Former Cross Country Runner elected to Baseball Hall of Fame!

I heard Roy Halladay ran cross country too.

I always like to see athletes in other sports that have a history of running, ven though distance running if done too much is actually detrimental to baseball performance, which relies on a lot of explosive actions.

Magnum Runner wrote:

I heard Roy Halladay ran cross country too.

I always like to see athletes in other sports that have a history of running, ven though distance running if done too much is actually detrimental to baseball performance, which relies on a lot of explosive actions.

Not so much for pitchers though.

Dr. Dent wrote:

Bert Blyleven.

Ran XC in high school (Santiago in CA) to build up his stamina.

Look it up.

I will.

I always wanted to see him in the HOF. Now if he ran cross in HS it will make his selection even better. No matter how fast he ran.

Dr. Dent wrote:

Bert Blyleven.

Ran XC in high school (Santiago in CA) to build up his stamina.

Look it up.

WOW he did.

Very Cool ex runner makes Hall of Fame as a pitcher.

Jerry Grote of the old Mets was a state division champ in hs in cross country, in Texas

Dr. Dent wrote:

Bert Blyleven.

Ran XC in high school (Santiago in CA) to build up his stamina.

Look it up.

I knew Blyleven would eventually get in, and it's a shame. He really wasn't good enough to warrant it (I feel the same way about Tony Perez, and I am a Reds fan and always loved him).

Many many reasons why Bert should not have been elected. He's now the low rung for pitchers..."if Blyleven is in, then so and so should be in".

It's too bad.

Only 4 guys in the HISTORY of baseball struck out more guys, he was good enough to pitch 22 years in the majors and his postseason record was 5-1. Not exactly terrible.

Might not have been great over one season, but the body of work makes him a hall of famer. Lot of flash in the pan guys who are phenomenal but are only good a short time.

Distance running is not detrimental. Distance running at the expense of training explosive skills is detrimental.

Hence the "if done too much" running can affect baseball performance. Really though, a player would have to run a lot and also ignore fast twitch exercises to have any significant effect.

And it would be possible to harm pitchers. How else do you think a pitcher throws a 95 mph fastball? It's not from slow twitch fibers. Stamina is useful but I don't see NFL linebackers running 3 miles a day, and they need as much or more stamina than baseball pitchers.

Blyleven is iffy. Same thing when Don Sutton got in. Piled up numbers over a long career.

free beer wrote:

Blyleven is iffy. Same thing when Don Sutton got in. Piled up numbers over a long career.

Blyleven was a good pitcher yes, but not great. My reasons:

1) 287 wins is VERY good, and TODAY with 5-man rotations it would perhaps be enough to guarantee a place in the Hall of Fame, but he was NOT pitching just every 5th day...much more frequent on average. He appeared in 692 games! (Compare to Mike Mussina with 270 wins and just 537 games appeared in).

2) Winning percentage of just .534. Bad teams yes, but he just was NOT dominant.

3) Only ONE 20 win season in that LONG career of his, and even in that year he was 20-17 (and that's a better winning percentage than his career average believe it or not!).

4) He only showed up in Cy Young voting results 4 times in his career with a best showing of 3rd. That is not Hall of Fame caliber to me.

5) Just TWO All Star games?!

6) His best stats other than his 287 wins (that fall short) are his strikeouts and his decent ERA. In those two categories, he NEVER led the league. And when he did win 20 games that one season, he finished SEVENTH that year in wins.

I just don't why he should have been voted in the Hall of Fame. His career doesn't deserve it. Someone has to be among the best not to get in. I say he SHOULD HAVE BEEN the poster child for this.

Regarding Don Sutton, Don Sutton was barely good enough to get in the Hall and yet his stats were just a little better (better teams overall yes though).

Sutton had 324 wins (pitched in more games though, so the nod to BB there), but 300 wins is a magic number...sorry, but it is.

Sutton had a better career ERA.

Sutton had a better winning percentage.

Sutton was in the Cy Young Voting more than Blyleven.

Sutton appeared in twice as many All Star games.

Sutton DID have a season where he led the league in ERA.

There just were a TON of GREAT pitchers who played during Blyleven's career, and not all of them even had as many wins as he did (Fergie Jenkins with 284 wins, BUT he won 20 or more SEVEN times with a stretch of 6 in a row!)

I'm no big Don Sutton fan, but I would have voted him in (just barely), but I think Blyleven was a little worse, and without that milestone 300 wins, I just don't see that a long career of just better than mediocre deserves a spot in the Hall. To me he is the pitching answer to Harold Baines (2866 hits -- so close to the magic number but not quite there).

If you don't hit those magic numbers, you'd better be stellar in other areas so that that can be overlooked. Blyleven wasn't. I knew that one day he'd get in because we like the long hard road to success, and he's been passed over for a long time now. It's too bad though. He really does not deserve it.

Magnum Runner wrote:

Stamina is useful but I don't see NFL linebackers running 3 miles a day, and they need as much or more stamina than baseball pitchers.

You obviously don't know many NFL linebackers. Off seasons they routinely run more than 3 miles a day. They move into explosive stuff during training camp, but spring is long slog sessions for them. They hate it, but they do it.

Magnum Runner wrote:

Hence the "if done too much" running can affect baseball performance. Really though, a player would have to run a lot and also ignore fast twitch exercises to have any significant effect.

And it would be possible to harm pitchers. How else do you think a pitcher throws a 95 mph fastball? It's not from slow twitch fibers. Stamina is useful but I don't see NFL linebackers running 3 miles a day, and they need as much or more stamina than baseball pitchers.

They don't fire those muscles three times a day. Throwing 100 pitches plus warmups requires quite a bit of stamina. Even a large pitcher like Roger Clemens was known for going for a run after pitching.

If done too much means if you don't have time to do the power development work. Obviously they're not running 10 miles a day, but just because they did wouldn't mean they got worse. It would be due to what they're NOT doing.