Bert Deserves the Hall of Fame Vote

Dedicated to Bert 'Be Home' Blyleven and his legion of fans!

The first time I witnessed Bert Blyleven, the non-pitcher, the prankster in action was on TV when a local station.
In the segment, it showed Bert doing crazy things like giving "rookies the hot shoe" and making weird faces, and wearing goofy glasses. There has to be that type of player on every team. The guy that keeps thing loose, and makes everybody around him less tense. Personally, I think baseball sticks it's nose up to these type of players, and that isn't fair. It might be the reason that the snobby league has kept this great player out of the Hall of Fame.

How can you not like a guy that pranks Sid Hartman every chance he gets? When I worked for the Twins in 1998, I remember a time, hours before a game when Sid was sitting at homeplate, watching the Twins Take Batting practice in an empty, tomblike Metrodome. I was sitting the stands, awaiting my instructions for the evening with the rest of the fan accomodations crew, when we saw Bert sneaking down the stairs behind Sid.

He gave us the "shh" sign, and pulled out a lighter as he approached the old Star Trib Sports columnist. He had the funniest, evil grin on his face as he pulled out a whole pack of Black Cat Firecrackers, and lit a long fuse. Tossing the pack a few rows behind Sid, he dashed out up the stairs as the noise started. Sid jumped straight up in his seat, and all the Twins players stopped their activities cold, to see what was going on.

As soon as people saw Bert running, they all laughed. It was great.

Bert Should be in the Hall of Fame

• 287 wins - 24th on the All-Time list.
  
• 250 loses - 10th on the All-Time list.
  
• 4,970 innings pitched - 13th on the All-Time list.
  
• 3,701 strikeouts - 5th on the All-Time list.
  
• 685 career starts - 8th on the All-Time list.
  
• 242 Complete games - 90th on the All-Time list.
  
• 60 shutouts - 9th on the All-Time list.
  
• Did you know that Bert Blyleven won fifteen games by the score of 1-0? Did you know that only two other major league pitchers have won more 1-0 games and they are hall of famer Walter Johnson and hall of famer Christy Mathewson?
  
• Bert Blyleven won major league games before he turned twenty and he won major league games after he turned forty — a durability "club" that includes only Herb Pennock & Mike Morgan.