Alomar, Blyleven elected to baseball Hall of Fame

Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2011
1:26 p.m.
By Angie Wiatrowski
CSNChicago.com

The baseball Hall of Fame welcomed one of Chicago's own as former White Sox Roberto Alomar and Bert Blyleven were elected to the Hall of Fame Wednesday.

A year ago, Blyleven missed election by five votes and Alomar missed by eight, on a ballot in which outfielder Andre Dawson was the only player elected by eligible members of the Baseball Writers Association of America. Blyleven had 74.21 percent of the vote and Alomar had 73.65 percent.

Alomar is a 12-time All-Star and 10-time Gold Glove-winning second baseman. He was a key player in helping the Blue Jays win back-to-back World Series in 1992-93 along with four other playoff teams in Baltimore and Cleveland. He also had two stints with the White Sox in 2003-04 and hit a combined .239 in 85 games on the South Side.

He hit 210 home runs, 1,134 RBIs, and maintained a .300 batting average in 2,379 games. This is his second of 15 years on the ballot.

Blyleven became the first full-time starting pitcher elected to the Hall of Fame since current Rangers president Nolan Ryan received 98.8 percent of the vote in 1999.

He had a 22-season career from 1970-92 with the Twins, Rangers, Pirates, Indians, and Angels. He is fifth in career strikeouts with 3,700 and threw 60 shutouts, only one fewer than Nolan Ryan and Tom Seaver. He was also member of two World Series-winning teams: the 79 Pirates and 87 Twins, and finished his career 287-250 with a 3.31 ERA.