Baseball's Dutch Treat

Rik Aalbert Blyleven was born in Zeist, the Netherlands on April 6, 1951. His father, Joe, was a handyman who, during World War II, hid his future father-in-law from the Nazis so he wouldn't be put in a concentration camp. Joe's brother, Cor, had gone to the U.S. before the war, and because it was easier to enter from Canada than from Holland, the Blylevens emigrated to Saskatchewan when Bert was two. Joe worked on the railroads in Saskatoon and Regina and moved to California in 1955. There, he got a job straightening bumpers and brought his family down the next year. He also became a baseball fan.

One of seven children, Bert grew up in Garden Grove as American as, well, Dutch apple pie. He can't speak Dutch, but to this day he still understands a little of it. He also claims his heritage has something to do with his curveball, which is the one against which all others in the big leagues are judged. "We have those long, strong fingers," he says. "You know, from sticking our fingers in the dikes."

Bert also inherited a love of the Dodgers from his father; he worshiped two in particular, Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale. When the Angels came to nearby Anaheim in 1966, Bert didn't switch his allegiance, although he did become one of the stadium rats. "My friends and I used to wait until they turned the lights out in the park," he says. "Then we'd sneak down into the dugouts and grab whatever we could—resin bags and broken bats. We'd go from one dugout to the other, our backs pressed against the backstop while we heard the typewriters going in the press box. And then when everybody was gone, we'd go out to the mound and make believe. Finally we'd make like we were playing the outfield and jump over the fence in left."

He ran cross-country and played basketball and baseball at Santiago High School, and the baseball scouts began to come around. The Dodgers were ready to draft him in the first round in 1969, but in one of his last high school games, Blyleven got shelled. "There were 32 scouts in the stands at the start," he recalls. "Thirty-one of them must have left by the third inning." The one who didn't give up on him was Jesse Flores Sr. of Minnesota, and the Twins made Blyleven their third pick that June. He repaid some of his debt to Flores this off-season when he hosted a tournament to benefit the Hemophilia Foundation; Flores's grandson has that disease.

Even back in 1969 Blyleven had his sensational curve. Then he filled out, picked up some speed on his fastball and wowed batters in rookie and A ball. "When they asked us who wanted to play in the Instructional League in the fall of '69, I was the first one to raise my hand," he says. In the Florida Instructional League championship game, he beat the Indians 1-0 and was featured in a story in that year's Dec. 1 issue of SPORTS ILLUSTRATED. The only problem was that his name was published as "Blylevan," which is the way the Twins spelled it in those days.

Blyleven has always had trouble with his name. For years he thought his first name was Rikaalbert. It has also appeared as Ricalbert and Ribalbert. It wasn't until he got married in 1971 that he noticed on his birth certificate that he's really Rik Aalbert. Actually, the best spelling of his name appears on one of his license plates: BLY11.

In Blyleven's first spring training with the Twins, manager Bill Rigney watched him throw batting practice and yelled to his pitching coach, Marv Grissom, "Get him out of there. If I see anymore, I'll fall in love." Blyleven started the season in Triple A. The Twins ran short of pitching early, the crusher coming on June 1, when Luis Tiant was put on the disabled list. Blyleven, just 19, was called up to replace him. Blyleven had pitched only 21 games in the minors; by comparison, Dwight Gooden, last year's 19-year-old sensation, needed 38 games before he was brought up to the Mets.

On June 5, 1970, Rigney gave Blyleven his first start, against the Washington Senators. Before the game Blyleven went over to the lineup card and changed the spelling of his name from "Blylevan." He later wished he could have erased the 3-2 fastball he threw to the first batter he faced, Lee Maye. Maye hit it out of the park. Blyleven's third batter was Frank Howard. He got him to fly out. Blyleven went on to win the game 2-1, allowing five hits in seven innings and retiring the outsized Howard all three times he faced him. After the game Howard said, "He's got a fine arm. He knows how to pitch. It's hard to say anything based on one game, but he looks like he's got a great future ahead of him."

Blyleven, an intense competitor, wants it. He has to have it. He will do anything to get it.

What we're talking about here is a humongous stuffed panda, and he's auctioning off the bear at the banquet.