A tribute post to Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame hopeful, Bert Blyleven.
Bert "BE HOME" Blyleven, as Chris Berman so graciously calls him, has been "home" in Minnesota as a Twins announcer since 1996. Blyleven's thing is that he circles fans that come to the Metrodome with signs reading "Circle Me, Bert." Fans hold signs directed at Blyleven hoping that the camera will find them, and much like John Madden uses the telestrator to scribble all over the TV - Bert will circle them and declare "you have hereby been circled". Home or away, if you are a Twins fan with a "Circle Me, Bert" sign, you have a good shot at getting on TV.
Bert is known for his humorous commentary and has had countless off-color comments. One example came when Bert thought that he was doing a show, tape-delay and used the F-word after stumbling over some of his introduction. Blyleven stopped his commentary and said, "We're gonna hafta do this f-ing thing over again, cause I just f-ed up." Anthony LaPanta leaned over and informed Bert they were broadcasting live. Another example of Blyleven's personality came during a broadcast in 2006. Blyleven appeared as himself in the 1990 Jim Belushi movie "Taking Care of Business". During the broadcast, Blyleven needed to be reminded by a technician what the name of the movie was because Bert had forgotten it.
Blyleven played a very storied career. He entered the league in 1970 where he played 6 seasons in Minnesota before he was traded to the Rangers, then Pirates and then again later to the Indianas. Bert returned to the Twins following a 19 win season in 1984 and finished his career as a California Angel. His ERA was never worse than 3.00 between 1971-1977. His curveball is considered one of the best in the HISTORY of baseball. With 3,701 strikeouts, Blyleven is one of just 13 pitchers who has thrown 3,000 strikeouts - only Nolan Ryan, Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson and Steve Carlton have more.
Blyleven was a starter on World Series Champions in both the AL and NL (Pittsburgh in 1979 and Minnesota in 1987). His post-season record was 5-1, his ERA - 2.47 in 47 innings of playoff baseball. He officially retired in 1993 finishing his career with a record of 287-250. His career ERA was 3.31, he had 60 shut-outs and 242 complete games (24 complete games in 1986).
Today, Blyleven is considered the BEST pitcher who is NOT in the Hall of Fame. This post is more a recognition of his greatness than a pitch to get him in. The last starting pitcher to get a bid to the hall was Nolan Ryan in the early 90's. Unfortunately, Bert's career was injury-plagued, he sat out most of '82 and '83, was named comeback player of the year in 1989 and missed all of 1991. He began his career on a very lousy Twins team where he was the ace of the staff (and won the rookie of the year), but didn't record many wins.
Voters might not like that he only had one 20-win season and never won a Cy Young award. The bench-mark for starting pitchers to receive an automatic bid is 300 wins. In 1993, Bert tried out for the Twins but Tom Kelly decided not to retain Blyleven because "...the team was going in a different direction". Even though there were other teams interested in his services, Bert retired after 22 years of work only 13 wins shy of 300.
If he would have gotten more run support from his offense during the early part of his career or avoided injuries in the later part, he might have won 320-330 games (330 wins is good enough for 10th all-time). Blyleven has said that 100 of his losses were by 1 run, "there weren't a lot of blowouts". In 1980, Blyleven only allowed 3 runs twice in his first 10 starts, yet his record was 0-4. In Bert's career, he actually had 15 wins by the score of 1-0.
In 2007, the percentage of people voting Bert into the hall was 47.7% (he needs 75%). There are over 60 pitchers in the HOF and Bert ranks 24th all time in wins, 17th since 1900. Bert has been eligible for the hall of fame since 1996 and he will lose eligibility in 2012.
Obviously they don't vote for the HOF in April, but as I watch Twins baseball this season I will hear the voice of Bert Blyleven. Like most Twins fans, I am in support of Bert getting a bid into the HOF. Blyleven hopes that voters will circle him on the next ballot, much like fans hope Bert circles them.
I would like to thank BertBelongs.com, BertBlyleven.com, BaseballArchives.com, Wikipedia.com and MLB.com for help with this post.
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