Posted: January 5, 2011 3:35 p.m. CT
Shortly after FOX Sports North Twins Analyst Bert Blyleven got the news that he had been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Anthony LaPanta surprised him with a phone call from former teammates Jim Kaat and Jim Perry.
Here are some of the highlights from their phone call:
Jim Kaat: You know, we've been anticipating this for a long time, don't understand the system and why it took so long. ... Not that your career needed validating, but boy, this is a very exclusive fraternity and you deserve to be in it...
Bert Blyleven: Unbelievable. Jim Kaat, you know, you and Jim Perry were my mentors, when I came up at the age of 19 with the Twins and you know, as you said, this is a very elite group that I was just inducted into today, the Hall of Fame. Mickey Hatcher would say I was indicted many years ago. ... Jim Kaat, you're one guy who should be sitting here with me, one day. ... Both of you guys were my mentors and I can't thank you enough for this phone conversation and then also the opportunity to thank both of you personally. What this day means to me: goosebumps all over the place. Thank you.
Jim Kaat: You didn't need a lot of mentoring. You just needed to throw that curve ball over the plate, which is what you did so well.
...
Jim Perry: Bert, it's great. Congratulations. It's way overdue, you should have been down there a long time ago... You're just a great fellow, and I know I had you as a roommate at nineteen years old. For a long time, I was living with a guy who was going to be a Hall of Famer. That's great.
Bert Blyleven: Jim, Thank you very much for this conversation. It's a great day for the Blyleven family... If it wasn't for you, Jim Perry and Jim Kaat ... You may not think you mentored me, but you did. We were roommates, but we talked baseball all the time. We talked pitching -- I watched how you worked, and I wanted to be like you. You won the Cy Young in 1970, and it was a great first year for me to watch one of the best pitchers in baseball in 1970 go about his business. And I appreciate that.
...
Watch the video on the right for the whole conversation.
