Baseball's Dutch Treat

"A Carl Yastrzemski bat. Hmmm, no cork in it....

"An autographed picture of Fernando Valenzuela. Autographed in English. No takers? Sold to me for $25.

"I have here a ball autographed by Sandy Koufax, a pretty fair pitcher.... Mary Scheinblum bids $150; do I hear $175?" At which point Richie Scheinblum yells across the room to his wife, "We already have a Koufax ball!" She says, "So now we'll have two."

The curveball of the '50s belonged to Camilio Pascual. In the '60s, Koufax had it. Blyleven has reigned as the curveball champion longer than either Pascual or Koufax.

Blyleven's curve breaks so quickly and so far that some batters swear they can hear it change direction. He throws it a little differently than most pitchers, holding the ball so that every finger except his pinky is touching a seam. "Two pitchers that I know about who held it the way I do," says Blyleven, "were Koufax and Bob Feller."

Corrales feels the secret of Blyleven's curve is not in the grip but in his big, strong hands. "With his hands and wrist, he could throw that damn thing without any seams and it would curve," says Corrales.

Blyleven has ridden the curve to a career ERA of 3.00. He's fifth on the active list in shutouts, sixth in strikeouts, eighth in victories and eighth in innings pitched. One of the most remarkable things about Blyleven's career marks is that, of the active pitchers who rank ahead of him (Nolan Ryan, Don Sutton, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Tommy John, Jerry Koosman and Phil Niekro), the youngest is nearly five years older than he is. Given another five years of success, Blyleven will have Hall of Fame credentials.

Yet last year was the first time he ever got a vote for the Cy Young Award. He has had only one 20-win season, in 1973, the first year of the DH, when 12 American League pitchers won 20 or more. There are any number of reasons, starting with the fact that early in his career Blyleven relied too much on his ability to overpower hitters, especially late in the game. "He knows how to finish a game now," says Indian pitching coach Don McMahon.

Blyleven's first two teams, the Twins and Rangers, usually weren't very good, and even though the Pirates won the World Series in '79, Blyleven had some philosophical differences with manager Chuck Tanner. Pittsburgh thought so little of him that it traded him and Manny Sanguillen to Cleveland after the '80 season for Victor Cruz, Bob Owchinko, Rafael Vasquez and Gary Alexander.

Blyleven pitched very well for the Indians in the strike year of 1981 (11-7, 2.89 ERA), but in the first game after play resumed, he hurt his right elbow. He needed elbow surgery in '82 after throwing only 20⅓ innings, and in '83 he missed most of the last two months with a right shoulder injury. Until last year, fate had not been overly kind to Blyleven.