May 31, 1976: Twins fans boo Bert Blyleven in final start before trade

On May 23, 1976, Minnesota pitcher Bert Blyleven beat the Kansas City Royals, 3-1, and won his 99th career game, all with the Twins, for whom he debuted as a 19-year-old on June 5, 1970. He had a solid rookie season, going 10-9 with a 3.18 earned-run average in 27 games, all but two as a starter, and quickly established himself as the Twins’ ace. From 1971 to 1975, Blyleven led Minnesota’s rotation in ERA four times and had the sixth-best earned-run average among all major-league starters.1 Pitching for a Twins team that played at a .489 clip, however, had his career record only 10 games over .500.

Blyleven regularly clashed with team owner Calvin Griffith over salary and became fed up when he lost his arbitration case in 1975 and earned only $10,000 more than he had made in 1974. When Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Andy Messersmith was granted free agency after the 1975 season and signed a four-year deal with the Atlanta Braves worth $1.1 million, Blyleven refused to sign his contract, hoping to eventually cash in as well.2

Rumors circulated that Blyleven was demanding $1.2 million over four years or a trade.3 Blyleven denied that he had asked for that much and was only speculating what he could get on the open market, but the horse was already out of the barn and fans turned on him.

After a failed attempt on May 27 to beat the A’s in Oakland for his 100th win thanks to a costly error by third baseman Steve Braun, Blyleven “sulked and complained about his lack of support, a valid criticism considering the Twins’ offense averaged fewer than three runs a game when Blyleven started.4

Minnesota hosted the Texas Rangers for a three-game set that began on May 28. Two days later, Rangers owner Brad Corbett met Blyleven in the Twins’ clubhouse, and they agreed on a three-year deal worth approximately $420,000.5 The only question was what the Twins would receive in return.6

On May 31 Blyleven took the mound at Metropolitan Stadium to face the California Angels and 22-year-old lefty Frank Tanana, a flamethrower who led the American League with 269 strikeouts in 1975 in only his second full season and finished in a fourth-place tie with former Twin Jim Kaat in AL Cy Young Award voting.

Tanana was roughed up in his first three outings and had a 6.35 ERA on April 19, but he quickly turned things around and pitched to a 1.97 ERA in his next eight starts. Tanana was on a five-game winning streak going into his matchup with Blyleven and had held opposing batters to a .192 average since April 26. Blyleven was having a typical season, leading the Twins’ rotation in ERA at 3.13 but sitting at .500 with a 4-4 record thanks to anemic run support and shoddy defense that led to six unearned runs in his first 11 starts.

The last-place Angels, who at 18-30 were already 10½ games behind the first-place Kansas City Royals, sent Jerry Remy, Bob Jones, and Bobby Bonds to the plate to start the contest in front of 8,379 fans, a paltry crowd for a night game on Memorial Day. “As a lynch mob it would have been strictly a warmup act in the days of Marie Antoinette,” wrote Jim Klobuchar in the Minneapolis Star.7

Blyleven made quick work of them, striking out Remy and Bonds, and getting Jones on a grounder to short. The third-place Twins, who at 21-20 were only four games out of first, countered with Steve Brye, Rod Carew, and Larry Hisle in the bottom of the first. Brye singled to center and Carew bunted perfectly down the third-base line for an infield hit, and both moved up a base on catcher Andy Etchebarren’s passed ball. Hisle popped out to first and Tanana hit Dan Ford with a pitch to load the bases, but the southpaw fanned Craig Kusick and got Phil Roof to ground out to first to end the threat.

The Angels scored a run in the top of the second when Bruce Bochte led off with a double to left and came home on Bill Melton’s soft single to left. Joe Lahoud walked and Ron Jackson struck out before Etchebarren singled to load the bases.8 However, Blyleven retired Dave Chalk on a popup to third and Remy on a grounder to first.

Tanana surrendered two more hits in the bottom of the second but worked his way out of the jam without allowing a run. Bob Randall followed a Dave McKay fly out with a single, but Etchebarren threw him out trying to steal with Luis Gomez at the plate. Gomez followed with a single before Tanana struck out Brye to end the inning.

Blyleven retired Jones,9 Bonds, and Bochte in the third on a fly out to left, a strikeout, and a groundout to first; Tanana got Carew to ground to second, Hisle to ground to short, and Ford to fly out to center. Blyleven set the Angels down in order again in the fourth with help from his defense. Melton’s liner between third and short was stabbed out of the air by a diving McKay, and then Lahoud was thrown out at first by Carew, who made a nice diving stop and threw from his knees. Blyleven fanned Jackson to close out the frame.

Tanana retired the Twins in order in the bottom of the inning, striking out Kusick, getting Roof on a fly out to center, and coaxing McKay to ground to third. Blyleven retired his ninth straight batter when he struck out Etchebarren leading off the top of the fifth, but he hit Chalk with a pitch to end his streak. Blyleven got Remy on a fly out to left and fanned Jones for his seventh strikeout of the game and the 1,400th of his career.10

Tanana had been virtually unhittable since the second inning, and he set down his ninth straight batter in the bottom of the fifth when he retired Randall on a fly to right, Gomez on a popup to first, and Brye on a grounder to third. Blyleven continued to battle, though, and with a little help from Roof he escaped a minor jam after Bonds walked to lead off the top of the sixth and went to second on Bochte’s sacrifice. Bonds tried to steal third with Melton at the plate, but Roof gunned him down for the second out of the inning. Melton flied out to left, and the game remained 1-0 in favor of the Angels.

