become one of the stadium rats. player has saved over his peers. After the game Howard said, "He's got a fine arm. His career was put on hold by a stint with the United States Armed Forces. 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. He responded with a flippant gesture. Let's look at some of the names. The Pirates also acquired John Milner from the Mets. Blyleven mingled easily with the other parents. Blyleven left 28 tickets for family and friends for that night's game, which turned out to be . He blanked Milwaukee on four hits in his first start, followed by a three-hit shutout at Kansas City five days later. Blyleven and his Villa Park neighbors could probably win the American League West. The stuff, and no nonsense - Sports Illustrated Vault | SI.com Many (especially in THT-land) will call it luck. Mike Cuellar was one of the filthiest breaking ball pitchers the game has ever seen. If you go through the above, he comes out to 298-239 for his career, ever so incredibly shy of 300. A Pirate fan friend named Mike Emeigh told me about Blylevens early-1980 walkout. "Brought it in from Cleveland," comes the host's reply. Prospectus Q&A: Bert Blyleven - Baseball Prospectus The Orioles legend has four 20-win seasons, a World Series title and a Cy Young Award to his name. He won 287 games, 27th-most all-time, and pitched 4,970 innings, 14th-most all-time. Popular categories from this store. Blyleven is rightPhil Seghi looks uncannily like Chief Wahoo. So it seems only fitting that Blyleven is something of a yakker. Blyleven's third batter was Frank Howard. Well, if its not luck, youre saying in so many words that the guy choked or lacked mental toughness. Enjoy this run through the 10 best curveballs in the history of baseball. (Thanks, Ron, wherever you are.) Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for 1974 TOPPS BASEBALL #98 BERT BLYLEVEN MINNESOTA TWINS V.G. So did Steve Busby, Jeff Conine, Bill Singer, John Smiley, and Ron Fairly. You have a half-dozen 300 game winnersGaylord Perry, Phil Niekro, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton, Nolan Ryan, and Tom Seaver. 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. "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. and play-by-play data provided by Sports Info Solutions. outfield. Communication. He won fewer games than he should have, right? "I visualized the dropping motion.". "I know Ed thinks the world of him.". I checked all pitchers with at least 25 SHO from 1920-2011. It's like the fellow at the golf tournament said. US $3.00Standard Shipping. 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. Hmmm, no cork in it. "An autographed picture of Fernando Valenzuela. have been very good to me, I like the way Pat manages, I think we've got a good, young club, and I'd like to be a part of a winning team in Cleveland. The ones worse than him who are in are generally mistakes. Robin Roberts hung on a long time but was a shell of himself for many years. 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. 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). Blyleven left 28 tickets for family and friends for that night's game, which turned out to be . It gives the opposition fits when thrown properly. Call it sunspots for all I care, it aint run support. He would continue to play for six different teams for the next 22 years . Bah! They just started throwing me the curveball.. A curveball can also be thrown with some velocity in an attempt jam a hitter. 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. He says, "Mister Paul and Mister Seghi [Mister?] In 1973, he pitched nine shutouts, the most of any AL pitcher that season. He won his first World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979. He later wished he could have erased the 3-2 fastball he threw to the first batter he faced, Lee Maye. In the world of baseballan image comes to mind here of a white planet with red seams and American League president Bobby Brown's signature on itlabels are very easy to put on and very hard to take off. Bert Blyleven - Baseball-Reference.com Afterward he issued these immortal words: "I knew I'd never win the Cy Young Award, so I was trying to be Fireman of the Year.". Richie Scheinblum? But because Kirkpatrick can see and hear, he watches and listens as Blyleven moves into the final part of the evening's program. There are 16 names, but only one 300-game winner. For instance, he referred to Paul and Phil Seghi, the Indians' general manager, as "two old men sitting up in the booth playing checkers." ". Others will call it pitching to the score. I bid $250. 16, worn by Ron Theobald. 30 day returns. "[17], Blyleven was a pitching coach for the Netherlands in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. It showed that of the last 20 guys elected to Cooperstown by the BBWAA (as of then), none had ever received 20 percent or lower of the vote in any election they were up for. Well, his curveball was good enough to strike out 27 batters in a nine-inning game at Class D Bristol and followed that up with a 24-strikeout performance. Despite winning 17 fewer games than he should have in his pre-Pittsburgh years, Blyleven can still claim to be one of only 16 men in the liveball era to win 150 games before turning 30. 