MLB Capsules - Overall: Blyleven and Alomar ready for HOF
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Bert Blyleven knows what took him to where he’s been and where he’s headed — his heritage.
"I’m Dutch, I’m stubborn. I think it’s the stubbornness, the consistency. You take the good with the bad," said the 60-year-old Blyleven, the first player born in the Netherlands to earn Major League Baseball’s highest honor, election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. "I came up at a young age. I retired at an old age. I was one of only three pitchers to win a game before their 20th (birthday) and after their 40th. It’s just loving a game that you felt that you could compete at the highest level."
Blyleven, who won 287 games in a 22-year major league career, will be inducted July 24 with infielder Roberto Alomar and front-office guru Pat Gillick.
"I’m going to be in awe," Blyleven said. "We all have dreams as kids. You don’t know where it’s going to head."
Also to be honored in a July 23 ceremony at Doubleday Field are: Dave Van Horne, longtime play-by-play man for the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins, who will be given the Ford C. Frick Award for major contributions to baseball broadcasting; Philadelphia Daily News sports writer and columnist Bill Conlin, winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for meritorious contributions to baseball writing; and Roland Hemond, who will receive the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.
The awards ceremony will feature a performance by singer/songwriter Terry Cashman, whose classic "Talkin’ Baseball (Willie, Mickey and The Duke)" released 30 years ago paid homage to the three great New York center fielders of the 1950s.
Though he lost 250 games, Blyleven threw 60 shutouts (ninth all time) and logged 242 complete games, finishing his career in 1992 with 3,701 strikeouts (fifth all time). He also made 685 starts (11th all time), pitched 4,969 1-3 innings (14th all time), and was 3-0 in League Championship Series play and 2-1 in World Series games.
His sojourn was longer than most.
Born in 1951 in Zeist, Netherlands, his parents, Joe and Jenny, moved the family to Canada two years later.
"My dad’s eventual goal was get to the United States, but it was hard back in the early 1950s," Blyleven said. "The Canadian government was looking for strong men to work on farms. Holland gave my parents $79 and we went to Canada."
The family stayed for four years before moving to Southern California, where Blyleven’s uncle had settled. The Blylevens lived in the Los Angeles suburb of Paramount, then moved to Garden Grove when he was in third grade.
"The friends that I started hanging out with played Little League. I didn’t know what it was," Blyleven recalled. "I started out as a catcher at about 10 years old. My manager I guess realized that I was throwing the ball back harder to the pitcher than he was throwing to me, so he said, ‘Would you like to pitch?’ And I said, ‘Sure.’ So I tried it and fell in love with it."
It wasn’t long before Joe Blyleven built a pitcher’s mound in the backyard, laying the foundation for his son’s Hall of Fame career.
Although he didn’t throw a curveball until he was 14 — "My dad understood that I shouldn’t throw a curve until I was a teenager and he was a big, strong man, so I listened." — Blyleven mastered the art better than most. And he did it through the art of visualization, watching and listening to broadcaster Vin Scully describe Dodgers star left-hander Sandy Koufax’s drop.
"I also learned that everything keys off my fastball," Blyleven said. "People talk about my curveball, but it was control of my fastball (that made me effective). And I learned that from sitting on a bench with (former Dodger great) Don Drysdale when I was very young — about pitching inside, pitching both sides of the plate and being a bulldog on the mound."
Drafted by Minnesota in the third round of the 1969 amateur draft, Blyleven became youngest pitcher in the majors when the Twins called him up June 2, 1970, after just 21 minor league starts.
"Really, when I signed I didn’t know how high I could go," Blyleven said. "I knew it was going to be a long road."
That long road included stops with the Texas Rangers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians and California Angels. Blyleven also had a second stint with the Twins beginning in 1985, and two years later he formed an imposing duo at the top of the rotation with lefty Frank Viola. The team scrapped its way to 85 wins and a World Series title, the second for Blyleven (he also was on the champion 1979 Pirates).
Despite his considerable accomplishments on the field, Blyleven, who’s also served 15 years as an analyst for the Twins, watched and waited for what must have seemed like a lifetime before he was selected. It took 14 tries for him to finally cross the 75 percent threshold, receiving votes on 79.7 percent of the ballots in the results released in January.
It was a long climb after receiving only 14.1 percent of the vote in 1999, his second year of eligibility, and the death of his dad in 2004 of Parkinson’s disease only heightened the hurt Blyleven felt.
"At first he was angry and he kind of vented, but after a while we got to where it was like a given," said Blyleven’s wife, Gayle. "So we’d tell the local people we were out of town and we weren’t.
"We didn’t want to hear about the disappointment. (In 2010) we were so surprised that he jumped so high we weren’t angry at all. It was amazing. It just shows you how the writers have your destiny and how hard it is (to get in)."
