COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — 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 t
o 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 today with infielder Roberto Alomar and front-office guru Pat Gillick, who was GM for the Seattle Mariners from 1999-2003.
“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 honored in a ceremony held Saturday at Doubleday Field were: Dave Van Horne, longtime play-by-play man for the Montreal Expos and Florida Marlins, who was 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 received the Buck O’Neil Lifetime Achievement Award.
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.
Roberto Alomar signed with the San Diego Padres in 1985 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 finished his career with 2,724 hits, 210 home runs, 1,134 RBIs, a .300 career batting average, 12 All-Star appearances, and 10 Gold Gloves.
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