I enjoyed my 25 years of broadcasting Twins baseball. The moment happened so fast -- Todd kissing Cathie goodbye, then hustling back to the venue as she and the rest of their crew ran the opposite direction seeking a place to hide -- that she didnt even have time to process what was happening. Thats when, finally, the original dream of settling in California came to fruition. Those are the words Aldean was singing as Todd, dressed in a white checkered shirt and a cowboy hat and boots that were a gift from Cathie, spun and dipped his niece, Brianna, near the back of the venue. The relationship between Todd and Bert has changed, too. Todd turned to find an off-duty EMT, who had been following his path. The son of a Hall of Famer was basically riding real lifes bench, and it made him depressed. Then he looked his son in the eye. He still to this day (does it), and its like, Dad, that is so gross. He thought it was so funny to fart everywhere, and theyre not like, non-smelling.Hes the only person ever, at least that I know, who can fart on command. Nearly four years later, Todd is still processing what happened in Vegas and its effects on his life. Nancy is related to Royle J Kipp and William E Kipp as well as 3 additional people. Mead said Blyleven (8-7) will miss his start tonight against the Oakland Athletics so he can be with his family. He wanted to get others out of the line of fire. Its a beautiful game, and you want to describe it the best way you can. Gayle and I are safe and we are praying for all the people that lost their lives and others that lost everything . And they gave me 50 and then 30 and, of course, that was cut short last year. His learning curve was steep, and in 1969 the Twins drafted the 6-foot-3 18-year-old in the third round. Finally, this year, 79.7 percent of voters put him on their ballots. Thats kind of what helps stamp a guys ticket to the Hall of Fame, the strikeouts and the shutouts, former Twins pitcher Jim Kaat said. Joe had an affinity for the Dodgers and would stay up late listening to broadcaster Vin Scully. I needed that softness, I needed that hug, I needed to kiss, I needed to know that this is not normal and that everythings gonna be fine.. Hes going to get you back tomorrow. . And I think he did the right thing. Thats about when the enormity of everything he had just been through -- the shocking sounds of shooting, the rushed goodbye to Cathie, the sprints in and out of the concert venue, the lugging of bodies, the vacant stares of the dead, and now this episode at the Tropicana -- finally caught up to Todd. All that stuff. Suddenly, scouting itself wasnt enough. Thomas Blyleven, 6, was ejected from the vehicle and suffered two broken arms. For that moment, Todd and the killer were in direct conflict -- the shooter trying to take those lives, Todd trying to save them. He found a wounded young woman whose friends were struggling to get her off the ground. Todds friends tagged him in the post, thinking he might be the guy, and private messaging confirmed he was. When they ran, Bert, whose stamina was as important to his success as his acclaimed breaking ball, pushed Todd to keep going until his legs got wobbly. I saw Mickey Hatcher after the game, and he said, Boy, you got Tommy good. His reason, he told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, was the non-support and lack of confidence from manager Chuck Tanner. Today he has 287 baseballs on display in his Fort Myers, Fla., home. As for the 2002 World Series ring -- a symbol of achievement that now carries a different connotation -- Todd tucked it away in a drawer. I want the weekend to be for her, he said. But if youre looking for apologies or regrets or even lengthy explanations, you wont get them from Blyleven. In the Three Rivers Stadium dugout, they gathered, yearning for spiritual insight and a baseball spark. And that translated directly into how I was as a husband, as well.. Find family history information in a whole new way. Now, once again, there was a tacit understanding that Todds sense of duty was overtaking everything. He has four children and two step-children. At one point, he set a person down at an ambulance, and someone standing behind him spoke up. Yet for all the light and joy baseball brought back to Todds life, it also cost him. He alerted another nurse to her. He had visions of conquering the corporate world, yet no game plan or experience to realize them. When they played pickup basketball together, Todd would get knocked to the ground by his dad and told, No blood, no foul., First, he was Dad, Todd says of Bert. On nights when Koufax or Drysdale was pitching, Blyleven would listen to Scully on the radio and keep track of just one statistic. The Astros visited his home and offered him a signing bonus commensurate with a second-round pick in advance of the 1990 Draft. He simply wanted to talk about his contract. He carried her out and set her near a squad car where a nurse had begun to set up a makeshift triage unit. I was pissed off.. Its too bad (Josh) Donaldson got hurt already. It all comes down, of course you know, to pitching. I loved being around it. He spotted a line of food trucks near the edge of a venue and a Budweiser cart where they could take cover. He said, Why? , Roof explained the need to be respected and to stick up for your hitters. I wanted to be a big leaguer. The righty warmed quickly to the concept. It became important in his personal life when emotional conflicts threatened his marriage. Dick Bremer(born 1956) is a sports broadcaster for Bally Sports North. Gayle Blyleven Who is the announcer for the Minnesota Twins? With the gunfire beginning