Bert Blyleven - 13 wins short?

If Bert Blyleven won 13 more games over his 22 year career, he'd be in Cooperstown already.

The man is #5 all time in career strikeouts.
He is #9 all time in career shutouts.

He got Cy Young votes in 1973 and 1989, so he did it over the long term.

Plus he had post season glory as well, clinching the 1979 pennant as well as a fantastic World Series saving 4 inning performance out of the bullpen in 1979 and winning 3 October games for the 1987 Twins.

With that resume, if he had 300 wins, he would have been in on the first ballot.
Instead with 287 wins, he's twisting in the wind every year.

1 more win a season would put him at 309 wins, tied for 19th all time.

This got me to thinking...
I wonder if I could find a hard luck loss and a hard luck no decision for each season.

Remember he played on some bad teams, including the 92 loss Indians team of 1983 or the 91 loss Twins team of 1986.

I am not including 1982 nor 1991, when Blyleven was hurt almost the entire season.

So the staff at Sully Baseball compiled a bunch of games that do not count in the win column for Blyleven... in other words



THESE ARE THE GAMES THAT ARE KEEPING BERT BLYLEVEN OUT OF THE HALL OF FAME



1970 with Twins:
LOSS - 7 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 7 Hits, 3 K's. Twins lose 2-1. June 10
NO DECISION -7 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 Hits, 9 K's. Twins win 2-1. July 1.


1971 with Twins
LOSS - 8 IP, 0 ER, 2 BB, 6 hits, 5, K's. Twins lose 1-0. May 2.
NO DECISION - 10 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 hits, 6 K's. Twins lose 2-0. September 1.

1972 with Twins

LOSS - 10 1/3 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB, 7 Hits, 9 K's. Twins lose 1-0 in 11 innings. September 27.
NO DECISION - 10 IP, 0 ER, 6 BB, 7 Hits, 10 K's. Twins lose 1-0 in 11 innings. July 8.

1973 with Twins

LOSS - 9 IP, 2 ER, 0 BB, 8 Hits, 8 K's.. Twins lose 2-1. April 14.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 1 ER, 4 BB, 11 Hits, 7 K's - Twins win 3-2 in 10. June 2.

1974 with Twins

LOSS - 8 1/3 IP, 0 ER, 1 BB, 7 Hits, 13 K's - Twins lose 1-0. April 20.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 1 ER, 5 BB, 6 Hits, 7 K's - Twins win 2-1 in 11. July 13.


1975 with Twins.

LOSS - 8 IP, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 Hits, 12 K's - Twins lose 4-1. April 20th.
NO DECISION - 10 IP, 3 ER, 5 BB, 8 hits, 7 K's - Twins lose 6-3 in 12. July 17.

1976 with Twins and Rangers

LOSS - 11 IP, 2 ER, 3 BB, 10 Hits, 10 K's - Rangers lose 3-2. June 5.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 Hits, 8 K's - Twins lose 2-1. April 9

1977 with Rangers

LOSS - 10 IP, 3 ER, 1 BB, 7 Hits, 7 K's - Rangers lose 3-2. June 4.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 1 ER, 3 BB, 5 Hits, 8 K's - Rangers win 3-2 in 10. April 11.


1978 with Pirates

LOSS - 8 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB, 7 Hits, 5 K's - Pirates lose 3-2. July 31
NO DECISION - 7 IP, 2 ER, 1 BB, 6 Hits, 6 K's - Pirates lose 3-2. May 25.

1979 with Pirates

LOSS - 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 BB, 7 Hits, 4 K's - Pirates lose 2-1. July 31.
NO DECISION - 8 IP, 2 ER, 3 BB, 2 Hits, 6 K's. Pirates lose 5-2. May 1


1980 with Pirates

LOSS - 7 IP, 2 ER, 5 BB, 6 Hits, 6 K's - Pirates lose 3-2. June 11.
NO DECISION - 10 IP, 4 ER, 1 BB, 9 Hits, 12 K's - Pirates win 5-4. July 6


1981 with Indians.

LOSS - 7 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB, 8 Hits, 2 K's. Indians lose 4-1. August 14.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 Hits, 4 K's - Indians lose 5-2 August 10th.


1983 with Indians.

LOSS - 7 IP, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 Hits, 4 K's - Indians lose 2-1. April 12.
NO DECISION - 8 IP, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 Hits, 9 K's. Indians win 2-1. June 7.


1984 with Indians.

LOSS - 9 IP, 4 ER, 2 BB, 6 Hits, 3 K's. - Indians lose 4-1. July 23.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 2 ER, 3 BB, 8 Hits, 7 K's. Indians lose 3-2. September 17.


1985 with Indians and Twins

LOSS - 8 IP, 1 ER, 2 BB, 5 Hits, 4 K's - Indians lose 1-0. July 19.
NO DECISION - 8 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 Hits, 6 K's - Twins lose 3-2. August 21.



1986 with Twins

LOSS - 9 IP, 2 ER, 0 BB, 9 Hits, 14 K's - Twins lose 2-1. September 24.
NO DECISION - 7 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 2 BB, 6 Hits, 6 K's - Twins lose 8-5. April 20.


1987 with Twins

LOSS - 8 IP, 3 ER, 3 BB, 9 Hits, 12 K's - Twins lose 4-2. July 26.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 1 ER, 4 BB, 6 Hits, 11 K's - Twins win 2-1. September 3.


1988 with Twins

LOSS - 8 IP, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 Hits, 5 K's - Twins lose 3-2. September 11.
NO DECISION - 7 IP, 2 ER, 2 BB, 5 Hits, 3 K's - Twins lose 6-3. April 13.


1989 with Angels

LOSS - 8 IP, 4 ER, 2 BB, 9 Hits, 5 K's - Angels lose 4-3. April 22.
NO DECISION - 9 IP, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 Hits, 9 K's - Angels lose 6-1. June 21.


1990 with Angels

LOSS - 6 1/3 IP, 3 ER, 1 BB, 9 Hits, 5 K's. - Angels lose 7-1. May 12.
NO DECISION - 6 IP, 1 ER, 1 BB, 4 Hits, 3 K's - Angels win 2-1. August 10.


1992 with Angels

LOSS - 9 IP, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 Hits, 2 K's. Angels lose 2-0. September 29.
NO DECISION - 6 1/3 IP, 2 ER, 0 BB, 6 Hits, 3 K's. Angels lose 4-3. June 6.



Right there are 42 games where he pitched well enough to win.
If you just take the 7 games where he pitched 10 or more innings for either a loss or a no decision, he'd be at 294.

And I didn't list EVERY hard luck loss.
Just one loss and one no decision for each year.

And I'm not saying he needed everyone of these games to bounce his way either.

If 1/3 of the games I had just listed went his way, he'd be over 300.
If the lineup got 2 more runs...
If the bullpen held onto a lead...
If a ball bounced this way instead of that for one out of every three of those games, he'd have 301 wins.

And he'd be in the Hall...
And I wouldn't have looked up all of those games.

Still not convinced Blyleven is a Hall of Famer?
Then don't you think the Hall of Fame would be a better place if it included a guy who wears a shirt like this...