Bert Blyleven talks, signs autographs in Cambridge
With hard work, dedication, sacrifice and love for the game, he made you feel anything is possible.Former Minnesota Twin and Hall of Famer, Bert Blyleven, made an appearance in Cambridge on Tuesday evening, May 1, to talk, share stories, meet with fans and sign autographs.
Blyleven is known from his color commentary for the Minnesota Twins with fellow broadcaster, Dick Bremer. The “Circle Me Bert” phenomenon took off when he used the telestrator (which permits on-screen highlighting by a commentator) to circle something on the screen during a Twins game.
With fans holding up “Circle Me Bert” signs at virtually every Minnesota Twins game, the popularity of the “Circle Me Bert” catch-phrase has enabled Blyleven and his wife, Gayle, to raise money for Parkinson’s Disease, a cause close to their hearts.
During his baseball career he played for the Texas Rangers, the California Angels, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Cleveland Indians, returned to the Twins in 1987 and then finished his career with the California Angels retiring in 1992.
Minnesota
Twin and Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven feels the strength a young child’s
pitching arm before speaking at a presentation Tuesday, May 1, at
Cambridge-Isanti High School. Photos by Jon Tatting/ECM Post ReviewBlyleven was born Rik Aalbert Blijleven in Zeist, Netherlands in 1951, and was raised in Garden Grove, Calif.
“When my family and I came to the United States in 1957, my father introduced me to the game of baseball through the radio and Vin Scully,” Blyleven explained. “When I was in 3rd grade, some of my friend were playing Little League and asked me if I wanted to join. I started off as a catcher and then my manager asked me if I wanted to pitch. I was tall and skinny and fell in love with the baseball in my hand.”
Blyleven was drafted by the Minnesota Twins right after high school in 1969. He entered the major leagues the following year at the age of 19 and was named American League Rookie of the Year by Sporting News.
Blyleven was playing Triple A baseball at the time when he got the news he was heading for the major leagues.
“It was a rainy night in Tulsa, Okla. and our game got rained out, so a player and I caught a movie,” Blyleven explained. “When we got back to the hotel I received word the manager wanted to see me. I knew I hadn’t done anything wrong, so I didn’t know what he wanted to see me for. When I got there he showed me a telegram that the Minnesota Twins were playing in Boston, and they needed a pitcher.”
He boarded a plane and arrived in Boston around 2 a.m. and immediately met with manager Bill Rigney as per the instructions in the telegram.
Brothers
Hunter Gadacz, 2, Bryar Gadacz, 8, and Kaden Gadacz, 4, came up from
Foley with their parents to meet Bert Blyleven and have him autograph a
couple of baseballs for them.
“I got to the hotel in Boston and went to Mr. Rigney’s room,” Blyleven said. “I knocked on the door. He said, ‘Now that you’ve woken me up, go introduce yourself to the other players.’ Well I proceeded to do that and got back to Mr. Rigney’s door at 3 a.m. He asked, ‘Well did you meet the other players?’ I told him, I met as many as I could because most players weren’t in their rooms. Well, Mr. Rigney made a little money that night (with fines).”
His first major league game
Blyleven’s first major league game was June 5, 1970 against the Washington Senators.
“I watched what the other pitchers did to prepare for a game and did the same exact thing,” Blyleven said. “I was nervous, my legs were shaking and the first batter I faced was Lee May. Somehow I got the count to 3-2. My sixth pitch at the major league level went for a home run right out of the ball park. After that my manager came out and I thought he was going to pull me. He said, ‘Son, that’s not the only home run you will give up. And he was right, I gave up 429 after that.”
The Signature Pitch
Bert Blyleven learned what turned out to be his signature pitch when playing the game his junior and senior years in high school. He also recalls being fascinated by Vin Scully’s description of Sandy Koufax’s devastating curve ball.
Bert Blyleven answered a lot of questions from the audience during his presentation.
However, his father, with a Dutch heritage, didn’t want him throwing the bender until he was age 14 or 15 because of the stress it puts on the elbow. It was family tradition, too, that the Dutch don’t work (or pitch) on Sundays, so Bert and his father visited Dr. Robert Schuller, a known televangelist.
“My dad asked him, ‘Would it be a sin to work (pitch) on Sundays?’” Schuller replied, “I think it would be a sin for him to pitch everyday because I’ve seen him pitch,” smiled Bert.
Bert indeed waited to start throwing his curve ball, and it was worth the wait as it gained him enough attention that he was drafted in the third round by the Minnesota Twins in 1969. Just as exciting: he was able to get his own “bubble gum card.”
1987 World Series season
Blyleven said he enjoyed all the teams he played for, but especially his Twins teammates from the 1987 World Series Championship.
