They Had Their Man on Mound

Bert Blyleven made his 629th major league start Sunday, a day after Jim Abbott made his 21st. Sometimes you can’t send a boy to do a man’s job, even when the boy is one swell kid, and even when both of you earn a living playing a boy’s game.

Abbott is a wholesome nipper with fuzzy cheeks. Blyleven is a father of four with Van Gogh whiskers and a “U B UGLY” vanity license plate fastened to his locker. Abbott is Disney to Blyleven’s Touchstone. They ought to play on opposite sides in next week’s Father-Child game.

You should have heard--on second thought, better you shouldn’t--what Blyleven said he was doing in the Angel clubhouse Sunday when Jose Canseco and Dave Henderson came up to pinch-hit for the Oakland Athletics in the ninth inning of a one-run game, with Bryan Harvey on the hill, having replaced Blyleven an inning before. He used an expression you could publish only in magazines that Abbott is just barely old enough to buy.

Harvey struck out Canseco, struck out Henderson and saved a 4-3 victory for Blyleven, who hasn’t been beaten since May 20.

Like a dad finishing his son’s paper route, Blyleven got the job done for the Angels, ending their three-game losing streak. He was fast. He was efficient. He was without wasted motion.

“The thing I like about Bert is, he pitches quick,” left fielder Chili Davis said. “If I got a date, I want Bert on the mound.”

The day before, poor Jimmy Abbott was exhausted by the fourth inning, as were 53,000-plus fans. It took two hours to play those four innings. Blyleven buzzed through seven so fast on Sunday, Chili Davis could have taken a date to brunch . The whole game took only 2:37.

Of course, even old guys get tired.

Double B was too pooped to pop by the sixth inning. He doubted he had enough stuff left to spin one more curveball.

“He was out of gas,” Angel Manager Doug Rader said, “but (pitching coach) Marcel Lachemann, being the masochist that he is, told Bert he wanted one more inning’s work out of him.”

Sadist, Doug, not masochist. One more inning didn’t hurt Lachemann any.

Anyhow, Blyleven gave them the one more inning, and Oakland scored twice off him, and by the time the pitcher returned to the dugout, the manager knew it was time to pull him.

“I can tell you’ve had enough,” Rader told him.

“How?” Blyleven asked.

“Because you’re sticking your tongue out at me,” Rader said.

Even the nothing Blyleven had left was something. The man goes on and on. His 2.36 earned-run average leads all American League starters. Were it not for 10 no-decisions, a Cy Young award might be his. The Minnesota Twins--in town tonight to play the Angels--made a serious error letting him go. E-1.

“He’s our stopper,” designated hitter Claudell Washington said. “He did exactly what we expected him to do today.”

Blyleven doesn’t care to be anybody’s stopper, doesn’t even like the word much.

“My job is to be consistent,” he said. “I don’t try to be a savior, a stopper or anything like that. I don’t want to be the guy who stops losing streaks, any more than I want to be the guy who stops winning streaks.

“Some guys like it, but I can do without the pressure. I’d like to have four games left with a five-game lead.”

Blyleven, a businessman with a baseball in his hand, also is among the most playful of players, not just a loosey-goosey guy but one of the loosest of all geese. He is a guy who not only shaved off his beard last year in an attempt to change his luck, but talked about changing his name. He is a pitcher who will never get caught with a foreign object in his hand, except maybe a buzzer.

That’s why he particularly enjoyed Rader’s team meeting before Sunday’s game, which was convened to remind the Angels to relax, to remember to “play” baseball as well as to work baseball.

“We’re not fighting hunger out there,” Blyleven said. “We’re not going through divorces, or having family problems. We’re out here playing baseball. It’s not life or death. Sometimes when you lose it’s fun.”

Sometimes when you lose it’s fun. At last, somebody in professional sports with a healthy attitude.

OK, so if the Angels had lost Sunday’s game, and been swept by the A’s, and fallen three games behind in the standings, and suffered a terrible blow to their pennant chances, that might not have been fun. Not every loss is fun.

Still, when the teams on the field have the two best records in the majors, and the tying run is on third base, and it’s the ninth inning, and Jose Canseco is in the batter’s box, even the losing side can appreciate the fact that, hey, it was a hell of a good ballgame.

“Hey, it’s an honor just to put on this uniform,” Blyleven said.

Hey, it’s an honor just to hear somebody say such a thing.