For whom the Bell tolls

By 1986, pitcher Bert Blyleven has done a lot in baseball during his first 17 seasons in the major leagues.

Wins nearly 230 ballgames at that point. Strikes out close to 3,100 batters. And he gives up a lot – really, miles’ worth in distance – of home runs.

Three of those homers come 37 years ago today, but that hardly bothers Blyleven as he works the first eight innings and picks up the victory as the Minnesota Twins beat Cleveland 6-5 at the Metrodome.

The homers push Blyleven’s season total to 49, breaking the previous record of 46 set by the Philadelphia Phillies’ Robin Roberts in 1956.

The record-setting, 47th homer comes in the third inning as Jay Bell, Cleveland’s 20-year-old rookie second baseman playing in his first game, launches the first pitch he sees in the major leagues over the fence in left field for a 1-0 lead.

Blyleven, seen above in a Jonathan Daniel photo, later gives up homers to Joe Carter and Brett Butler before leaving after eight innings with a 6-5 lead that an inning later would become the final score.

And, just because he can, the 35-year-old Blyleven makes one more start before the end of the 1986 season and gives up a home run – this one to Daryl Boston – while beating the Chicago White Sox 7-3.  

Bell’s homer 37 years ago before a Monday night crowd of 6,232 in the Metrodome is a story within itself as he is finishing up his first full season in Cleveland’s organization after being traded there nearly 14 months earlier from the Twins.

Back then, in 1985, Bell is a rising prospect for Minnesota, which selects him with the eighth overall pick of the 1984 amateur draft.

Just over a year later, though, on Aug. 1, 1985, the Twins make a trade with Cleveland and use Bell as the headliner of the four players they send to Cleveland for the Indians’ best starting pitcher and a future Hall of Famer … ironically, that starting pitcher and future Hall of Famer turns out to be Bert Blyleven.