A Sea Of Red

Just was thinking about this today, not sure why. I've alway been against Bert B. going in the HOF but I looked at his numbers today and I'm having a change of heart. What do you other baseball fans think? You can check his stats at baseball reference.com.

Briefly: 60 career shutouts, over 280 wins, not a great win pct but he pitched for mediocre teams, 3000 plus strikeouts, great era's, much lower than the league average. I believe he was considered an ace for most staff's he pitched for. His numbers stack up well with Nolan Ryan and Don Sutton. I believe he was more dominant than Sutton, and I would rather Blyeven pitch the big game than Sutton. Sutton on had one 20 win season in an era where 20 wins was fairly common.

Notorious cheater who spent most of his career in what was a pitcher's era.

No thanks.

Sly Fox wrote:Notorious cheater who spent most of his career in what was a pitcher's era.

No thanks.

Care to back that up? So were many of the pitchers (allegedly) in that era. There's no telling how many pitchers have been juicing in this era, either. Heck, I bet 90% the media is on the juice, too. What are you going to do--keep them all out.

Blyleven compares very favorably to pitchers (such as Sutton and Niekro) who are in the HOF, except for the 300 wins. He probably could have held on a couple of years just to get the numbers but had the class to step down when he realized he was done.

Ask any MLBer of his generation. Bert's rep is extremely nasty as a cheater. I don't know it myself from firsthand knowledge. But I've heard from former teammates (who demand anonymity) that he cheated every way possible. As a result he's not particularly respected by most of his peers. Then again you probably don't want to hear about Mike Scott either.

Just thinkin of old Bert Blylevin today, eh. Welcome to the Old Hags family where most of us have no life.

bert "be home by leven"....i will pass too.

I was a big fan of Bert's as he helped my Twins to two World Series. I think most athletes are crooked somehow, but I don't really care if he were to go in or not.

Hey, if Gaylord Perry can be in the Hall why not Blyleven? Sure Perry won 314 games but he (almost) admitted to throwing spitballs his whole career. I mean, the guy wrote a book called "Me and the Spitter". So cheating doesn't seem to be a deterrent to entering the HOF as long as you don't bet on baseball.

Gaylord shouldn't be in either.

Years from now history may show that CLEMENS shouldn't be either.

A.G. wrote:Years from now history may show that CLEMENS shouldn't be either.

I don't think doctoring the ball is cheating if you get away with it. There are inherent risks that go along with it but if you can get away with it go ahead. Pitchers, especially prior to 1950, have always doctored the ball. In those days they didn't get a knew baseball every eight pitches or so. So by later in the game the balls were naturally scuffed up any way. Its much harder pitching today, with these slick new baseballs. Gaylord Perry was on Cold Pizza today talking about his "cheating." He actually tried to become a spokesperson for vaseline. I know players don't doctor the ball as much today, (cough, cough, Kenny Rogers), but like someone else said, it was all part of Blyleven's era.