Alomar also had to bide his time, but for a very different reason and not nearly so long.
Born into a baseball family — Alomar’s father, Sandy, was an infielder who played 15 years in the major leagues and his older brother, Sandy Jr., forged a 20-year big-league career as a catcher — Alomar grew up in the presence of big leaguers. And instead of horsing around in the dugout as a kid, he absorbed everything he saw and heard at the ballpark.
That paid off when he signed in 1985 with the San Diego Padres as a 17-year-old. Three years later, on April 22, 1988, Alomar made his major league debut memorable when he singled off future Hall of Famer Nolan Ryan in his first at-bat in the majors.
Two years later, Alomar was an All-Star for the first time, and that’s when Gillick, general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, stepped in and made the signature trade of his standout career. Gillick sent Tony Fernandez and Fred McGriff to the Padres in exchange for Alomar and Joe Carter in a blockbuster deal in December 1990.
With the switch-hitting Alomar at the top of his game, the Blue Jays reached the ALCS the next season, then won consecutive World Series titles in 1992 and 1993.
Alomar spent five seasons in Toronto before finishing his career in stints with the Orioles, Indians, Mets, White Sox and Diamondbacks.
Alomar’s failure to become just the fourth second baseman — and 45th player — to be a first-ballot Hall of Famer was the result of a one blemish on a remarkable career.
Forget the 2,724 hits, 210 home runs, 1,134 RBIs, .300 career batting average, World Series titles, 12 All-Star appearances, and 10 Gold Gloves. A spray of saliva in a September 1996 game in Toronto’s SkyDome tarnished Alomar’s stellar reputation.
Called out on a third strike by umpire John Hirschbeck on a pitch that appeared to be outside, the two argued and Alomar was ejected. Before he left the plate, Alomar spit in Hirschbeck’s face and was suspended for five games. Alomar said at the time that he thought Hirschbeck was stressed because his 8-year-old son had died in 1993 of a rare brain disease.
Alomar worked to repair his image during the latter half of his career, which ended in 2004.
That the incident ended up as a sort of punishment from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America, which elects members to the Hall of Fame, is evident by Alomar’s vote totals: He was named on 90 percent of ballots cast on his second try, becoming just the 26th player to garner at least 90 percent in any election, and he was listed on 523 ballots, the third-highest total of all time.
Alomar and Hirschbeck have long since made peace, and Alomar, the third Puerto Rican to be elected, is focused on the task at hand.
"I feel like a kid, a kid that is dreaming of playing the game of baseball," Alomar said. "Now, I’m going to be standing beside the greatest players that ever played this game, and I cannot believe that I’m one of them. It’s been a long journey."
A look at those to be honored by Hall of Fame
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — A look at the honorees to be inducted Sunday into the Baseball Hall of Fame:
ROBERTO ALOMAR: Born: Feb. 5, 1968, in Ponce, Puerto Rico ... switch-hitting second baseman who in 17 major league seasons had 2,724 hits, 210 home runs, 1,134 RBIs, a .300 batting average and .984 fielding percentage ... third Puerto Rican-born player to be inducted into Hall of Fame ... played for the San Diego Padres (1988-90), Toronto Blue Jays (1991-95), Baltimore Orioles (1996-98), Cleveland Indians (1999-2001), New York Mets (2002-03), Chicago White Sox (2004), and Arizona Diamondbacks (2004) ... selected to play in 12 straight All-Star games ... won 10 Gold Gloves ... member of Toronto’s World Series championship teams in 1992 and 1993 and hit a combined .354 in four postseason series in those two championship seasons ... in 1999 batted .323 with 24 homers, 120 RBIs and 37 stolen bases for Cleveland and led the AL with 138 runs and 13 sacrifice flies, finishing third in MVP balloting ... in 2001, also with Cleveland, hit .336 with 20 homers, 100 RBIs and 30 steals ... first player to enter the Hall of Fame wearing a Blue Jays cap ... the 20th second baseman to be inducted into the Hall of Fame ... was named on 90 percent of ballots cast on his second try, becoming the 26th player to garner at least 90 percent in any election. Alomar was listed on 523 ballots, the third-highest total of all time.