again, with the bullets striking metal and dirt and flesh, Todds entire group was fortunate to get out alive. But this day was hot as hell, the street especially steep. Gayle, great tastewe love the belt and your booties with our camo dress! If, she said, he laid bricks, dug ditches, he would be great at those jobs. They didnt realize that an exit sat just beyond the nearby food vending trucks. Blylevens pedigree was enough to make him a free-agent signee of the Angels after his junior year, and he went on to pitch five seasons in the Minor Leagues. The Las Vegas shooting had one villain, 58 victims fatally wounded that night, two more who eventually died from complications related to the shooting in the ensuing years, 411 people injured by the bullets, another 456 injured in the ensuing panic, and some untold number of heroes. We're partnering with Homage.com to bring back Bert's legendary t-shirt! Thats where Todds baseball story -- and, in many ways, his life story -- went off track. During the off-season, Blyleven enjoys spending time with his family and playing golf "three or four times per week." He shot a 73 on the day I first spoke to him. It took him a good six months or so -- six months of headaches, six months in which he bottled up the goriest details of his experience -- before he committed to getting therapy to help him move forward. Todd knew the shooter must be reloading. Bert figured the same son tough enough to quietly nurse a broken arm in the Pirates clubhouse would eventually shake off this experience, too. What is a triple? Bert liked the Angels, and on summer nights, after wrapping up his paper route early in the day and finishing his shift at a local Orange Julius stand, he would do his best to attend every Angels game possible. A player needs 75 percent to get into the Hall of Fame, but Blyleven wasnt too worried; he knew he wasnt a first-ballot player. The 430 he allowed are eighth-most on the all-time list. Earlier this month, sitting in a downtown Minneapolis diner, cutting up his eggs and buttering his toast, Blyleven talked about all the things he was looking forward to about his induction, about the speech hed write (I know my first line, he said with a grin, is going to be, Are we live? ), about his fight to get in the Hall of Fame and about his unwavering belief that he belongs in Cooperstown. Some of those stops on the side of the road to assist strangers had come when he was on his way to pick her up for a date. Blyleven came into the big leagues at age 19 with two pitches a four-seam fastball and a dangerous curve and a straightforward attitude. The top of the seventh inning, were hitting, and I sit down next to Bert and I said, Somewhere in this inning, youve got to hit somebody, Roof recalled. Who cares? Just a few weeks earlier, the two had gone on a blind date on Valentines Day eve. He was always that way, Bert says. Todd Blyleven was a member of that family. The next day he put itching powder in Blylevens shorts. Gayle Blyleven in Minnesota. And then a couple of years ago, I sat with (Twins president) Dave St. Peter and they just basically said they were going to move in another direction. Blylevens wife, Gayle, said her husbands hold in the broadcasting booth is a testament to his ability to excel at whatever hes doing. This was Todds nature, to help those in need. But his proudest moment came a few years earlier with the Angels, when his contributions on the scouting side earned him a 2002 World Series ring. It was really challenging for me to try to figure out who I was and where I belonged, he says. Four members of Angel pitcher Bert Blylevens family remained hospitalized in Orange Friday with injuries resulting from a single-vehicle accident. He turned the ring inward and went back to work. The ring was one of his most prized possessions. And when he began to hear screams in the crowd and saw the light flashing from a room about three-quarters of the way up the 43-floor building, he knew. MacPhail wasnt interested, so Blyleven called up MacPhails wife, Lark, and convinced her he had broken his arm and needed to speak with the GM immediately. My mental makeup back then, Blyleven said, was, Hey, if you can hit it, hit it. . Blyleven is in his 16th year in the. He would say: I cant stop. And Im proud of you.. About Bert Blyleven is a 71 year old Dutch Baseballer born on 6th April, 1951 in Zeist, Netherlands. I knew my numbers were Hall of Fame numbers, but the writers werent getting it, he said. We celebrate strength and power. Blylevens legacy today seems centered on two things his often unhittable curveball and his status as one of baseballs most prolific practical jokers. Blyleven will be around as a special instructor at times in Fort Myers, the Florida home to the Twins, and also to Blyleven and his wife, Gayle, Quite a half-century journey, from the wide-eyed 18 . A renowned curveball pitcher, Blyleven was a two-time All-Star and World Series champion. And there was a Twins fan sitting in the upper deck, and they kept saying, Try to use the telestrator, try to use it somehow. But to me, if theres a fly ball in left center and the centerfielder and leftfielder converged, you cant really draw a line like John Madden did in football with the Xs and Os and all that stuff. Catcher Phil Roof was in the twilight of his career when Blylevens was beginning. They are involved in helping raise funds for Parkinson's Association and other charitable . Todd returned again to the concert site and came across a large group of people -- maybe 75 to 100, in his estimation -- taking cover behind some folding chairs. 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