Tanana rediscovered his curveball in the bottom of the sixth and continued his mastery over the Twins in impressive fashion. He not only struck out the side, he got Carew, Hisle, and Ford on called third strikes. “I didn’t have control of my curve early in the game,” Tanana explained. “But I found it in the sixth inning and it was just curveball, fastball the rest of the way.”11

The Angels extended their lead to 2-0 in the top of the seventh when Jackson followed a Lahoud strikeout with a single to left, then came around to score when Etchebarren hit a blooper to center that eluded Brye’s dive and rolled to the warning track for a triple. Etchebarren was overly aggressive and was tagged out by Carew after a brief rundown. Blyleven then finished the inning by getting Chalk to ground to third.

Tanana began the bottom of the inning by fanning Kusick for the third time and got Roof to ground to third before striking out McKay to set down his 16th straight batter. When Blyleven took the mound for the eighth, angry fans greeted him with a “beery farewell serenade” that went, “Good Night, Bert: It’s Nice to See You Go.”12 California scored another run when Bochte drove in Remy with a single after Remy walked, stole second, and went to third on a sacrifice bunt.

Minnesota finally broke through in the bottom of the eighth when Randall led off with a triple and scored on Rod Carew’s two-out single to center. Blyleven set the Angels down in order in the top of the ninth before fans loudly booed as he left the mound. Just before entering the dugout, Blyleven made an obscene gesture, “an arm signal that will never appear in the Boy Scouts’ manual,” wrote Klobuchar.13

Twins fans got a second gesture from a player when Kusick, who was booed lustily for fanning three times, launched a 407-foot bomb into the left-field bleachers, then mimicked Blyleven while he trotted down the third-base line. However, that was as close as the Twins would get. Tanana buckled down and struck out Roof and McKay, his 11th and 12th victims, to close out a 3-2 win.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author accessed Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, and SABR.org.

Notes 

1 Blyleven’s ERA was sixth among pitchers with a minimum of 700 innings pitched.

2 Bob Fowler, “Blyleven: $1.2 million, 4 years,” Minneapolis Star, May 26, 1976: 71.

3 Fowler.”

4 “Blyleven-to-Rangers Swap Nearly Set,” Santa Ana (California) Register, June 1, 1976: 25. In 12 starts for the Twins in 1976 before they traded him to the Texas Rangers on June 1, Blyleven got 2.8 runs of support per start. Eight pitchers made at least 12 starts for the Twins in 1976 and Dave Goltz, who finished seventh on the staff in run support, got 4.0 runs of support per start. Eddie Bane made 15 starts for Minnesota that year and got 5.7 runs of support per start.

5 The Santa Ana Register reported that the deal was worth $700,000 and the Minneapolis Star reported it at $500,000, but according to Baseball-Reference.com and a Sporting News salary survey, the Rangers paid Blyleven $140,000 in 1976. He was able to strike a deal with the Rangers after Calvin Griffith gave him permission to field offers from other teams.

6 “Blyleven-to-Rangers Swap.” Texas sent third baseman Mike Cubbage, shortstop Roy Smalley, pitchers Bill Singer and Jim Gideon, and $250,000 to Minnesota for Blyleven and shortstop Danny Thompson.

7 Jim Klobuchar, “A Lack of Daintiness at the Park,” Minneapolis Star, June 1, 1976: 9.

8 Joe Soucheray, “Blyleven Edged by Angels 3-2,” Minneapolis Tribune, June 1, 1976: 19. Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org have Bill Melton’s hit as a single to center, but Soucheray wrote, “Melton singled, softly, also to left” following Bruce Bochte’s double to left.

9 When Blyleven retired Jones for the first out of the third inning, he recorded his 1,700th career inning pitched.

10 Other pitchers who reached 1,400 career strikeouts in 1976 were Texas Rangers hurler Bill Singer on May 1 when he struck out Boston’s Denny Doyle in the top of the eighth inning; Atlanta Braves pitcher Andy Messersmith on May 7 when he struck out Pittsburgh pitcher John Candelaria in the bottom of the second; Houston Astros pitcher Larry Dierker on May 9 when he fanned St. Louis’s Vic Harris in the bottom of the seventh; Baltimore Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer on May 25 when he struck out Cleveland’s Charlie Spikes in the top of the sixth; and New York Mets hurler Jerry Koosman on September 6 when he fanned Cubs center fielder Joe Wallis in the bottom of the sixth.

11 “Blyleven Gets the Gate from Angels,” San Pedro (California) News-Pilot, June 1, 1976: 10.

12 Soucheray; Klobuchar.”

13 Klobuchar. Blyleven’s gesture was described as an “Italian Salute.”