Former Minnesota Twins pitcher and Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven still has baseball in his blood

Bert Blyleven didn’t start playing baseball until he was 10 years old.

That was after his family moved from his native Holland to California and his dad became a Dodgers fan.

Sixty years later, he’s still in the game. Retired from broadcasting and finally a Hall of Famer after getting the call in 2011 (after almost 20 years of waiting), Blyleven remains a Twins loyalist and fan, a proud alum of the franchise, and on Thursday he was at the Sanford Fieldhouse bright and early to meet with kids in a continued effort to grow the game. Wearing a 2000s era blue Twins jersey, Blyleven played catch with the kids and showed off the same personality that made him almost a member of the family to thousands in the upper Midwest during his quarter-century turn as the Twins’ primary color analyst.

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While Blyleven was sometimes accused of being surly during his playing days, it’s apparent the 71-year-old version of him is the same one we heard cracking jokes and circling fans with his telestrator alongside Dick Bremer for all those years.

The Hall of Fame owner of 287 career wins, 60 shutouts and 3,701 strikeouts talked on Thursday about his path to stardom, the thrill of seeing fellow Twins legends Tony Oliva and Jim Kaat named to this year’s Hall of Fame class, and his thoughts on this year’s Twins team.

Q: How much do you enjoy coming out and doing this with the kids?

A: I had the opportunity to play the game of baseball for a long time. I learned from my pops, I learned from the friends I grew up with. So to have the opportunity to come out and maybe help somebody – I’m a big believer in the power of positive thinking. You don’t want to give up on your dream, so today, (we're) gonna have a lot of kids out here, and hopefully they can fulfill their dream.

Q: Was that your dream as a kid, to be a big league ballplayer?

A: No, to be honest, no. I didn’t start playing baseball until I was about 10. We came to the U.S. in 1957 and my dad became a big Dodger fan and I picked up my love of the game through him. I played Little League and I was a catcher, and my coach noticed I was throwing it back to the pitcher harder than he was throwing to me and they asked if I wanted to pitch. I said, sure, and I fell in love with it. I had wanted to be a fireman or a policeman, but the Good Lord gave me a great arm and things fell into place and I got to the big leagues.

Q: When you were in the midst of your career in the big leagues did you envision yourself staying in the game as long as you have?

A: When I retired, a friend of mine and I opened up a little diner in southern California called ‘Blyleven’s Dugout Diner’ and had a lot of fun. Somebody asked me to (broadcast) a couple college games, which I did, and then the Twins heard I was doing games and they asked me to do some in Anaheim and Oakland. I liked it and they offered me half the games the following year and after that I did all the games for 25 years. I miss it, but 50 years in the game of baseball, being at the field every day, it takes its toll but I enjoyed every minute of it.

Q: Seems like you and Dick Bremer had a special friendship over the years?

A: Well, yeah. We had a strange and wonderful relationship. He’s strange and I’m wonderful.

Q: What was your reaction to Tony O and Jim Kaat getting into the Hall of Fame?

A: I’m very happy not only for them but Minnie Minoso, Gil Hodges, Buck O’Neill and Bud Fowler, the first African-American to play professionally back in the 1850s. Also David Ortiz. It should be a fun Hall of Fame weekend.

Q: You went through the same process as Tony and Jim, waiting a long time, not knowing if you’d ever get in. You have to appreciate as much as anyone what it’s like to go through that.

A: I think there’s a lot of guys, like Ron Santo, who (passed away) before they were inducted and miss the celebration, and talking to Tony and Jim, they’re very excited. They’re in their early 80s and its nice that they finally got honored. Long overdue for both of those guys and I’m glad they’re members of the Hall of Fame.

Q: Did you see the new baseball complex being built outside the Pentagon on your way in?

A: I tell you what, this whole community and just what I saw this morning – this facility and what Sioux Falls is doing for the young kids is unbelievable.

Q: What do you think about this year’s Twins team?

A: I like the team. I think offensively they’ve had a lot of injuries. It’s a different game. A guy gets a little tweak of his hamstring and he’s on the DL, but that’s good. It’s a long haul, it’s six grueling months of baseball day in and day out and you want those guys healthy and on the field. The Twins are off to a good start. I think they’ve done a good job with the pitching staff, they let ‘em go four or five innings and bring in those big arms in the bullpen. That’s the game today. The offense is there, they just need to keep those guys on the field healthy.

Q: They’re playing the Yankees right now and the Yankees look really good. Think it’s going to be them in the World Series?

A: Aw, don’t talk about the Yankees. Maybe it’s the Twins. You never know. In '87 nobody expected the Twins to go to the postseason, let alone win the World Series. We only won 85 ballgames. But we were playing well at the end, and beat Detroit and the Cardinals. So you never know.

This article originally appeared on Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Hall of Famer Bert Blyleven still has baseball in his blood