“No one expected the Minnesota Twins to do what we did that year,” Blyleven said. “I just love the area so much and the people in Minnesota. When we beat Detroit in five games to advance to the World Series, we were on the plane ride back and they told us we would head to the Metrodome so season-ticket holders could offer their congratulations and wish us well in the World Series.
“Well as we headed to the Dome, we saw signs hanging from all over the highway overpasses congratulating us. We got to the Dome around 11:30 p.m. and there were over 55,000 people waiting for us. I still get goose bumps thinking about that night. We just didn’t have nine players on the field that year, we had 10—thanks to the wonderful fans all across Minnesota.”
Words of advice for youngsters
During Blyleven’s presentation, he told the youngsters in the audience that becoming a professional baseball player is not easy.
“If you have the dream to be a baseball player, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication,” Blyleven explained. “I always had a hard work ethic that came from my parents. My mom told me they came over from Holland with $52 in their pocket. My inner drive really came from them …When I would be pitching games, I was always the first one at the ballpark. I wanted to get there to clear my head, start focusing on the game, and see the line up.”
Youngsters anxiously await their turn to get an autograph from Bert Blyleven.
Blyleven shared a few thoughts on his overall view of the game by giving each letter from the word ‘baseball’ a special meaning: B: Believe. A: Attitude. S: Sacrifice. E: Enthusiasm. B: Behavior. A: Action. L: Leader. L: Love.
“I got to play a kids’ game for 23 years, wear a uniform and make a complete fool of myself sometimes,” Blyleven said. “And now with broadcasting, I have the opportunity to stay a part of the game I love. I love broadcasting games, and love watching the Minnesota Twins win.”
Blyleven, who lives in Fort Meyers, Fla. with his wife Gayle, explained he is only broadcasting 100 games this season, compared to 150 as in past seasons.
“The hardest part about being a professional athlete was being away from family,” Blyleven said. “But we did have six months off during the year, and the reward for all the sacrifice you made is spending time with your family later on in your life.”
Roland Katke, from Milaca, has Bert Blyleven autograph a book about the Twins.
Blyleven’s visit was sponsored by East Central Regional Library and Cambridge-Isanti Community Education, and made possible with money from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. His final comment of the evening was addressed to the fans.
“Thank you all for coming tonight, and supporting the Minnesota Twins,” Blyleven said. “Thank you for watching the games and coming to see us at Target Field.
Fun Facts:
Favorite player on the current MN Twins roster: Denard Span
Batter you feared the most: Anyone with a bat
Favorite teams to play for? 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates & 1987 MN Twins
Favorite stadiums to play in: Anaheim, Kansas City, Minneapolis
One of his favorite moments: When over 55,000 MN Twins fans greeted the team at the Metrodome around 11:30 p.m. after defeating Detroit in Game 5 in 1987 to advance to the World Series
Sen. Franken Pays Tribute to Minnesota Twins Hall of Famer
Bert Blyleven on Floor of U.S. Senate:
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Bert Blyleven on Floor of U.S. Senate:
Thursday, July 28, 2011
(As Prepared for Delivery)
M. President, I rise today to pay tribute to former Minnesota Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven, who this week received his sport's highest honor when he was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.To Bert, I offer hearty and well-deserved congratulations.
To the rest of the baseball world, I ask this question: what took so long?
In the 14 years since he first became eligible for the Hall of Fame, we in Minnesota all assumed that with his rare talent and Hall-of-Fame numbers, Bert was a shoo-in. And for many of those 14 years, he was considered the best player never to have been inducted.
I am proud to say, as a Minnesotan and a lifelong Twins fan, that this year Bert Blyleven was officially voted into the Hall of Fame.
People in Minnesota all know that Bert belongs on the distinguished list of Minnesota Twins already in the Hall of Fame: Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, and Kirby Puckett, as well as two other baseball greats who grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota and played with the Twins later in their careers, Paul Molitor and Dave Winfield.
Each of them had Hall of Fame Careers, and now Bert has finally joined them in the Hall.
Bert pitched 22 seasons in the major leagues, eleven of them for the Twins, but he also took his talents to Texas, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and California.
During his career:
• He won 287 games;
• He struck out an amazing 3,701 batters, and is 5th on the all-time career strikeout list. That's more career strikeouts than baseball greats Tom Seaver, Walter Johnson, Bob Gibson, Greg Maddux, Cy Young, or even his boyhood idol Sandy Koufax;
• He pitched 60 shutouts and led the league in shutouts three times;
• He had a career Earned Run Average of just 3.31;
• He pitched 242 complete games, something that would be unheard for pitchers today; and
• He played on two World Champion teams, in both Minnesota and in Pittsburgh.
For Twins fans, we all know Bert was a major part of the Twins 1987 World Series championship team, which we all revere for finally bringing a World Championship to our state.
