Big change in how Hall pitchers are viewed

'Baseball's elite," Bert Blyleven said at one point Thursday, and his smile seemed to run from Manhattan's Waldorf Astoria to somewhere in the Twin Cities.

Finally, after a 14-year stay on the Hall of Fame ballot, the former righthander could call himself a member of the club. He joined fellow inductee Roberto Alomar at a celebratory news conference, and they were set to spend the rest of the day running around town, reveling in their glory.

Alomar waited until Year 2 of his ballot stay, surprisingly, and the best working theory is that some Baseball Writers Association of America members served him a one-year punishment for the John Hirschbeck spitting incident of 1996. There are no lessons to be learned from Alomar's candidacy, aside from the obvious "Don't spit at an umpire."

Blyleven, however, could prove to be a trailblazer of sorts. It's quite possible that other worthwhile candidates will not suffer as he did. That's because pitchers who do what he did are getting notice now, in the middle of their careers.

"Look at if you have run support," Blyleven said. "That's what these analysts are doing now: 'If he had just had the average run support, he probably would've won 21 ballgames like [the Yankees' CC] Sabathia did.' "

Blyleven had 287 wins and 250 losses in his brilliant career, and in the early years of his candidacy, voters appeared to emphasize the losses over the wins.

Of course, what we understand now is that a pitcher has very limited control over his won-loss record and that there are many better measures of a pitcher. Pretty much all of them, really.

That Blyleven went from 14.1 percent support on the 1999 ballot to this year's 79.7 percent reflects, in part, a natural turnover among the voter body.

BBWAA secretary-treasurer Jack O'Connell says he adds about 12 to 15 voters to his Hall of Fame list annually (a BBWAA member gets a ballot with 10 years of service time) and deletes eight to 12 because of death and retirement. In the 14-year span of Blyleven's candidacy, that amounts to roughly 189 additions and 140 subtractions - which, when you factor in the 581 votes this year, constitutes about a 33-percent change.

But it also speaks to more voters taking second, third and fourth looks at what Blyleven accomplished, and appreciating just how good he was despite his personal winning percentage.

Sean Forman, the creator of the remarkable website baseball-reference.com, recently wrote a story in The New York Times detailing that if Blyleven had received the run support of Jack Morris, a contemporary, he would have posted a won-loss record of 331-206. Had that occurred, no one would be questioning Blyleven's Hall of Fame credentials.

And maybe, too, Blyleven would've won a Cy Young Award or two in his time. He lost out (finishing seventh) to Hall of Famer Jim Palmer in 1973, even though Blyleven pitched 292/3 more innings, struck out 100 more batters and walked 46 fewer. The big difference? Palmer went 22-9 for a 97-65 Orioles team. Blyleven was 20-17 for an 81-81 Twins team.

In 1984, meanwhile, Blyleven finished third in the AL Cy Young voting behind a pair of relievers, Detroit's Willie Hernandez and Kansas City's Dan Quisenberry. Not good, although Toronto's Dave Stieb might have had a greater beef than Blyleven did.

I asked Blyleven if, during his career, he felt underappreciated.

"As a player, you don't look at it that way," he said. "You just go about your business."

Nowadays, though, Blyleven sees Felix Hernandez winning the 2010 AL Cy Young Award with a 13-12 record. King Felix followed 2009 AL winner Zack Greinke and his modest 16-8 record. San Francisco's Tim Lincecum captured the 2009 NL Cy Young Award at 15-7.

Twenty years from now, such pitchers can't get the "They lost too many games!/didn't win enough games!" grenade thrown at them. Not with that hardware.

And if such pitchers compile as long and successful a career as Blyleven, they needn't wait 14 years for validation. Maybe that'll make Blyleven's long journey more worthwhile.