Eleven years, you guys. Eleven. I have this same conversation with anyone who'll listen around this time every year. Why the hell isn't Bert Blyleven in the Hall of Fame? What kind of Hall of Fame excludes the best curveball ever?Now a tv color analyst for the Minnesota Twins, Blyleven is the best retired non-Hall of Famer out there. Hands down. He had 287 career victories, 60 shutouts -- amazing -- 3,701 strikeouts-- fifth all-time -- and ranks 13th with 4,970 innings pitched. All excellent stats which all happen to be the best numbers among the candidates.
In fact, there is only one pitcher in Cooperstown that ranks higher than Bert in the categories of wins, strikeouts, and shutouts. That would be Nolan Ryan.
So, he never won a Cy Young Award. He was only an All-Star twice. He pitched for 22 seasons. He gave up a crapload of homers. Yeah, yeah. Bert's a swell guy, so we can omit a lack of integrity and commitment to excellence that is considered in the voting process as reasoning for the BBWAA, whose opinions are the ones that matter most.
But, I suppose it's gonna be another tough one this year, what with going up against The Hawk for the seventh consecutive year (that was for you Debra). Other players for consideration include first-timer Tim Raines, who swiped over 70 bases six times in his career, Goose Gossage, who paved the way for closers everywhere, Jack Morris, who pitched a 10-inning shutout during Game 7 of the 1991 World Series and owns a .577 career winning percentage, eight-time All-Star Jim Rice, whose 100+ RBI seasons sit nicely with his 1978 MVP Award, Lee Smith, who was just passed in saves by Trevor Hoffman in 2006, and Mark McGwire, who sucks at life but had a mean, if not juiced, bat.
Inductees will be announced this Tuesday.
[Bert Belongs] | [The Hall of Very Good]
10 comments:
It's total B.S. that Bert's not in the Hall yet. Hopefully this will be his year!
It's mind-boggling, really.
Sooze, nice post on Bert. I do think considering the era he pitched, I think he deserves a shot as well. The problem is that the voters and experts keep comparing him to fireballers of today, which cannot be tangible just because the game is totally different than it was when Byleven pitched.
I'd use the same argument for Gossage (who should be a shoo in at this point), Rice and to a lesser extent, Andre Dawson.
If Bert wants in the HOF, these next few years will be his best chance. For some reason if his eligibility runs out with the writers, hopefully the players will let him in.
As a final note, Buck O'Neil should be put in automatically just for his contributions to the game and society and didn't live long enough to see it happen.
Ok, this is the longest post you'll ever see from me, but it's what about feel about two classy men.
Yep Maryland, the hawk goes in in my book.
How did Blyleven only make two All-Star games? While he was never the single best pitcher in the league, did voters really think he wasn't top ten? Were his low win totals really that significant?
Goose and Rice are in - and it's only going to get more difficult for Bert with Andrew Dawson remaining on the ballot and Rickey Henderson joining it in 2009.
Andrew=Andre
Bert for President.
If he misses again this year, he should be allowed to drop the f bomb in every telecast from here to eternity.
It's a damn shame really. And he's not alone. ALl these guys should be in..
-Blyleven
-Andre Dawson
-Dale Murphy
-Lee Smith
and yes....
-Mark McGwire
They're all getting hosed.
-Mad Love-
Well, Bert got robbed again. I was pulling for Rice, too, but I can justify him staying out, while Bert and Tim Raines are no doubters in my book.
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