Bert Blyleven was born April 6, 1951 in Zeist, Netherlands. His birth name was actually Rik Aalbert Blijleven, spelled.
Blyleven carved out a great career by possessing the premier curveball of his era. His vicious curve was among the best in baseball for nearly twenty years.
Welcome to the Baseball History Podcast: Featuring This Week in Baseball History, baseball dictionary and a tour of baseball cities. I’m your game announcer Bob Wright.
This is game 31 of the 2010 baseball season
In the first inning let’s take a look at This Week in Baseball History for the 1 week of August.
August 1
1986 Twins’ hurler Bert Blyleven becomes the tenth major leaguer to record 3,000 strikeouts as he two-hits the A’s, 10-1.
Bert Blyleven was born April 6, 1951 in Zeist, Netherlands. His birth name was actually Rik Aalbert Blijleven, spelled R I K A A L B E R T.
Blyleven carved out a great career by possessing the premier curveball of his era. His vicious curve was among the best in baseball for nearly twenty years.
Baseball Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson had this to say of Blyleven’s curve, “It was nasty, I’ll tell you that; enough to make your knees buckle. Bert was a terrific pitcher — a dominating pitcher.”
He didn’t 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, he saw his name for the first time as Rik Aalbert Blijleven.
He grew up in Southern California and starred on his high school baseball team and ran cross country to build up his stamina and leg strength.
The Minnesota Twins drafted him straight out of high school in 1969. He was 19 in June 1970 when he was called up to the Majors, after only 21 minor league starts.
He gave up a home run to the first batter he faced but settled down to win the first of ten victories and went on to be named American League Rookie Pitcher of the Year by the Sporting News.
Blyleven’s arsenal actually featured two curveballs — a “roundhouse” and an “overhand drop” — both of which were gripped across the seams, like his fastball.
Late in his career he had this to say of his curve, “I know that Koufax and Bob Feller held both pitches the same way but I don’t know of anyone else who does.
Unfortunately, Blyleven’s stellar years early in his career coincided with the collapse of an aging Minnesota club. Despite six straight years of better than 200 strikeouts and five seasons of 15 or more wins with poor teams, more was expected of him. Critics often contended that Blyleven was more interested in padding his strikeout totals than helping his team.
In response, Blyleven became increasingly resentful and became even more vocal about his desire to leave after Twins owner Calvin Griffith refused to meet his salary demands in the spring of 1976.
On June 1, he was sent to the Texas Rangers. After the deal, the Twins drastically improved, passing Blyleven’s new club by the end of July and finishing just five games out of first place in the American League West.
Blyleven pitched well enough in his first year with the Rangers posting an 8 win and 11 loss record with a 2.76 Earned Run Average. He ended the season with a no-hitter against California on September 22, 1977. It was Blyleven’s first start in over two weeks after being sidelined with a pulled groin. He aggravated the injury in the eighth inning but managed to finish off the Angels in the ninth throwing nothing but curveballs — the pitch that hurt the least.
He was traded to the Pirates in another blockbuster deal in December 1977, the first four-team trade in major-league history.
In 1978, Blyleven led the team in Earned Run Average, strikeouts and complete games; he also had 11 Runs Batted In, the most of any pitcher on the staff.
Despite helping Pittsburgh to its 1979 World Series win, Blyleven became increasingly unhappy with manager Chuck Tanner’s strategy of going to the bullpen in close games. Tanner never hesitated to employ his closers when the game was on the line. As a result, even though the durable Blyleven again led the team in innings pitched, 1979 marked the first full season in which he failed to record at least eleven complete games, finishing the season with just four.
Openly admitting his pursuit of statistical goals, Blyleven announced his intention to retire on April 30, 1980 unless he was traded. After being placed on the disqualified list, Blyleven agreed to rejoin the Pirates May 13, but was virtually given away to Cleveland in a six-player deal on December 9, 1980.
A severe elbow injury sidelined Blyleven for most of 1982.
Unable to throw his curve with the same frequency as he was accustomed to, he struggled in 1983 but rebounded with one of his best seasons 1984.
Using an improved changeup he posted a 19 win and 7 loss record to go with a 2.87 earned run average. Nevertheless, Blyleven was unhappy playing for the perennially pathetic Indians and forced a trade back to Minnesota in 1985.
His Earned Run Average skyrocketed in the Metrodome, but Blyleven continued to accumulate wins and strikeouts. His presence also helped with the development of the Twins’ young starters. He maintained a strikeout-to-walk ratio of nearly 3 to 1 while passing the 3,000-strikeout mark in 1986, the same year his eighth American League season with 200 or more strikeouts established a league record.
Never afraid to throw strikes, Blyleven surrendered a major-league-record 50 homers in 1986 and a league-high 46 in 1987. Blyleven later recalled, “The year I gave up 50, I think 42 were solo. One time I gave up five in one game, but we won, 11-7. Big deal — I’m just not going to walk anybody.”
