Hall of Fame waiting game evokes different emotions in ex-stars

Bert Blyleven won 287 games in his career but had just one 20-win season. AP

This weekend Bert Blyleven will be back on a pitching mound. Considering the statistical scrutiny his career has undergone in the 17 years since he retired -- most notably, his not-quite-300 total of 287 wins -- few could blame him if he donned a uniform in a desperate attempt to win 13 more ballgames in advance of Monday's 2 p.m. announcement of the Hall of Fame class of 2009.

But, no, Blyleven isn't mounting a comeback. Instead, he'll be serving as an instructor at the Twins' fantasy camp when he learns whether the writers somehow deem him 13.1 percent more deserving of the Hall of Fame this year than he was last year, when his personal-best 61.9 percent vote total still fell short of the 75 percent needed for induction.

While his wife, Gayle, will watch the announcement live on TV from their Fort Myers, Fla., home, Blyleven will be across town at the Twins' spring training home. He'll be coaching a bunch of middle-aged, never-was ballplayers, whose go-home-and-tell-your-buddies stories will get a whole lot better if they're on the same field as Blyleven when the pitcher gets the call that his Hall of Fame fortunes have changed. The camp sounds like a welcome distraction for the 22-year veteran pitcher with the Twins, Angels, Indians, Pirates and Rangers.

"The waiting game is sometimes frustrating," Blyleven says. "Will that waiting game end this year? I don't know. Next year? I don't know. This is my 12th year on the ballot. I'll find out Monday. There's nothing else I can do."

Blyleven says in his first five years on the ballot, he didn't anticipate getting elected, but expectation has grown along with the votes he's received, up from a low-water mark of 14.1 percent in 1999, his second year on the ballot. Last year he and Gayle made the Hall of Fame announcement appointment TV. While not surprised that he didn't get in -- -- Blyleven was fourth -- ultimately he was pleased with his 14-percent increase.

At this time every year friends Blyleven doesn't hear from very often all chime in with phone calls of support. He says he even received one "very nasty email from a friend asking what the [heck] is wrong with these writers." Blyleven says he reads most of the articles friends refer to him about his Hall of Fame candidacy, quickly pointing out recent backing from Rich Lederer at BaseballAnalysts.com and rattling off some of his career stats, such as his 242 complete games in 685 starts and his 60 shutouts, making him the only pitcher with at least 50 not in the Hall of Fame.

"They're definitely Hall of Fame numbers," says Blyleven, who is now a TV analyst for Twins games. "Why I have not been in five, six years, I don't know. I probably know my numbers better than anyone else because I've been defending them over the years. If you look at where I rank in almost every category, I'm surrounded by guys that are in the Hall of Fame."

While Blyleven is on edge about his chances, longtime Tigers shortstop Alan Trammell seems to have shifted into "it's an honor just to be nominated" mode -- at least while he's on the writers ballot, where he's never scored higher than 18.2 percent of the vote in his nine years of eligibility.

"I know that it's not going to happen when you're at the small percentage that I'm at," says Trammell, now the Cubs bench coach. "It's nice to be included and be recognized but until it got to a higher percentage where I'd feel like I had hope, to be honest with you, I'm anxious like anybody to see who else will be elected."

Trammell is so calm about his chances that he wasn't even sure of the exact day of the announcement until a reporter filled him in.

"Is it coming out next week? I know that it's been in the papers and every day online I see something, but I did not know exactly when it would be posted," Trammell said. "There's no reason for me to be hanging by the phone. I'm not trying to make light of that. I'm just being realistic."

When he came up to the majors in the mid-1970s, Trammell says he was told that he could have a long career by batting .250 and playing good defense, and he vastly exceeded those standards. He was a career .285 hitter with 185 home runs and 1,003 RBIs in 20 seasons, making six All-Star teams, earning four Gold Gloves and winning three Silver Slugger awards along the way. That the shortstop position was inhabited by more offensive-minded players soon after his retirement after the 1996 season didn't help his credentials. He notes that his numbers stack up "very favorably" with Hall of Fame shortstops from mid-century like Pee Wee Reese and Phil Rizzuto, but that modern-day players such as Robin Yount and Cal Ripken "blew me out of the water."

"If I had played 10-to-15 years before and put these numbers on the board, I don't think there'd be any argument," Trammell says. "I can't change it. And I wouldn't want to change the era that I played in."

For now Trammell says he's content to be recognized as an elite player of the game and won't get his Hall of Fame hopes up until he's considered by the veteran's committee, for which he won't be eligible until 2017.

"I think that's where I, along with [longtime Tigers second baseman] Lou Whitaker, might gain some more momentum," Trammell says. "That's just my thoughts. It would be the greatest individual achievement one could get."