# Blyleven elected to Hall of Fame



## zogman (Mar 20, 2002)

Blyleven elected to Hall of Fame
Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven have been elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. 
By: Ben Walker, Associated Press

NEW YORK - Former Minnesota Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar have been elected to baseball's Hall of Fame.

Blyleven and Alomar were chosen today by the Baseball Writers' Association of America after narrow misses last year.

Blyleven was listed on more than 79 percent of the ballots, above the 75 percent required for election. He won 287 games and ranks fifth on the career strikeout list.

Alomar was picked on 90 percent of the ballots. He was a 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove winner at second base.

Sluggers Rafael Palmeiro, Jeff Bagwell and Mark McGwire all fell below the 50 percent mark.

The induction ceremony will be held on July 24 in Cooperstown.

Blyleven and Alomar both came within a few ballots in last year's election by the Baseball Writers' Association of America - no one who's come so close has ever been shut out for good.

Pat Gillick already is in the lineup for the induction ceremonies July 24 in Cooperstown, N.Y. The longtime executive was chosen last month by the Veterans Committee, and he enhanced his place with a trade for Alomar that helped bring World Series trophies to Toronto in 1992-93.

This was Blyleven's 14th time on the ballot. The curveballer was just five votes shy of selection last year and drew 74.2 percent.

Blyleven finished with 287 wins, 3,701 strikeouts, 60 shutouts and a pair of World Series rings. His numbers have gotten a boost in recent years by sabermetricians, who have found more modern ways to evaluate baseball statistics.

Blyleven's path toward the Hall has been a slow, steep one, having once drawn the backing of only 14.1 percent. He is trying to become the first pure starting pitching to get chosen by the BBWAA since Nolan Ryan in 1999


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## wurgs (Mar 3, 2008)

about time. his stats hold up against many others already in the hall and he did it playing for alot of bad teams


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## HUNTNFISHND (Mar 16, 2004)

wurgs said:


> about time. his stats hold up against many others already in the hall and he did it playing for alot of bad teams


Exactly! These writers baffle me at times, voting for somebody one year and then not the next? WTF? I think alot of them simply look at 2 or 3 stats and don't really analyze each player, the teams they were on, the other teams they were facing at the time, etc. Blyleven should have been in 10 years ago!


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## 9manfan (Oct 22, 2008)

Truely amazed it took this long for him to get in, if he would of played in NY, he would of been in along time ago, better late then never I guess, it still amazes me that he never had elbow troubles with his big bender he threw,,,,,


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## southdakbearfan (Oct 11, 2004)

That is the problem with the baseball writers voting for it. It should be done by the players peers, not the writers that will make stupid votes for people that played for the home town team and will end up with like 10 votes.


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## TK33 (Aug 12, 2008)

I have long been a proponent of a weighted voting system. Something like 80% of the vote is decided by active members of the hall, 10% by the media, and now it would be easy to go 10% to the fans. Under this system Bert would have been in long ago, along with guys like Ron Santo and Lou Whitaker.

Half of the baseball media knows very little about actually playing the game, the Blyleven vote is a case in point. All of the innings he pitched, all of the complete games he had, being the ace of the staff and going head to head with the opponent ace or #2, and the lack of run support he got during a good chunk of his career are things better understood by the guys who played in the MLB. When you think about strikeouts and wins, Blyleven's numbers would have been completely off the chart had he seen more run support. The wins are obvious but had he had more run support he could have been even more aggressive and tenacious with hitters.

Great to see him in, way overdue. One of the only good things to come from the steroid era, without the steroid scandal Bert never would have got in. Turn out Jose Canseco did do some good.


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