Bert mentioned in his acceptance speech on Sunday that he is the first Hall of Famer born in Holland. He moved to California as a child and became interested in baseball by watching Sandy Koufax pitch for the Dodgers. His father, Joe, also a baseball fan, built him a pitcher's mound in the backyard where he developed one of the best curveballs in baseball history.
Bert finished his playing career in 1992. In 1996, he rejoined the Twins in the broadcast booth, where for many years, he and Dick Bremer have become familiar voices to Twins fans all over the upper Midwest. I love nothing more than watching a Twins game on TV and listening to Dick and Bert, who in my humble opinion are an authoritative and thoroughly entertaining broadcast team.
During broadcasts, Bert has created a phenomenon using his telestrator to circle Twins fans who are holding signs that catch Bert's attention. Today, there is no higher honor than for a Twins fan to be circled by Bert, and every game is packed with fans holding signs that say simply: "Circle Me Bert."
It was great to see that Bert was joined at Sunday's induction ceremony by his wife Gayle, their children, Bert's siblings, and his mother Jenny. During his speech Bert spoke about his father, Joe, who died in 2004 of Parkinson's disease, saying "I know he's up there right now looking down."
In memory of his father, Bert and his wife Gayle started the "Circle Me Bert" website to raise research money for the National Parkinson Foundation Minnesota. That says volumes about Bert Blyleven.
So, once again Bert, as a lifelong Twins fan, thank you, and congratulations. After 14 years of waiting, "you are hereby Circled" by the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, where generations of fans from Minnesota and around the world will know of your career and of your amazing contributions to the game of baseball.
- Article by: JIM SOUHAN , Star Tribune
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. - Bert Blyleven was known for a pitch that curved and a tongue that protruded. Sunday, he found an even better use for his tongue, making the rare Hall of Fame speech that unearthed new stories and bared raw emotions.
On a steamy afternoon in Cooperstown, Blyleven entered baseball's Hall with grace and humor, speaking directly to his 85-year-old mother, trading pitching secrets with his idol, and telling rarely heard anecdotes about his adventures as a 19-year-old big-league rookie.
"Mommy, I love you," he said to Jenny Blyleven, as his mother, sitting in the front row, nodded and mouthed something back to him.
"I know a lot of you are probably waiting for me to do something silly or stupid," he said near the end of his speech. "Well, not today, but another day for sure. No hotfoots, and no mooning. ...
"You are all hereby circled."
To younger baseball fans, Blyleven is more identifiable as the Twins broadcaster who circles fans with a telestrator than as the pitcher who once screwed hitters into the ground with his curve. Blyleven, 60, cradled his Hall of Fame plaque, then took the crowd back to the formative moments in a career marked by determination and durability.
"I was like Forrest Gump," he said. "Forrest ran. I threw."
Blyleven was playing for the Evansville Triplets, on a road trip to Tulsa. It was June 1, 1970, and his Class AAA manager called him into his hotel room and handed him a telegram.
"It said, 'To Bert Blyleven, welcome to the Major Leagues, report to Mr. Rigney immediately in Boston,'" Blyleven said.
Blyleven flew to Boston to meet the Twins. He made it to the team hotel by about 1:30 a.m., and, taking the telegram literally, knocked on the hotel door of Twins manager Bill Rigney.
Rigney was surprised, then saw a chance to haze a rookie. "He got a rooming list of all the players on the team," Blyleven said. "He said, 'I want you to go to all of your teammates and tell them that you're here.'"
Blyleven knocked on all the doors, then reported back to Rigney by 3:30 a.m. The manager asked if Blyleven had met all of his teammates. Blyleven said, "I tried." Rigney asked for an explanation.
"I said, 'I tried, but nobody was in,'" Blyleven said. "I made my manager a lot of money that night. I didn't make good friends."
Blyleven made his first big-league start, and appearance, on June 5, 1970, facing the Washington Senators. He imitated the routines of veteran teammates Jim Kaat and Jim Perry, and rushed to the dugout before the game. Rigney repeatedly asked him whether he was nervous, then finally said, "Listen, Bert, I don't know how you did it in high school, and I don't know how you did it in the minors, but up here in the majors we try to wear our athletic supporters on the inside."
Blyleven fixed his uniform, and allowed a home run to Lee Maye, the first batter he faced. Rigney marched to the mound.
"I'm thinking, 'On the back of my bubblegum cards it's gonna say, Bert Blyleven, 0-1, and an ERA of infinity,'" Blyleven said. "I thought he was coming to take me out. But he left me in, and he said something to me that I'll never forget. He said, 'Son, that's not the last home run you'll give up.'
"The man was a genius. Over 22 years, I gave up only 429 more."
Blyleven earned the first of 287 victories that day, then called his father, a big fan of Senators slugger Frank Howard. "Finally, he asked me, 'Well, son,' in his Dutch accent, 'How did Frank Howard do against you?'" Blyleven said. "I said, 'Dad, he went 0-for-3 and I struck him out once.' ...Dad? Dad? He hung up on me.'"
