Today we celebrate two more inductees into the MLB Hall of Fame. We welcome to the exclusive club the fifth all-time strike-out leader Bert Blyleven and the third all-time in games played at 2B Roberto Alomar.
Rik Aalbert Blyleven was born in the Netherlands raised in California. Blyleven was drafted in the 3rd round of the 1969 draft out of high school by the Minnesota Twins. He was called up in 1970 to the bigs and by 1973 he led the AL with 9 of his career 60 complete games. Bert was known for his curve ball which even Brooks Robinson said “made your knees buckle.” Blyleven played for several teams like upstart Texas in ’76, Pittsburgh where he won a World Series in ’79, Cleveland in ’85 where he passed the 3000 K mark and finally the Angels.
Roberto Alomar is the son of Sandy Alomar who I watched growing up as an Angel fan. It was almost a given this kid would be a great player especially when San Diego signed him at 17-years old and led the California League with a .346 batting average. In the majors in 1988 and immediately had the respect of not only his hitting but the defensive range he had. Alomar is a twelve-time Gold Glove winner, four-time Silver Slugger winner and ended his seventeen-year career with .300 batting average with over 2700 hits.
Well deserved are these selections.