Tour de Pain : At 40, Angels’ Blyleven Is Given Little Chance to Pitch Again After Major Surgery--but He Has Pedaled the Route Before

By the time his Angel teammates are stretching and sprinting on the outfield grass, Bert Blyleven often has already wheeled his 10-speed bike out of a tunnel of Anaheim Stadium and headed for the solitary workout of a pitcher on the mend.

No one on the Santa Ana River bike path ever seems to recognize the red-bearded, 40-year-old Blyleven on his afternoon rides. Behind the headphones and sunglasses, pedaling the 25 miles from Anaheim Stadium to the ocean and back, is a pitcher who is only 21 victories from 300 and only 10 strikeouts from third on baseball’s all-time list, behind Nolan Ryan and Steve Carlton.

Those milestones, once within reach, have receded like the landscape in a rear-view mirror.

Last year, the right shoulder that has endured the wear and tear of more than 4,800 innings and 20-plus seasons finally resisted.

This spring, on April 16, only 10 days after his 40th birthday, Blyleven underwent shoulder surgery for the second time in eight months.

Recognizing the difficulty of a comeback from surgery at 40, Blyleven and team orthopedist Dr. Lewis Yocum had chosen an arthroscopic procedure last October. But when Blyleven’s progress stalled during spring training, forcing him to stop throwing off a mound and return to merely playing catch, Yocum took another look. What he saw was an extensive tear in Blyleven’s rotator cuff, leaving no option but major reconstructive surgery.

With the second operation, the odds against him increased exponentially.

“Look back at how many pitchers have gotten back from rotator-cuff surgery, then at how many 40-year-olds,” Yocum said. “None I can think of.”

Blyleven was comeback player of the year in 1989 for winning 17 games with a 2.73 earned-run average for the Angels. He won 19 games for the Cleveland Indians in 1984 after undergoing elbow surgery in 1982. And he is intent on trying again.

“My feeling is, I’m going to make it,” Blyleven said. “Deep down, if I don’t, I want to have given it my best chance. But if I don’t, I’m very happy with my career.

“I never want to say, ‘What if I’d tried a little harder to make it back?’ I’ll be able to say I tried as hard as I can. It’s definitely the right thing.

“I’d like to win 300 games, pitch 5,000 innings and be third or maybe second on the all-time strikeout list. Those goals are still in the back of my mind. But if I cannot make it back, then I’ll go on with the rest of my life. Baseball has been very good to me.”

After this season, the Angels must either pick up Blyleven’s 1992 option for $2 million--with little indication as to whether he will ever pitch successfully again--or buy him out for $250,000.

Club President Richard Brown declines to comment on the decision. Blyleven says only that it “will be interesting.”

One possibility is that the Angels could buy him out with an understanding that they would later renegotiate with him.

“Hopefully, I can stay here,” Blyleven said. “That’s my ultimate goal, to retire here. I’m very optimistic I will be back. I don’t know under what terms.”

Blyleven’s dedication is about all that gives him a chance at returning.

“A lot of guys would have said, ‘I had a nice career,’ ” Yocum said. “Bert’s unique.”

Blyleven has immersed himself in the tedious process of rehabilitation, first trying to regain flexibility and now beginning to strengthen the weakened shoulder. Even playing catch is months away, and facing a batter is a distant vision.

Roger Williams, the team’s physical therapist, said Blyleven will not throw off a mound until he is able to throw from a distance of 150 to 180 feet without pain.

One of the few people who can understand what Blyleven is going through is Floyd Bannister, whose locker is next to Blyleven’s in the Angel clubhouse. Bannister, 36, is pitching with the Angels after a two-year comeback from surgery in 1989 to repair a torn rotator cuff. He was released by the Kansas City Royals, then pitched in Japan last season before hooking up with the Angels last winter.

One of the frustrations Bannister remembers is the setback that sometimes follows an illusion of progress. Blyleven was working well on one of his exercises recently, only to find out his success came because he was doing it incorrectly.

“He went from six to eight pounds (of weight) back to two,” Bannister said. “You think you’re making great strides, and then you find out you weren’t isolating the right muscle group. That’s a frustrating part.”

Bannister provides a sympathetic ear. He is also an inspiration, an example of the increasing number of pitchers who are able to come back from rotator-cuff surgery. Another, Blyleven noted, is Jose Guzman of the Texas Rangers, who pitched a two-hitter against the Angels recently after coming back from shoulder surgery.

Long the team prankster, Blyleven has been a subdued presence in the clubhouse this season. Crouching to the floor to set shoelaces on fire might hurt his shoulder.

“I have been quiet, and I can’t play as many practical jokes,” Blyleven said.

“The sad part is not being able to participate, especially with the season the Angels are having. I try to be part of the ballclub, but it’s not the same when you’re not producing, not performing. That hurts.

“Probably the thing I miss most is the camaraderie. I still have that when I’m here. But I’m not between the lines, and I’m a little left out. That’s understandable, really.”

Blyleven joined the Angels on the road for the first time on their last trip, the better to maintain his therapy with Williams.

Until now, he has been able to spend time with his family, watching his son Todd, a pitcher at Cypress College last season, play summer ball and enjoying a houseboat trip to Lake Mead that was the family’s first summer vacation in 21 years.

But for most of the season, he has been mentioned rarely in the clubhouse, or even in news reports, despite the struggle the Angels have gone through in trying to find someone to fill his spot in the rotation.

“Probably because everybody has written me off,” Blyleven said. “Probably a lot of people say, ‘He’s 40 and he’s pitched 20 years. How much more can he have left in his arm?’ Only I know. I think I have a lot left, but until I prove it. . . .”

While he nurses the shoulder, Blyleven runs the steps at Anaheim Stadium and rides the bike to try to maintain the conditioning and leg strength so critical to a pitcher’s longevity. After developing a slight paunch and playing at 220 pounds last season, he is down to 212 and on his way, he says, to 210 or 205.

Having regained flexibility, Blyleven is working to recover strength, particularly crucial because of weakness or “looseness” caused by the years of strain resulting from what some orthopedists call “the unnatural act” of pitching.

Much of the rehabilitation he is doing on his shoulder would be necessary merely to recover normal use, but pitching again is his vision.

“Sometimes when I pedal, I think, ‘OK, first inning,’ and I try to pedal hard,” Blyleven said. “Then I take a break. Then I say, ‘This is the second,’ and I really try to go hard. I look at a lot of things as I would pitching. You’re on 15 minutes, then off 15. I do a lot of things by innings.”

Even if Blyleven doesn’t reach the victory/strikeout milestones, he doubts that many more pitchers will, either.

With five-man rotations and limited pitch counts now the norm, there might not be many more pitchers who will throw as many innings in a season as Blyleven, who pitched a career-high 325 innings in 1973 and more than 250 eight times.

Blyleven also thinks that high baseball salaries will shorten careers.

“With the salary structure of today, you have to have a unique individual to have (the) desire to stay in the game a long time,” he said. “You’d like to see Dwight Gooden or Roger Clemens pitch 20 years, just to see the numbers. But with the salary structure, do you think they will?”

Yocum and Williams know the odds are against Blyleven, but they are impressed by the fervor with which he has attacked his rehabilitation.

“He’s a hard worker,” Williams said. “He wants to come back and wants to pitch again. He does everything I ask him to. That’s what he wants, to pitch again. If he were 25 and trying to come back, chances might be more in his favor, but I certainly will not say he’s not going to come back and pitch again.”

Blyleven is not ready to say it, either.

“I’ve had a good career,” he said. “To be saddened by anything that happened now, I won’t do that.”