Blyleven's father, Joe, died in 2004. "It was a great honor for me to have my mother here today," Blyleven said after the ceremony. "She's 85. You don't know how many plane rides she can take."
After the speech was over, Blyleven cursed a few times, just for fun. He once cursed over the air on a live Twins pregame show, so early in his speech on Sunday he looked at a bank of cameras and asked, with a grin, "Are we live?"
On stage after his speech, Blyleven traded congratulations with his fellow inductees, Roberto Alomar and Pat Gillick, and notes with Sandy Koufax, whom Blyleven idolized and emulated while growing up in Southern California. "I told him he helped mentor me, and that I appreciate that," Blyleven said. "He said, 'No, you did it yourself.' I said, 'Yeah, but you helped me.' So we argued up there."
Combative throughout his career, Blyleven beamed throughout his speech.
Later, in a less formal setting, someone asked him about sticking his tongue out when he pitched.
"I got it from Babe Ruth, and Michael Jordan got it from me," Blyleven said.
He may have been joking, but Sunday afternoon, for the first time, he was joking about three Hall of Famers.
Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m. to noon and weekdays at 2:40 p.m. on 1500ESPN. His Twitter name is Souhanstrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com
On a steamy afternoon in Cooperstown, Blyleven entered baseball's Hall with grace and humor, speaking directly to his 85-year-old mother, trading pitching secrets with his idol, and telling rarely heard anecdotes about his adventures as a 19-year-old big-league rookie.
"Mommy, I love you," he said to Jenny Blyleven, as his mother, sitting in the front row, nodded and mouthed something back to him.
"I know a lot of you are probably waiting for me to do something silly or stupid," he said near the end of his speech. "Well, not today, but another day for sure. No hotfoots, and no mooning. ...
"You are all hereby circled."
To younger baseball fans, Blyleven is more identifiable as the Twins broadcaster who circles fans with a telestrator than as the pitcher who once screwed hitters into the ground with his curve. Blyleven, 60, cradled his Hall of Fame plaque, then took the crowd back to the formative moments in a career marked by determination and durability.
"I was like Forrest Gump," he said. "Forrest ran. I threw."
Blyleven was playing for the Evansville Triplets, on a road trip to Tulsa. It was June 1, 1970, and his Class AAA manager called him into his hotel room and handed him a telegram.
"It said, 'To Bert Blyleven, welcome to the Major Leagues, report to Mr. Rigney immediately in Boston,'" Blyleven said.
Blyleven flew to Boston to meet the Twins. He made it to the team hotel by about 1:30 a.m., and, taking the telegram literally, knocked on the hotel door of Twins manager Bill Rigney.
Rigney was surprised, then saw a chance to haze a rookie. "He got a rooming list of all the players on the team," Blyleven said. "He said, 'I want you to go to all of your teammates and tell them that you're here.'"
Blyleven knocked on all the doors, then reported back to Rigney by 3:30 a.m. The manager asked if Blyleven had met all of his teammates. Blyleven said, "I tried." Rigney asked for an explanation.
"I said, 'I tried, but nobody was in,'" Blyleven said. "I made my manager a lot of money that night. I didn't make good friends."
Blyleven made his first big-league start, and appearance, on June 5, 1970, facing the Washington Senators. He imitated the routines of veteran teammates Jim Kaat and Jim Perry, and rushed to the dugout before the game. Rigney repeatedly asked him whether he was nervous, then finally said, "Listen, Bert, I don't know how you did it in high school, and I don't know how you did it in the minors, but up here in the majors we try to wear our athletic supporters on the inside."
Blyleven fixed his uniform, and allowed a home run to Lee Maye, the first batter he faced. Rigney marched to the mound.
"I'm thinking, 'On the back of my bubblegum cards it's gonna say, Bert Blyleven, 0-1, and an ERA of infinity,'" Blyleven said. "I thought he was coming to take me out. But he left me in, and he said something to me that I'll never forget. He said, 'Son, that's not the last home run you'll give up.'
"The man was a genius. Over 22 years, I gave up only 429 more."
Blyleven earned the first of 287 victories that day, then called his father, a big fan of Senators slugger Frank Howard. "Finally, he asked me, 'Well, son,' in his Dutch accent, 'How did Frank Howard do against you?'" Blyleven said. "I said, 'Dad, he went 0-for-3 and I struck him out once.' ...Dad? Dad? He hung up on me.'"
Blyleven's father, Joe, died in 2004. "It was a great honor for me to have my mother here today," Blyleven said after the ceremony. "She's 85. You don't know how many plane rides she can take."
