14-year wait over for Twins pitcher

Former Minnesota Twins pitcher Bert Blyleven first appeared on baseball’s Hall of Fame ballot in December 1997. Disappointment became an annual January rite for Blyleven, whose emotional outbursts peaked in 2001, when he called the process a joke and asked writers to remove his name from the ballot. Blyleven’s long wait finally ended Wednesday, when he received 79.7 percent of the votes submitted by the Baseball Writers Association of America (75 percent is required), joining second baseman Roberto Alomar as this year’s Hall of Fame electees. “It’s been 14 years of praying and waiting,” Blyleven said. “I thank the baseball writers of America, for – I’m going to say – finally getting it right.”

– Minneapolis Star-Tribune