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. A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that I do. "But I thought it was kind of nice. In his parting shot, Blyleven called the Twins' fans "bleep bleep" and said, "They're behind you when you do good, and they turn on you when things go wrong. . "Doug DeCinces lives over here," says Blyleven. 1971 Topps Bert Blyleven #26 Rookie Minnesota Twins | eBay There is some argument as to whether Candy Cummings or Fred Goldsmith invented the curveball, but there is no argument about this: Bert Blyleven perfected it and rode it to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Played in the Big Leagues from 1971-1990 and 1992. The lone hit in that game was a bunt single by slow-footed Ed Kirkpatrick in the fifth inning. Then theres the guy with six straight 20-win seasons (Fergie Jenkins) and the pitcher with eight 20-win seasons (Jim Palmer). Blyleven recorded 3,701 career strikeouts, the fifth-most in MLB history. "Two pitchers that I know about who held it the way I do," says Blyleven, "were Koufax and Bob Feller.". Bert Blyleven Twins 2022 Topps Gilded Collection 1X Case 18X Box Break No two curveballs have the same rotation speed, velocity toward the hitter, arm delivery angle, or break. Blyleven debuted in major league baseball in 1970, right at the end of a great run of workhorse pitchers. He's fifth on the active list in shutouts, sixth in strikeouts, eighth in victories and eighth in innings pitched. Blyleven was a terrific pitchera dominating pitcher," Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson once said. The Blyleven tribe includes Kimberly, 10; wife Patty; Timothy, 3; Bert; Todd, 12; and Thomas, 17 months. Well, its that murky third factorthe luck/pitch-to-the-score/sunspots one. If you think you just heard some big names, listen to these. 2001 Major League Baseball contraction plan, 1998 Major League Baseball home run record chase, The last night of the New York Yankees dynasty (2001), Chicago Cubs end the Billy Goat curse (2016), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bert_Blyleven&oldid=1142574454, American expatriate baseball players in Canada, Major League Baseball players from the Netherlands, Major League Baseball players with retired numbers, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, October 4,1992,for theCalifornia Angels, Career statistics and player information from, This page was last edited on 3 March 2023, at 05:13. When he beat the Twins for Texas on July 26, 1976, Blyleven didn't mince words. But the injuries may have been a blessing in disguise, because they made him a better pitcher. And now he has a little more command. When he was younger, his stuff was so good that he didn't need a changeup or pinpoint control. Bert Blyleven - BR Bullpen Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. "Bob Boone is building a house over there, Enos Cabell lives in those hills." "He's a great guy," says Judy Kirkpatrick. Of course, it's never as nice as the one he cut.". (Lou Sauritch/National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum) Shop thrown with. play. Until last year, fate had not been overly kind to Blyleven. Blyleven is the winning pitcher in Game 3 of the NLCS and Game 5 (pitching in relief) of the World Series. Communication. Blyleven made his major league debut at age 19 for the Twins. About 10 years ago, there was a debate at the late, great Rob Neyer Message Board about Blylevens Hall of Fame chances. Sold to me for $25. 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. Bert Blyleven. CLEVELAND'S NETHERLANDS-BORN STAR, PITCHER BERT BLYLEVEN, PUTS HIS PEDAL TO THE METAL ON THE FIELD AND OFF, 2023 ABG-SI LLC. 1979 - Blyleven goes 12-5 on 37 starts and the Pirates win the World Series. And he couldn't help it if he was injured. O.K., I bid $300. What we're talking about here is a humongous stuffed panda, and he's auctioning off the bear at the banquet. ", In a list full of "Uncle Charlies" (a common nickname for a curveball), Doc Gooden's deuce is "Lord Charles.". able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. How hard, in miles per hour, a pitch is thrown. Blyleven went out and bought gifts for everyone. "Hello, ball," he says, in homage to Art Carney as Ed Norton. 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. [27], On September 2, 2020, Blyleven broadcast his final game for the Twins.[28]. He really helped the 1976 Rangers make a run for the pennant. He also became a baseball fan. He throws it a little differently than most pitchers, holding the ball so that every finger except his pinky is touching a seam. I was a kid listening on the radio when Blyleven was in his short stint with the Rangers, and I loved his confidence in throwing that curve when everyone in the stadium and listening on the radio knew what was coming. shouts someone from a passing golf cart. Call the curveball what you will. 