After the speech was over, Blyleven cursed a few times, just for fun. He once cursed over the air on a live Twins pregame show, so early in his speech on Sunday he looked at a bank of cameras and asked, with a grin, "Are we live?"
On stage after his speech, Blyleven traded congratulations with his fellow inductees, Roberto Alomar and Pat Gillick, and notes with Sandy Koufax, whom Blyleven idolized and emulated while growing up in Southern California. "I told him he helped mentor me, and that I appreciate that," Blyleven said. "He said, 'No, you did it yourself.' I said, 'Yeah, but you helped me.' So we argued up there."
Combative throughout his career, Blyleven beamed throughout his speech.
Later, in a less formal setting, someone asked him about sticking his tongue out when he pitched.
"I got it from Babe Ruth, and Michael Jordan got it from me," Blyleven said.
He may have been joking, but Sunday afternoon, for the first time, he was joking about three Hall of Famers.
Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m. to noon and weekdays at 2:40 p.m. on 1500ESPN. His Twitter name is Souhanstrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com
Many say Bert Blyleven had the best curveball of his time, and one of the best ever. A legendary voice on the radio taught the future TV personality how to "drop it off the table."
Bert Blyleven is a television man now, but he might owe his Hall of Fame career to the radio. That's how his father came to love the Dodgers, listening to Vin Scully describe legendary curveball artist Sandy Koufax. And how a young Blyleven dreamed about throwing a Koufax-like curve -- but not before his arm was ready.
"My dad heard Scully interview Koufax one time," Blyleven said. "Sandy said, 'If I ever have a son, I wouldn't let him throw a curveball until he was about 13 or 14 years old.'"
An arthritic left elbow ended Koufax's own Hall of Fame career at age 30, so this advice stuck in Joe Blyleven's mind, as his wiry son began taking to baseball. Bert Blyleven didn't throw the pitch that punched his ticket to Cooperstown -- didn't even tinker with it -- until he was 13.
"I didn't want my dad to knock my head off, " Blyleven said. "He straightened bumpers for a living."
Joe Blyleven had moved the family from the Netherlands to Canada when Bert was 2, before landing in Southern California a few years later. Soon, he turned a backyard horseshoe pit into a bullpen for his son. The younger Blyleven honed his meticulous control from a homemade mound, aiming at a strike zone on a canvas sheet.
When he was finally ready, nobody needed to teach Blyleven the curveball. Koufax and Scully took care of that.
"I used a lot of visualization the way that Vin Scully described Koufax's curve," Blyleven said. "I didn't think curveball, I tried to create that drop because that's the way Scully described it -- dropping off a table."
Blyleven said his curve didn't really develop until sometime between his sophomore and junior year at Santiago High School in Garden Grove, Calif. Scouts took notice, and the Twins made him their third-round pick in the 1969 draft.
By 1970, at age 19, he was in the majors. By 1992, his final season, he had 3,701 strikeouts, which ranks fifth all time.
"He had one of the top three or four curveballs in the history of the game," said Jim Fregosi, who played in the majors from 1961-1978 and managed for 15 more seasons before becoming a scout. "Camilo Pasqual's on that list, too."
Pasqual led the American League in strikeouts from 1961 to 1963 while pitching for the Twins. It's been said that Pasqual had the best curveball of his time, passing the baton to Koufax, who passed it to Blyleven. Nolan Ryan also had a tremendous curve, but what set Blyleven's apart?
"The wonderful rotation, and the quickness of the break," said White Sox broadcaster Steve Stone, who won the 1980 Cy Young Award for Baltimore. "His curveball spun better than most of his contemporaries'. The break was very sharp. He was pretty tough to read, and he had pretty good pitches to go with it. You throw 60 [career] shutouts, it's not going to be all curveballs."
Blyleven actually was a two-pitch pitcher for most of his career, relying on fastballs and curves. Of course, there were variations of each. He threw what he called a "strike one curve" in any count and a "strikeout curve" that dived for the dirt, designed to get a swing and a miss.
Over time, he learned to alter his arm angle slightly for more variety and throw his curve at different velocities. A big key to his deception was using the same arm speed for every pitch. The curve's magic was all in the grip.
"With his hands and wrist, he could throw that thing without any seams, and it would curve," former Cleveland manager Pat Corrales once told Sports Illustrated.
When Blyleven pitched for the Indians, Hall of Famer Bob Feller asked how he gripped his curve. Blyleven showed him the unique way he held two fingers across the seams, and the way he tucked his thumb underneath the ball for extra torque.
Feller told him he did the same thing, saying the only other pitcher he'd met who'd gripped his curve that way was Koufax.
Blyleven has met Koufax only one time, a brief encounter at a charity event. They shook hands and Blyleven remembers how long Koufax's fingers seemed, confirming what he'd always heard.
"I've never talked to Sandy about the curveball," Blyleven said. "Hopefully, I'll get a chance in Cooperstown."
