FOUL BALL

Henry Hecht

May 14, 1984

Teammate of the Week, that's good ol' Bert Blyleven. The Cleveland pitcher was charged with two earned runs in a 3-0 defeat in Baltimore last week when right-fielder George Vukovich and second baseman Tony Bernazard misplayed a ball to short right that fell safely and was ruled a hit. After being pulled for a reliever, Blyleven called the press box to argue the call and try to stick Vukovich, who had touched the ball, with an error to help his ERA. Nevertheless, the official scorer refused to change his decision. Blyleven called the American League offices in New York the next day, but that didn't do him any good either. Because no rule interpretation was involved, the officials there refused to intervene. That's the ol' team spirit, Bert.