Posted: Jan. 3, 2011, 4:05 p.m. CT
By ANTHONY MAGGIO
FOXSportsNorth.com
For 14 years, Bert Blyleven has waited for a phone call that has never arrived. Now, in his 15th and final year of eligibility to be voted into the Hall of Fame by the Baseball Writers' Association of America, the phone may finally ring.
And it's about time.
Since Blyleven garnered 17 percent of all votes in his first year of eligibility and then dropped to 14 percent in year No. 2, his supporters have gradually grown to the point where he was just five votes shy of the necessary 75 percent on last year's ballot.
While "Blyleven in '11" has a nice ring to it, it's a shame that his Hall of Fame journey has taken this long. Sure, a first-ballot Hall of Famer he is not: His 287-250 career record (more on this shortly) alone was enough to keep him completely out of that discussion. But the positives in Blyleven's extensive body of work far outweigh the negatives that his critics have used to keep him out entirely.
Perhaps the biggest argument against Blyleven's HOF candidacy is his perceived status as a compiler
