Rik Aalbert Blyleven (born Blijleven, April 6, 1951) is an American former professional baseball pitcher and color commentator. He played 22 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1970 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2020 was a color commentator for Minnesota Twins television broadcasts. Blyleven recorded 3,701 career strikeouts, the fifth-most in MLB history. He won 287 games, 27th-most all-time, and pitched 4,970 innings, 14th-most all-time. A renowned curveball pitcher, Blyleven was a two-time All-Star and World Series champion. In 2011, Blyleven was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Blyleven made his major league debut at age 19 for the Twins. In the middle of the 1976 season, he was traded to the Texas Rangers, where he threw a no-hitter in his final start for the team. He won his first World Series with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1979. Upon being traded to the Cleveland Indians, Blyleven initially struggled with injuries, but then enjoyed a late-career resurgence, finishing third in the Cy Young Award voting in back-to-back years, with Cleveland in 1984 and in 1985, a season split between the Indians and Twins. During his second stint with Minnesota, Blyleven became the tenth member of the 3,000-strikeout club in 1986 and won a second World Series title in 1987. He played three seasons for the California Angels before retiring.
Blyleven became the first Dutch-born player to earn induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was the pitching coach for the Netherlands in several World Baseball Classic tournaments.
Rik Aalbert Blyleven was born in Zeist, a town in Utrecht, Netherlands, the son of Johannes Cornelius and Jannigje Blijleven. His family moved to Melville, Saskatchewan when Blyleven was two years old before ultimately settling in Garden Grove, California in 1957 when Blyleven was five years old. One of seven children, his parents anglicized their own names to Joe and Jenny, with Rik Aalbert becoming "Bert".
Blyleven became interested in baseball as a young boy watching Sandy Koufax pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers and listening to Vin Scully and Jerry Doggett announce the Dodgers' radio broadcasts. Blyleven later said, "My dad built me a mound in the backyard with a canvas backdrop over our horseshoe pits, and I would go back there and just throw and throw and throw until I developed it, and it became my curveball. And I could throw it over at any time, any count."
Blyleven starred on the Santiago High School baseball team in Garden Grove, also running cross country to build up his stamina and leg strength. The Minnesota Twins drafted him out of high school in the third round, with the 55th selection in the 1969 Major League Baseball draft. After just 21 minor league starts, the Twins called him up to the majors at age 19 on June 2, 1970. In his first season, his sharp curveball helped him to 10 wins, and he was named American League (AL) Rookie Pitcher of the Year by The Sporting News. In 1973, he pitched nine shutouts, the most of any AL pitcher that season.
However, Blyleven's early career with the Twins was not always pleasant, as he was hounded by critics and fans. He clashed with Twins owner Calvin Griffith over his $65,200 salary and refused to sign a contract with the team for the 1976 season. The Twins traded him along with Danny Thompson to the Texas Rangers for Roy Smalley III, Mike Cubbage, Bill Singer, and Jim Gideon on June 1, 1976. The deal was set in motion when Blyleven agreed with the Rangers on a three-year, $550,000 contract two days earlier.
Blyleven pitched well with the Rangers, posting a 2.74 ERA in fewer than two seasons. On September 22, 1977, just two weeks after being sidelined with a groin injury, Blyleven no-hit the California Angels 6–0. The no-hitter was his final start as a Ranger; not until Cole Hamels during the 2015 season would a pitcher be traded after pitching a no-hitter in his most recent start for the team that traded him. His 2.74 ERA with Texas is one of the lowest in franchise history.
Following an incident in which Blyleven blatantly gave the finger to a television camera obviously focused on him during one of the Rangers' rare nationally broadcast games, he was dealt to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first four-team blockbuster deal in MLB history on December 8, 1977, that also involved the Atlanta Braves, New York Mets and 11 players changing teams. The Pirates also acquired John Milner from the Mets. The Rangers received Al Oliver and Nelson Norman from the Pirates and Jon Matlack from the Mets. Adrian Devine, Tommy Boggs and Eddie Miller were traded from the Rangers to the Braves. The Mets got Willie Montañez from the Braves and Tom Grieve and Ken Henderson from the Rangers. Henderson was sent to New York to complete the transaction three months later on March 15, 1978. With the Pirates, Blyleven led the team in ERA, strikeouts, and complete games in 1978, and he helped them to a World Series victory in 1979. His 20 no decisions in 1979 are the most by an MLB starting pitcher in a season from 1908 to 2018. (Ryne Stanek, a reliever who worked as an opener, had more no decisions in both 2018 and 2019, and starter Zach Davies matched Blyleven's mark in 2022.)
Blyleven became disgruntled with the Pirates and threatened to retire during the 1980 season if he was not traded. The Pirates traded him to the Cleveland Indians on December 9, 1980. Blyleven sat out most of the 1982 season with an elbow injury and struggled again in 1983, but he came back in 1984 with one of his best seasons: a 19–7 record with a 2.87 ERA. He missed a second 20-win season that year when he was forced to miss a couple of starts after breaking his foot after slipping on a baseball while running. In 1985, he again led the American League in shutouts with five. That year, he pitched 293+2⁄3 innings and completed 24 games, feats of endurance no pitcher has matched since. Blyleven was unhappy playing for the lackluster Indians and forced a trade back to the Twins on August 1, 1985. With Minnesota, he passed the 3,000-strikeout mark and helped the team win the 1987 World Series.
Blyleven's first two full seasons back with the Twins produced major league records for home runs allowed in a single season (50) and in consecutive seasons (96). He never surrendered more than 24 home runs in any year before or after the 1986 and 1987 seasons. He finished his career with 430 home runs allowed, ninth most in MLB history. This was partly due to his longevity, as he allowed a home run to 2.1 percent of batters faced, only slightly above the MLB average during his career.
The Twins traded Blyleven and Kevin Trudeau to the California Angels before the 1989 season for Paul Sorrento, Mike Cook, and Rob Wassenaar. Blyleven had a 2.73 ERA and 17–5 record in his first season close to his hometown. He led the league for his third and final time in shutouts (5). Blyleven missed the entire 1991 season following rotator cuff surgery. He came back in 1992 but was mostly unproductive, going 8–12 with a 4.74 ERA in his final MLB season. He signed again with the Twins in early 1993 but did not make the opening day roster and retired. He also pitched for the MLB All-Stars, a team of mostly minor league players, in the World Port Tournament in Rotterdam in the summer of 1993. That July, he became a roving pitching instructor for the Angels.
Blyleven had a career 287–250 record with 3,701 strikeouts and a 3.31 ERA. He ranks fifth in MLB history in strikeouts and is ninth with 60 shutouts and 430 home runs allowed and 14th in innings pitched with 4,970. He has the seventh most career wins above replacement among pitchers according to FanGraphs and 14th most according to Baseball Reference. Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson said of Blyleven: "[his curveball] was nasty, I'll tell you that. Enough to make your knees buckle. Bert was a terrific pitcher—a dominating pitcher."
Blyleven was a pitching coach for the Netherlands in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. He returned to that role for the 2013, 2017, and 2023 tournaments.