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. But nobody really cared. And I said, 'Yes.' 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. 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). That upset Blyleven, especially because he has given of himself to Cleveland. . The kids see how hard he works. Weve already figured out what Blylevens record should be based on pythaging his RA/9IP and league-average run support. Sandy Koufax, Los Angeles Dodgers 10 of 10 Ezra Shaw/Getty Images Despite retiring at age 30, Sandy Koufax recorded 2,396 strikouts, won four World Series. I've had a nice life since, and tried my best never to look back. A couple of years ago when he was on the disabled list and back home, he came to watch my son Monte pitch. 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. [2] From 1996 to 2020, he was a color analyst for Minnesota Twins television broadcasts.[3]. Hmmm, maybe I should bid on it. And I could throw it over at any time, any count."[6]. I have to ask him, 'Bert, what would you throw if you had my stuff?' 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. Given another five years of success, Blyleven will have Hall of Fame credentials. Especially back in those days, a pitchers win-loss record really mattered. He wound up completing 242 games and throwing 60 shutouts, the two numbers of which he is most proud. It was during this second stint with Minnesota that Blyleven became the tenth member of the 3,000-strikeout club in 1986 and won a second World Series title in 1987. That may not mean much to you, but Ron Theobald is the only man in baseball history to go into the on-deck circle without his bat. Maglie's numbers are not overly impressive due to his stint in the Mexican League that got him banned from Major League Baseball. Does it really seem that if you give him a slight increase in run support his wins will shoot up? 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. The Baseball Analysts: The Case for Bert Blyleven: A Late Convert Joins Blyleven recorded 3,701 career strikeouts, the fifth-most in MLB history. in "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second When Blyleven and Sutcliffe were together in Cleveland, their teammates had to be on constant lookout for pranks. Do we have $225? This likely hurt him in the early Cooperstown voting. He got him to fly out. The only problem was that his name was published as "Blylevan," which is the way the Twins spelled it in those days. 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. Heres how it looks year-by-year, and again, this is based on his real run support and RA/9IP: Recording 17 fewer wins than expected is historically bad. This weekend the Hall of Fame will have its annual induction ceremony, and sabermetric darling Bert Blyleven will finally get his well-earned plaque put on display. His wife, Patty, has a sneaking suspicion that he wanted the panda for himself as much as for their four children, Todd, 12, Kimberly, 10, Timothy, 3, and Thomas, 17 months. Looking it up, in his 37 starts, the Twins scored 151 runs, 4.1/game. Take his 1974 season, when he went 17-17 despite a tremendous ERA+ of 142. The Blyleven abode, one of many handsome houses on his street, should bear a plaque commemorating one of the best baseball lines of this decade. After I ran off the mound, I looked over at the St. Louis' dugout. Stanky quit on his own. No player who had debuted on the ballot since 1970 had a vote total that low and later won election to the Hall. time of a pitcher's first movement or pitch release. Thats a lot better than I wouldve expected. 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 won a World Series in 1979 with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He must have had terrible run support. Blyleven starred on the Santiago High School baseball team, also running cross country to build up his stamina and leg strength. If youre going to try to adjust Blylevens record by his run support, you actually have to focus on his run support. Actually, the best spelling of his name appears on one of his license plates: BLY11. Blyleven married Patricia Ann Whitehead, a friend from high school, during his second season in the majors, and they have raised a happy family. A banquet in a Riviera dining room follows the golf tournament, and Blyleven, nattily dressed in a camel's hair sports coat, navy blue trousers, blue shirt and uncut tie, is the master of ceremonies. Patty came out and said, 'Don't you think you should go back?' He began teaching the pitch to himself, learning to throw a drop in junior high. In Texas, Blyleven got blamed for something he never did. Hes going in. When announcing partner Bremer attempted to circle fans with the telestrator, he drew geometric forms that were non-circular, and Blyleven and fans started to jostle Bremer with phrases like "Rhombus me, Dick" or "Triangle me, Dick". And he was still a workhorse, completing 24 games in 1985, the last AL pitcher to top 20.