Blyleven Is Back on His Game

Bert Blyleven of the California Angels has turned around a pitching career that seemed ready to fade to black last season when he lost an American League high 17 games.

Blyleven, getting a fresh start with the California Angels at age 38, is 11-2 with a 2.31 earned run average after pitching his 58th career shutout -- a 7-0, six-hit victory over the Seattle Mariners Wednesday night.

“I’ve been very fortunate to win a lot of ball games,” Blyleven said. “It’s just been consistency over the years. That’s all it takes.”

In his 20th major league season, Blyleven hasn’t lost since May 20. He’s 7-0 with six no decisions in his last 13 starts, including two shutouts. He has three shutouts for the season.

Blyleven was consistent in Minnesota last season -- consistently poor. He was 10-17 with a 5.43 ERA, the worst ERA of his career.

Blyleven said he was bothered all season by a sore right thumb. The Twins thought he was finished. He asked to be traded to the Angels and Minnesota accommodated him.

He signed a one-year, $1.1 million contract with California.

“I don’t really want to dwell on different years,” Blyleven said. “It’s a different year. I’m on a new ball club. I’m just thankful we’re in the race.”

On paper, the Angels weren’t supposed to even be close to the defending American League champion Oakland Athletics in the West this year. But the Angels woke up Thursday morning just a half game behind the Athletics after leading the division for 23 days before giving up first place with an 8-1 loss to the Mariners Tuesday night.

“We’ve got a good ballclub,” Blyleven said. “We’ve worked hard to get to where we are.”

Blyleven halted a three-game Angels losing skid. He says he enjoys the pressure of pitching in big games. He halted a five-game California losing streak when he beat Toronto 1-0 in the Sky Dome July 18.

The man who was born in Zeist, Holland, has pitched for Texas, Pittsburgh and Cleveland in addition to two stints in Minnesota in a big league career that began in 1970 when he was the AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year for the Twins as a teen-ager.

“I look at baseball as something I’m very fortunate to play,” he said. “I love the game very much. Not as Hank Aaron says nobody loves it any more. I really do love it. I play it because I couldn’t be a brain surgeon. Maybe I would have loved being a brain surgeon, too. But I didn’t get my high school diploma.”

Actually, Blyleven went to high school in Garden Grove, Calif., near Anaheim Stadium.

Last season obviously rankles him. Asked if he thought he should be considered for AL Comeback Player of the Year, he replied dryly, “I didn’t go anywhere.”

Then he said, “I think the Comeback Player of the Year should be someone who comes off of surgery or something like that. There was nothing wrong with me last year other than a couple physical things. Now, I’ve got proof that I’m OK.”

With the Angels and his career pointed in the right direction, Blyleven even can find humor in his sore thumb of last season.

“That’s the Dutch in me,” he said. “I just put the thumb in the wrong place.”