Number 4—Circle Me Bert
Starting Pitcher Bert Blyleven
11 years with the Twins, 1970-1976, 1985-1988
3.28 ERA, 3.15 FIP, 55.7 fWAR, 49.4 bWAR
fWAR=Fangraphs WAR
bWAR=Baseball-Reference WAR
When Bert Blyleven was born in Zeist, Netherlands, in 1951, the Minnesota Twins were still the Washington Senators. Blyleven’s family moved to Canada three years later before eventually settling in California. It was at Santiago High School in Golden Grove that Blyleven was discovered by a Minnesota Twins scout. The team drafted him in the third round of the 1969 MLB June Amateur Draft.
One year later, after a couple dozen starts in the minor leagues, Blyleven was pitching for the Minnesota Twins. Despite being one of the best pitchers in baseball in the 1970s, Blyleven didn’t get the recognition he deserved. He only made one all-star team in the decade and only earned Cy Young votes one time during this stretch.
Those were the days before analytics, when a pitcher’s win-loss record had an outsized effect on how he was viewed. A typical Blyleven season would be 16-15 or 17-17 or 14-12. He won 287 games in his career, but only hit the 20-win mark once, when he was 20-17 in 1973. He was a terrific pitcher who regularly pitched for mediocre (or worse) teams, so his win-loss record didn’t do him justice.
In his first six seasons with the Twins, Blyleven averaged 16 wins and 14 losses, despite a 2.78 ERA that was 33 percent better than league average. According to Fangraphs WAR, only one pitcher, Tom Seaver, was more valuable than Blyleven in the 1970s. He provided more value than Gaylord Perry, Fergie Jenkins, Steve Carlton, Nolan Ryan and Jim Palmer, among many others. He belonged in the conversation with those guys, but was often left out.
Off the field, the relationship between Blyleven and the Twins started to go south in 1975. After losing a contentious salary arbitration, he missed time with an injury during the season. He came back strong and had another very good year, but was fed up with the Twins and asked to be traded. His request was denied that offseason.
In 1976, the team brought in Gene Mauch to manage and things got worse. Mauch didn’t like how outspoken Blyleven was and rode him hard. Off the field, the MLBPA had challenging the reserve clause, which had existed for over a century. Arbitrator Peter Seitz’ ruling in December meant free agency, so Blyleven was among a group of players who decided to play out their options to become free agents.
Trade rumors swirled around Blyleven during the first two months of the 1976 season. It all came to a head on May 31. After pitching the top of the ninth inning, he walked off the mound with the hometown fans booing and jeering him. He let loose with an obscene gesture that would result in a fine and a forced public apology. The Twins traded him away the next day in a six-player deal that included Roy Smalley and $250,000 coming back to the Minnesota. It was not a glorious end to his time with the Twins.
After one-and-a-half seasons with the Texas Rangers, he was part of an even bigger trade that included four teams. When the dust settled, Blyleven ended up in Pittsburgh where he would help the 1979 “We R Fam-A-Lee” Pirates win the World Series. He had one win in the NLCS against the Reds and another against the Baltimore Orioles in the Fall Classic. That was the highlight of his time with the Pirates. The following season in Pittsburgh was unpleasant for Blyleven, his teammates, his manager and the fans.
His next stop was in Cleveland, where he spent four full seasons and part of a fifth. In 1985, he was traded back to Minnesota. Splitting that season between the Tribe and the Twins, Blyleven led the league with 37 starts, 24 complete games, five shutouts and 293.7 innings. He was an all-star for the second time and finished third in AL Cy Young voting behind Bret Saberhagen and Ron Guidry.
Blyleven’s final two seasons with the Twins came in 1986 and 1987 and they were a mixed bag of impressive endurance and home run problems. He led the league in innings pitched in 1986, but allowed 50 dingers, which also led the league. He led the league in long balls allowed again in 1987, when 46 big flies sailed out of the park against him. Pitching in the Metrodome didn’t help. He allowed 56 of those 96 round-trippers at home.
Despite the frequent dingers, he was an above average pitcher and an important part of the 1987 World Series championship squad. The best starting pitcher on the 1987 Minnesota Twins was Frank Viola, but Bert Blyleven was a strong number two. The two hurlers averaged nearly 260 innings each and combined to throw 15 complete games. Blyleven won two of the four games the Twins won in their ALCS victory over the Detroit Tigers.
He followed that up with a victory in Game 2 of the World Series, then had another strong outing in the team’s Game 5 loss. They ended up winning the series in seven games for the first World Series title since the team moved from Washington to Minnesota in 1961.
Blyleven pitched one final season with the Twins in 1988, then three with the California Angels. He deserves his spot on this top five list for his success on the diamond as a member of the Minnesota Twins, but he also gets extra credit for being the team’s color commentator since 1996. He’s known for a brash style and unabashed fandom, which includes his signature, “Circle Me Bert” use of the telestrator to circle sign-holding fans.
Befitting one of the team’s all-time great players, Blyleven was elected to the Minnesota Twins Hall of Fame in 2002 and had his number 28 retired in 2011. When he made the Baseball Hall of Fame in his 14th year on the ballot in 2011, he chose to have a Twins cap on his Hall of Fame plaque.