(click here for video of Bert's interview if you have trouble viewing above)
2:26 PM, Jul 20, 2011 |
GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. -- It's the big countdown for former Major League pitcher Bert Blyleven. After 14 tries, Blyleven finally got the call to Baseball's Hall of Fame and will be inducted this Sunday, July 24.
Blyleven pitched 22 seasons in Major League Baseball. Nine of those seasons were with the Twins. He won two World Series Championships, one with Pittsburgh in 1979, the other with the Twins in 1987. His overall numbers are impressive - 287 wins, 242 complete games, 60 shutouts and 3701 strikeouts. Yes, he gave up 430 home runs, but he was a workhorse and a winner.
When you think of Blyleven, you think devastating curveball. He developed the pitch on a mound his father built in the backyard of their California home. It's a pitch his idol, Dodgers star Sandy Koufax was famous for, and it's one Blyleven wanted to throw at an early age. But, as he told me recently, it wasn't up to him as to when he could start throwing that pitch.
"My dad did not allow me to throw a curveball until I was about 14 years old because he heard an interview with Vin Scully and Sandy Koufax. Of course, Koufax has an arthritic elbow that shortened his career. And he said, 'if I ever had a son I would not let him throw a curveball until he was about 14.' My dad heard that. My dad's Dutch, he's a stubborn, big and strong and when he told me I couldn't, I didn't," explained Blyleven.
Blyleven's father was a big influence in his life, and it's why Blyleven was so upset in not making the Baseball Hall of Fame when he became eligible in 1998 despite deserving statistics. Blyleven's father was diagnosed with Parkinson's and he knew his time was short. He wanted his dad to be in Cooperstown for his induction, but each year passed without a call to the hall.
"I got frustrated, yeah I did. I got angry. I remember one time saying take me off the damn ballot. If you're going to play games with me, I'm not a game type guy, okay. You're either in or you're out. And I knew I should be in. Well now it's there. My pops will be there. It's rewarding but it's something I felt it should have come many years before," Blyleven said.
Blyleven's father passed away in 2004. Blyleven honors his father's memory and life by being an advocate for Parkinson's disease. In May, he and his wife Gail took part in a Parkinson's fundraiser in Minnesota. lyleven says his dad will be with him in spirit this weekend.
And his mother? Well, she'll be with him in person.
"Who I really want the moment to be for is my mother. She's 85 years old, she's coming all the way from California. My wife and I stayed at Otesaga Hotel overlooking the beautiful lake, the 8- mile-lake, 8-mile-wide lake right there in Cooperstown. There are rocking chairs at the hotel in the back, and I want my mother to sit in those rocking chairs, and I want to sit right next to her and hold her hand and just reminisce a little bit about my pops. Again, he'll be there watching, watching over us," Blyleven said with a smile.
Twins fans love Blyleven. His humorous, unfiltered approach to broadcasting Twins games is refreshing. It has also got him into trouble more than once. For instance, when he swore on the air. But he bounced back from that mistake and told me it may be part of his Hall of Fame speech on Sunday.
"My first line, as Twins fans will know, I'll say 'Are we live?'" Blyeleven said while laughing.
Blyleven will write his speech himself, and more than anything else, he said he will just be himself.
"I'll try to, hopefully, keep the humor there because I think everybody expects me to be me, you know. No hot foots, unless they give me some, hopefully it will be short, quick, and I'll be able to thank the people who really mentored me from my parents to sisters, my brothers to my kids, to everybody who's meant so much to me to the point where I'm at right now," Blyleven said.
(Copyright 2011 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
Mpls Strib: Bert was a TC kind of guy
Greek and Shakespearean dramas are divided into five elements, and so, too, was the pitch that proved tragic for so many American League hitters.
Bert Blyleven's curveball and career followed the structure of the world's most famous plays: introduction, rising action, climax, falling action and resolution. What might have been the most pronounced curve in baseball history mimicked Blyleven's strange and roundabout career journey with the Minnesota Twins, the team whose hat he will wear upon induction into baseball's Hall of Fame on July 24.
Blyleven's history with the Twins is anything but linear. The team traded him twice to avoid meeting his salary demands. He left once while waving a one-finger farewell and left again in the wake of a World Series championship. He attempted a comeback at Twins spring training in 1993 and returned to become a broadcaster famous for the ultimate curve, a circle he draws with a telestrator around fans begging his attention.
The Dutchman's career arc in Minnesota proved as circuitous as ol' Uncle Charlie.
"I'm going into the Hall of Fame as a Twin, no question about that," Blyleven said. "Of course, there were ups and downs.
"It's really pretty cool. I'm lucky to be with this organization for as long as I have been here, and I have a great relationship with the people here."