RIK AALBERT BLYLEVEN: Born: April 6, 1951, in Zeist, Netherlands and raised in Southern California ... drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the third round of the 1969 amateur draft ... a two-time All-Star who won 287 games, threw 60 shutouts (ninth all-time) and logged 242 complete games, finishing his 22-year career in 1992 with 3,701 strikeouts (fifth all-time) ... became youngest pitcher in the majors when called up by the Twins on June 2, 1970 after just 21 minor league starts ... named AL rookie pitcher of the year by The Sporting News after notching 10 wins ... in 1973 won 20 games and pitched 325 innings ... after five years with 200-plus innings and 15 or more wins for the Twins, was traded to the Texas Rangers ... threw a no-hitter against California on Sept. 22, 1977 ... often considered to have the toughest curveball of his time, Blyleven threw two types, a roundhouse and overhand drop, gripping both like a fastball and using a balanced follow-through to get movement on the ball ... after the 1977 season was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in a four-team deal ... in 1979 helped the Pirates to the World Series title, going 1-0 with a 1.80 ERA in the series ... traded to Cleveland after the 1980 season ... elbow injury in 1982 limited him to only four starts ... went 19-7 in 1984 ... traded to Minnesota in 1985 and the following year established an AL record of eight seasons with 200 or more strikeouts ... in 1987 had his ninth season with 15 or more wins and helped lead the Twins to the World Series, posting two ALCS wins and another in the series ... in 1989 won comeback player of the year award, winning 17 games with a 2.73 ERA with California a year after losing 17 times with Minnesota.
PAT GILLICK: Born: Aug. 22, 1937 ... general manager of four major league teams, and guiding three to World Series championships, 1992 and 1993 titles with the Toronto Blue Jays and a 2008 title with the Philadelphia Phillies ... elected to the Hall of Fame in December by the expansion era committee ...attended USC, graduating in 1958 with a degree in business ... left-handed pitcher in college and spent five years in the minor league systems of the Baltimore Orioles and Pittsburgh Pirates, going as high as Triple A ... went 45-32 with a 3.42 ERA in 164 minor league games ... began front-office career in 1963 as assistant farm director with the Houston Astros and later director of scouting ... moved to the New York Yankees system in 1974 as coordinator of player development ... in 1976 moved to the expansion Blue Jays, becoming vice president of player personnel and later vice president of baseball operations ... became general manager the following year and won five division titles in that role (1985, 1989, 1991, 1992 and 1993) ... in 1995 was named general manager of the Baltimore Orioles and guided the team to the playoffs in 1996 and 1997 ... left at the conclusion of his three-year contract in 1998 and became GM of the Seattle Mariners, where he was responsible for trading Ken Griffey Jr. to Cincinnati ... helped guide Seattle to back-to-back playoff appearances in 2000 and 2001, the latter team finishing with a 116-46 record to tie the 1906 Chicago Cubs for the all-time major league record for most wins in a season ... in November 2005 was named Philadelphia Phillies’ general manager ... retired after the Phillies won the 2008 World Series championship.
Honorees to be feted on Saturday:
DAVE VAN HORNE: Born in Easton, Pa. ... recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually for major contributions to baseball broadcasting ... has spent 42 seasons calling play-by-play action for the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins .. began baseball career in 1966 with the Richmond Braves of the International League after briefly broadcasting basketball and football ... with partner Frank Soden announced Braves home games live but did away games by wire re-creation ... twice named Virginia sportscaster of the year ... began major league career in 1969 with Montreal ... known for his signature "Up, up and away" home run calls ... career highlights include calling Willie Mays’ 3,000th hit, Nolan Ryan passing Walter Johnson atop the career strikeout list, and Steve Carlton’s 4,000th strikeout ... after 32 years in Montreal joined the Marlins in 2001 as the team’s lead radio voice and was behind the mike for the team’s 2003 World Series title ... also called two perfect games, eight other no-hitters, and three other World Series and NLCS for a Canadian network ... called the final game in Expos’ history in 2004 as a member of the Marlins’ visiting broadcast team.
BILL CONLIN: Born in Philadelphia and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y. ... recipient of J.G. Taylor Spink Award, presented annually for meritorious contributions to baseball writing ... graduated from Temple University in 1961 and began his journalism career at Phildadelphia’s Evening Bulletin before moving to the Philadelphia Daily News in 1965 ... took over as the Phillies’ beat writer in 1966 and held that job for 21 seasons, also serving as NL columnist for The Sporting News ... in 1987 became a columnist for the Daily News, a position he still holds ... also has covered Wimbledon and the Olympics.
ROLAND HEMOND: Born Oct. 26, 1929 in Central Falls, R.I. ... recipient of Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award ... served as scouting director of the California Angels (1961-1970) ... was general manager of the Chicago White Sox (1970-85) and Baltimore Orioles (1988-95) ... also served as senior executive vice president of the Arizona Diamondbacks (1996-2000) and executive adviser to the general manager of the White Sox (2001-2007) ... in 2007 returned to the Diamondbacks as special assistant to the president ... three-time winner of Major League Baseball’s executive of the year award (1972, 1983, 1989) ... credited with the original idea for the Arizona Fall League, an off-season developmental league owned and operated by Major League Baseball ... also has served as president of the Association of Professional Baseball Players of America (APBPA), a nonprofit based in Southern California that provides anonymous financial assistance and college scholarships to current and former players, scouts, and others connected with any level of professional organized baseball.
