Longtime major league pitcher Bert Blyleven has been named pitching coach for the Dutch National Team in the 2009 World Baseball Classic. Blyleven’s selection was announced by the Dutch Baseball and Softball Association earlier this month.
Blyleven spent 22 seasons in the big leagues, debuting with a 10-9 season for the Minnesota Twins in 1970 as a 19-year-old. A 6’3” right-hander who was born in the Dutch town of Zeist, he won 85 games for the Twins over the next five seasons, including a 20-17 mark in 1973. He never won 20 games again, but reached double figures in wins 17 times in a career that also saw him pitch for Pittsburgh, Cleveland and California, as well as a second stint with the Twins. He finished with a lifetime record of 287-150 with 3,701 strikeouts registered over 4,970 innings. Blyleven won two games apiece in the 1979 and 1987 World Series, and pitched for the American League in the 1973 and 1985 All-Star Games.
Blyleven replaces former Dodgers pitcher Bob Welch as The Netherlands’ WBC pitching coach, and will join fellow ex-big leaguers Mike Hargrove, Mike Piazza and Tom Treblehorn on new Dutch manager Rod Delmonico’s staff.
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