Blyleven offered that smile that followed so many complete games and successful pranks and said, "I can definitely say it's been interesting."
• • •
The Twins chose Blyleven in the third round of the 1969 draft. They offered him $5,000 plus a promise to pay for his college education. Blyleven's father sent them away, saying, "He doesn't want to go to school. He wants to pitch. Come back with more money."
The Twins did, signing Blyleven the next day for $15,000. He broke into the big leagues in 1970 and began compiling the strikeouts and victories that would lead to the Hall of Fame but not always earn him raises.
"Not many people can say they were teammates of Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett," Twins President Dave St. Peter said. "Bert can."
Blyleven is also the rare player traded by both Andy MacPhail and Calvin Griffith.
Twins players of the '70s considered Griffith a one-man recession.
"In 1976, I played for 20 percent less than I made in '75," Blyleven said. "The media said I was greedy. Well, they gave me a 20 percent cut and never talked to me about negotiations.
"As it got close to the trading deadline, I was pitching a ballgame against the Angels, and that afternoon, someone told me I was going to be traded to the Texas Rangers after the game, myself and Danny Thompson, my roommate at the time.
"I was kind of in shock. I was going after my 100th win. I said, 'Why don't you just make the trade, then?' They said, 'Well, you're going after your 100th win. We want you to pitch tonight. Calvin wants to see you get your 100th win here.'"
Blyleven pitched nine innings and took the loss. He remembers trudging off the field after his last pitch.
"From about the fifth inning on, there were some drunk guys behind our dugout and they were screaming, 'Bye, bye, Bertie,'" Blyleven said. "Because the media was saying I was this greedy guy that wants millions of dollars. I'm making $54,000, so, of course, I want a million.
"It just hit me coming off that field that I'm not wearing a Twins uniform after this last out, and it pissed me off. So I hear them and I saw them and I did the ol' one-finger salute to them, and I felt bad about it, but I did it.
"It was just frustrating, and I'm a very competitive person."
Blyleven was indeed traded that night, to the Rangers.
"The Rangers owner, Brad Corbett, called me and gave me a three-year guaranteed contract and a Mercedes," he said. "I went from making $54,000 to making $150,000 overnight. It was pretty nice. At the time, guys were starting to get better contracts, but Calvin didn't want to give me or Danny Thompson a contract."
• • •
Clark Griffith, Calvin's son, is a Minneapolis attorney and businessman who closely follows the Twins.
"I was dismayed by Bert's departures from our organization," Griffith said. "I loved watching the guy pitch, and he had great stuff, but such was life in the big leagues in the '70s.
"It was an unsettled time for the business in the late '70s. People were still figuring out how to play and manage the game. Blyleven was a great talent. We thought we could improve the team by letting him go, and that turned out to be not necessarily true.
"Even though we traded him, there was always an allure to having him back. He's the kind of player you have on a championship team. I hated to see him pitch for Pittsburgh, for God's sake."
Blyleven pitched for five teams, winning World Series titles in 1979 with Pittsburgh and in 1987 with the Twins.
"That was life in the big leagues," said former Twin Jerry Terrell, who played with Blyleven in the '70s. "Mr. Griffith was not an easy man to play for. My first three years combined, I made less than a high school teacher at that time. The only reason I got a raise is that the minimum salary went up a couple of thousand dollars.Blyleven's history with the Twins is anything but linear. The team traded him twice to avoid meeting his salary demands. He left once while waving a one-finger farewell and left again in the wake of a World Series championship. He attempted a comeback at Twins spring training in 1993 and returned to become a broadcaster famous for the ultimate curve, a circle he draws with a telestrator around fans begging his attention.
The Dutchman's career arc in Minnesota proved as circuitous as ol' Uncle Charlie.
"I'm going into the Hall of Fame as a Twin, no question about that," Blyleven said. "Of course, there were ups and downs.
"It's really pretty cool. I'm lucky to be with this organization for as long as I have been here, and I have a great relationship with the people here."
Blyleven offered that smile that followed so many complete games and successful pranks and said, "I can definitely say it's been interesting."
• • •
The Twins chose Blyleven in the third round of the 1969 draft. They offered him $5,000 plus a promise to pay for his college education. Blyleven's father sent them away, saying, "He doesn't want to go to school. He wants to pitch. Come back with more money."
The Twins did, signing Blyleven the next day for $15,000. He broke into the big leagues in 1970 and began compiling the strikeouts and victories that would lead to the Hall of Fame but not always earn him raises.
"Not many people can say they were teammates of Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett," Twins President Dave St. Peter said. "Bert can."
Blyleven is also the rare player traded by both Andy MacPhail and Calvin Griffith.
Twins players of the '70s considered Griffith a one-man recession.
"In 1976, I played for 20 percent less than I made in '75," Blyleven said. "The media said I was greedy. Well, they gave me a 20 percent cut and never talked to me about negotiations.
