After 14 years of lobbying by Rich Lederer and others from the SABR community, Bert Blyleven finally was voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The results of the 2010 ballot were announced on Wednesday and the former right-handed pitcher received 463 votes, 27 more than required. It was his second to last time on the ballot. He will be joined by 12-time all star and10-time Gold Glove winner Roberto Alomar, who received 523 votes. They will be officially inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York on July 24.
The 59-year-old Blyleven, who served as pitching coach for the Dutch National Team during the 2009 World Baseball Classic and who is currently working as broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins, spent 22 seasons in the big leagues. He had a MLB record of 287-250 with a career ERA of 3.31 between 1970 and 1992. He won World Series titles with the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Twins. He also played for the Cleveland Indians, California Angels and Texas Rangers. He is still in fifth place all-time with 3,701 strikeouts and in ninth with 60 shutouts. He is going to be the first Dutch born Hall of Famer.
Complete Results of the 2010 Voting:
Roberto Alomar 523 (90.0%), Bert Blyleven 463 (79.7%), Barry Larkin 361 (62.1%), Jack Morris 311 (53.5%), Lee Smith 263 (45.3%), Jeff Bagwell 242 (41.7%), Tim Raines 218 (37.5%), Edgar Martinez 191 (32.9%), Alan Trammell 141 (24.3%), Larry Walker 118 (20.3%), Mark McGwire 115 (19.8%), Fred McGriff 104 (17.9%), Dave Parker 89 (15.3%), Don Mattingly 79 (13.6%), Dale Murphy 73 (12.6%), Rafael Palmeiro 64 (11.0%), Juan Gonzalez 30 (5.2%), Harold Baines 28 (4.8%), John Franco 27 (4.6%), Kevin Brown 12 (2.1%), Tino Martinez 6 (1.0%), Marquis Grissom 4 (0.7%), Al Leiter 4 (0.7%), John Olerud 4 (0.7%), B.J. Surhoff 2 (0.3%), Bret Boone 1 (0.2%), Benito Santiago 1 (0.2%), Carlos Baerga 0, Lenny Harris 0, Bobby Higginson 0, Charles Johnson 0, Raul Mondesi 0, Kirk Rueter 0