Blyleven Falls Short in Hall Voting Again

Another year, and no Bert Blyleven in the Hall of Fame. I was mostly right in my post back in December, predicting that Jim Rice would get in and that Bert wouldn't. I thought Andre Dawson and Bert would make a bigger jump, but they didn't really. Ricky Henderson was elected, of course. No surprise there.

Well, since I have Jim Rice's autograph on a baseball (pictured), that increases my Hall of Fame collection by one. I was hoping Bert's autograph would increase it by two, but I'll have to wait.

One return in the mail today. Bill Davis signed his 1965 Topps rookie card for my collection.

I also ordered a new TV for the basement. A 40-inch Toshiba LCD. Now I need a new TV stand that matches the basement and can fit the TV and hopefully hold a bunch of games and dvds.

Veterans Committee Fails To Elect Anyone

Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat failed to get elected to the Hall of Fame today. In fact, so did everyone else. For the fourth straight time, the Veterans Committee failed to elect anyone into the Hall of Fame today from the post-1942 era. Too bad. Ron Santo? Luis Tiant? C'mon, these guys belong in there.

The committee did elect Joe Gordon from the pre-1943 category. Good for him. Not exactly a household name these days, but his stats are impressive.

I received a few successes in the mail today:

Al Rosen signed a really cool card from 1961 commemorating his MVP award in 1952. I have similar cards out to Dick Groat and Bobby Shantz.



Milt Pappas signed a 1960 Topps and 1960 Topps "Young Hill Stars".


Frank Kostro, former Minnesota Twin, signed his 1965 and 1969 Topps cards for me.


Today I mailed out a ball and 1976 Topps rookie card for a Dennis Eckersley signing later this month.

Will Bert Make the Hall of Fame This Year?

The annual article regarding Bert Blyleven's chances for making the Hall of Fame has been published. I consider this the official sign that winter has begun. That, combined with the 3-4 inches of snow that fell last night, has me ready to hibernate.

Although I don't think he'll make it this year, I think he will in the next couple of years. Last year, Jim Rice and Andre Dawson had higher vote percentages. I think Rice will get in this year, and maybe Dawson, but probably not Blyleven. He has four chances left to get voted in by the writers.

I think Bert should be in the Hall, unfortunately, he played for some really bad teams which prevented him from getting 300 wins, which is a guarantee to get elected.



Bert is also a great TV broadcaster, along with Dick Bremer. The two of them can make watching even a boring game more enjoyable. I especially enjoy listening to Bert complain that pitchers don't throw at batters enough these days, and complain that none of today's pitchers can throw a complete game.

I've gotten Bert's autograph in person on a few of occasions. Once at the Twin's Autograph Party in June of 2007, and twice at TwinsFest, in both 2007 and 2008. He is extremely nice in person and my sons really enjoyed meeting him.

Hopefully I'm wrong, and Bert gets elected this year. What do you think?

No returns in the mail today. I sent out another seven requests this morning, as well as a couple of cards to be signed by Tommy Davis at Bud's.