Career highlights

5th all-time with 3701 strikeouts
3rd all time in career strikeouts at time of retirement
2 World Series rings
2 All Stars
1 no hitter

Led his league in

Shutouts three times
Innings pitched twice
Games started, strikeouts and complete games once each

Number of the ten similar pitchers listed on his www.baseball-reference.com page in the Hall of Fame: 8

I changed gears this week and introduced the first starting pitcher to the series, going with former Twin, Ranger, Pirate, Indian, Twin, Angel Bert "Be Home" Blyleven. Owner of one of Chris Berman's better nicknames, and the best curveball of his generation.

Bert’s case is pretty straight forward. In the big leagues at age 19, Blyleven was consistently good for a long time, lasting until he had reached age 41, and 287 wins.

A 20-game winner just one time, Bert never overwhelmed anyone with statistics, being chosen as an All-Star only twice and never winning a Cy Young award. What he did do was pitch well consistently for a very long time, helping two teams win the World Series, and finishing his career behind only Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton in career strikeouts.

While I can forgive the average fan for not realizing Blyleven’s success level without some teaching, I can’t forgive the same on the part of Hall voters, who have left Bert 1/3 shy of the vote needed for election in his best showing thus far. If I know Blyleven had 60 shutouts, 3701 strikeouts, 242 complete games and a career ERA of 3.31 over 4970 innings pitched, wouldn’t you think every one of the baseball writers would know it too?

Evidently they do not. If they did, the vote total would surely be closer than it has been, wouldn't it? With his lack of "in your face" seasons, I could imagine Blyleven never being elected to the Hall, or at least being left in the hands of the Veterans Committee, but to be this far away from the votes needed just doesn’t seem right to me. The man has been retired for 13 years, and is 5th ever in strikeouts... after two guys passed him... still.

I compared Bert to a group of ten Hall of Fame starting pitchers, all of whom were active during his career. The group consists of Bob Gibson, Gaylord Perry, Catfish Hunter, Phil Niekro, Steve Carlton, Fergie Jenkins, Jim Palmer, Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan and Don Sutton. As with the other players I’ve examined, I wanted to see how Blyleven compared to his peers who are in the Hall on a per season basis.

W=wins, L=losses, CG= complete games, SHO=shutouts, HR= Home Runs Allowed, BB=Walks Allowed, K=strikeouts, ERA=Earned Run Average, S= seasons, 34 starts or 68 relief appearances=1 season

The things that stand out for me are the 20 full seasons pitched, the nearly three shutouts per season and the big edge Bert has over the group in both walks and strikeouts (including a nearly 3 to 1 K/BB ratio for his career). Ryan’s presence in the group undoubtedly helps Blyleven’s cause when it comes to bases on balls, but I find it quite surprising to see the gap in K’s, knowing that Ryan is accounted for.

Blyleven gave up a lot of home runs, but his worst seasons for that stat came in the Metrodome at a time when it was called the Homerdome for a reason. Considering he’s only one per season over the group, over a twenty year span, I don’t see that as a reason to vote against him.

The ERA is quite a bit higher than the group, but most of the other pitchers pitched a significant portion of their career in the National League, while nearly 75% of Blyleven’s career came in the American League during the DH era. I think the ERA gap matters, but again, it’s not high enough in my mind to make me vote no.

Blyleven does not have 300 wins, nor does he have a shelf full of trophies and awards that say "Best Of" on them. He does have outstanding total numbers over a career that spanned a full twenty seasons of major league pitching.

Does that make him a Hall of Famer? You tell me, in the fan forum.