Blyleven had 196 strikeouts in 1987 — his ninth season of 15 or more wins (15-12) — and turned in outstanding performances in postseason play, winning twice in the League Championship Series and once in the World Series.
After a mediocre 1988 season for the Twins, Blyleven moved on to the Angels and went 17-5 with a 2.73 Earned Run Average in 1989, winning the American League Comeback Player of the Year Award.
Leading the American League with five shutouts in 1989, he finished the 1980s as the active career leader in that category and trailed only all-time leader Nolan Ryan among active players in strikeouts. Like Ryan, Blyleven credited his longevity to “healthy legs.”
After a mediocre 1990 with the Angels, Blyleven underwent rotator-cuff surgery again and missed the entire 1991 season.
He came back in 1992, but was mostly unproductive, going 8-12 with a 4.74 Earned Run Average. He retired following that season with a career 287-250 record with 3,701 strikeouts and a 3.31 Earned Run Average. Only 16 other pitchers have at least 3,000 career strikeouts.
In 1996, Blyleven became a color commentator for the Twins. His commentary is frequently risqué for a baseball broadcast, but provides interesting and friendly conversation between him and play-by-play announcer Dick Bremer.
Blyleven is a well-known opponent of using the pitch count to make relief decisions, and is known to get into heated debates on air about this as well as the rarity of complete-games pitched and over-use of the bullpen by current Major League Baseball teams.
Blyleven served as pitching coach for the Dutch team during the 2009 World Baseball Classic. The team exceeded expectations, beating the team from the Dominican Republic twice to advance to the second round before falling. It did so largely because of strong pitching performances by unlikely players.
In this inning we’ll open up the Baseball Dictionary
Under the letter: S
San Diego Chicken
An individual outfitted as a chicken that entertained fans as a mascot of the San Diego Padres. Ted Giannoulas, who portrayed the Chicken, commented on his prospect of entering the Baseball Hall of Fame, “Who knows? I mean, they have a broadcaster’s wing. They have a player’s wing. Maybe one day they’ll have a chicken wing.”
Okay, you had to see that coming.
For those of you that want to stick around, here’s an
Extra Inning
Its time to catch up on an email, this one from Jess:
Dear Bob,
With a 60 mile NJ-NY daily driving commute to the Brooklyn High School I teach history at, a growing distaste for sports talk radio, and a new found love of podcasts, Its a great pleasure to listen to your show. Starting from your first episode, I have marched into 2007 and recently listened to episode HP0720 of 4/7/07 with the definition of “pepper”.
Yes, it is forbidden at major league parks, but let me tell you perhaps another reason its not allowed besides damage to the facilities.
After grad school, I spent the years 1973-1984 living in St. Paul, Minnesota. I grew up in upstate NY as a Brooklyn Dodger fan (have always hated the Yankees), and followed dem bums (as a fan) out west all my young life. But when I finally lived in a region with major league baseball, well, there was always room for those lovable, if usually lose-able Twins. I loved going to games at the old Metropolitan Stadium in Bloomington. And even attended the final game on a brutally cold and rainy day in October, which losing to the Royals, summed up a miserable season. Did you ever go to the Metrodome? You walked in off the street, passed through the turnstiles, and you were in the upper deck of the stadium with the playing field below you. There was a wall behind homeplate that extended in both directions to the left and right field corners. At the first base bag, the wall (and first row of seats) was about 10-12 feet above the playing field.
In 1985 I returned to visit friends and attended a game at the Metrodome with the Twins hosting Oakland. Having always been a fan of watching batting practice my friend and I got there early, and took seats a few rows up, at first base. At some point before the game, 4-5 players came out of the Oakland dugout, and with bat in hand Dusty ”Dr. Scald” Baker proceeded to hit pepper balls to several players right in front of us. At one point I turned my head to say something to my friend who stuck his hand out in front of my face just in time to cleanly snag an errant “pepper” ball headed right for my nose. Dusty immediately had an oops sorry look on his face, there was some laughter, and the game broke up. My friend reached over the wall, tossed him the ball, he signed it, and it has been sitting on my dresser ever since.
I love your show, and I listen to about 3 episodes daily. Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Jess Gordon
(who will admit that after years of living in the nyc area has become a die hard mets fan – who still keeps an eye on those dodgers and twins)
P.S. Yes, there were many signs stenciled onto the wall around home plate all stating: “NO PEPPER ALLOWED”
If you would like to a part of Baseball History Podcast, submit your written contribution for the tour segment. I will only be doing the tour when one is sent in by a listener. You can do the segment on any stadium or team; past or present; Minor League, Major League, Negro League or any league outside of the US. Write about 1 page in a conversational tone, send it to me, I will record it, and you will get the credit.
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Well, that’s it for today’s game of Baseball History Podcast. I’ll see you later at the ballpark.
