COUNTYWIDE : Blyleven Tells CHOC Kids to Keep Pitchin’

California Angels pitcher Bert Blyleven brightened the day for more than 60 children Wednesday when he visited them at Children’s Hospital of Orange County in Orange.

Blyleven, who was injured last year and sat out the 1991 season, comforted the children in the hematology/oncology ward and on the medical/surgical floors with stories of how his own ailments have been successfully cured.

“I had a muscle tear in my shoulder, but they fixed me all up, and I just took a year off,” Blyleven said after signing autographs and handing out Angel baseballs, calculators, carryalls and programs.

Asked by the children how he coped with being on the sidelines, Blyleven, whose first year in the Major Leagues was 1970, said he had been working out and going to games.

“I pitch in my mind every day,” Blyleven said. “And you know what? I strike everyone out every day. No one’s gotten a hit off me all summer.”

Blyleven was accompanied by eight Orange Police Department officers, who gave the children T-shirts and stick-on “junior police” badges.

Blyleven has had experience with CHOC before. Three of his four children were hospitalized there last year after being injured in an auto accident, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Children’s Hospital of Orange County is the county’s only hospital exclusively for children. Founded in 1964, it has treated more than 750,000 youngsters up to age 18.