"As it got close to the trading deadline, I was pitching a ballgame against the Angels, and that afternoon, someone told me I was going to be traded to the Texas Rangers after the game, myself and Danny Thompson, my roommate at the time.
"I was kind of in shock. I was going after my 100th win. I said, 'Why don't you just make the trade, then?' They said, 'Well, you're going after your 100th win. We want you to pitch tonight. Calvin wants to see you get your 100th win here.'"
Blyleven pitched nine innings and took the loss. He remembers trudging off the field after his last pitch.
"From about the fifth inning on, there were some drunk guys behind our dugout and they were screaming, 'Bye, bye, Bertie,'" Blyleven said. "Because the media was saying I was this greedy guy that wants millions of dollars. I'm making $54,000, so, of course, I want a million.
"It just hit me coming off that field that I'm not wearing a Twins uniform after this last out, and it pissed me off. So I hear them and I saw them and I did the ol' one-finger salute to them, and I felt bad about it, but I did it.
"It was just frustrating, and I'm a very competitive person."
Blyleven was indeed traded that night, to the Rangers.
"The Rangers owner, Brad Corbett, called me and gave me a three-year guaranteed contract and a Mercedes," he said. "I went from making $54,000 to making $150,000 overnight. It was pretty nice. At the time, guys were starting to get better contracts, but Calvin didn't want to give me or Danny Thompson a contract."
• • •
Clark Griffith, Calvin's son, is a Minneapolis attorney and businessman who closely follows the Twins.
"I was dismayed by Bert's departures from our organization," Griffith said. "I loved watching the guy pitch, and he had great stuff, but such was life in the big leagues in the '70s.
"It was an unsettled time for the business in the late '70s. People were still figuring out how to play and manage the game. Blyleven was a great talent. We thought we could improve the team by letting him go, and that turned out to be not necessarily true.
"Even though we traded him, there was always an allure to having him back. He's the kind of player you have on a championship team. I hated to see him pitch for Pittsburgh, for God's sake."
Blyleven pitched for five teams, winning World Series titles in 1979 with Pittsburgh and in 1987 with the Twins.
"You know what's great? That Bert did come back, and when he did, he performed just as good as when he left. That shows you the class of that young man. I mean, old man, now. He was a professional and he loved the game, wherever he pitched."
Near the end of Blyleven's first stint with the Twins, he met Clark Griffith at the Plaza Hotel in New York.
"I told Clark I wanted to stay with the Twins," Blyleven said. "I wanted to be with one team my whole career. You wanted to be like Harmon Killebrew, although Harmon had to finish his career in Kansas City, which was sad to see.
"I said, 'Clark, your dad gave me a 20 percent cut.' Clark said he hadn't heard anything: 'Let me go see what I can do.' That was the last I heard until after I got traded.
"Listen, he's a good man. It's a good family. They had to do what they had to do."
When he pitched against the Twins, Blyleven liked to remind them what they had lost. The first time he returned to Minnesota with the Rangers, Blyleven beat the Twins with a two-hit shutout.
"Gene Mauch was the Twins manager," Blyleven said. "He was always in the dugout, but he decided to coach third that night. He was going to distract me. By the seventh inning, I was tipping my hat to the crowd as I'm shutting them down, and finally, by the seventh, Mauch said, 'I can't do anything with that guy, he's in his own little world.'"
• • •
Next Sunday, Blyleven will enter baseball's most exclusive universe. Despite his two departures, he began his career as a Twin, won a World Series as a Twin, made his last attempt to extend his career with the Twins, and will enter the Hall of Fame as a Twin.
"How many times, in a family, are there ups and downs, peaks and valleys, mood swings?" St. Peter said. "I think Bert and the Twins are a lot like that. I think, at the end of the day, Bert always felt like the Twins were his team, and our organization always viewed Bert as a Twin.
"You don't take it for granted, and the decision is now made by the Hall of Fame, but when you look at his body of work and what he means to our franchise, it's pretty easy to conclude that the TC logo is the one he should be wearing in Cooperstown."
WCCO/CBS: Twins retire #28
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) – Number 28 is getting 86′d in honor of one of the Minnesota Twins’ most respected players.
Bert Blyleven will be honored in a ceremony before Saturday’s game against the Kansas City Royals.
It’s only the seventh time the Twins have ever retired a number. The previous six were numbers 3, 29, 6, 14, 34 and 42, which respectively belonged to Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, Kirby Puckett and Jackie Robinson.
The ceremony will also include placement of special logos on the field along the foul lines and behind the pitchers’ mount, as well as ceremonial first pitch by George Mitterwald, who was Blyleven’s first catcher in the Major League.
The induction weekend is scheduled for July 22 through 25. Roberto Alomar and Pat Gillick are also being inducted this year.
