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Did you see the photos online this week of baseball players stretching in the sun during the earliest days of spring training? Is there anything more wonderful than the thought that soon, not even two months from now, we'll once again hear the crack of the bat, the thwack of the ball, as the boys of summer get started this spring? That got Brainiac think ing about a few of the base ball stars to come from our fair environs. In particular, two who’ve been ensconced in very different halls of fame and shame. Let’s start with the one who nearly everyone who ever met him would agree is an all-around good guy. That would be Bert Blyle ven, the Netherlands-born kid who grew up in Garden Grove, practiced pitching in his backyard and racked up so many great stats over 22 years as a major league pitcher, including four years as an Angel, that for 14 years after he was eligi ble for the Hall of Fame, folks argued seemingly nonstop over his merits. “I threw it and threw it and threw it against a block wall until I could get it over for strikes,” Blyleven said in 2011 when he finally won en try into the Hall of Fame, the only club that matters to major leaguers. “My dad built me a mound in the backyard with a canvas backdrop over our horse shoe pits, and I would go back there and just throw and throw and throw until I developed it, and it became my curveball. And I could throw it over at any time, any count.” Biyleven by bullet points: He’s a graduate of San tiago High School and spent a good amount of time as a kid at the Boys Girls Clubs of Garden Grove. His splashiest statistics include 3,701 strikeouts, which ranks him fifth all time, and 60 shutouts, ninth all-time. He’s got one of the best ESPN “SportsCenter” nicknames - Bert “Be Home” Blyleven - and was a notorious clubhouse prank ster, who often gave old fashioned hot foots (hot feet?) Now for the darker side of Garden Grove’s diamond legacy. Poor Lenny Dyks tra, who had it all, lost it all, broke a bunch of laws try ing to get it back and ended up doing a stretch in the big house for his crimes. The guy nicknamed “Nails” because he was tough as them broke out as a star for the New York Mets in the mid-1980s, known for his hard-nosed hustle and relentless drive to win. But his career only lasted half as long as Blyle ven’s. Proof, we suppose, of the saying about candles burning bright and fast. Out of baseball by the late 90s, he embarked on a series of business ventures car washes and personal services, such as charter jets for athletes, among them that ultimately fiz zled and failed, leaving him so broke that at one point he auctioned off the World Series ring he earned with the Mets. It’s not a good thing when one’s list of business failures, lawsuits, arrests and convictions is longer than your list of stats earned on the ball field. In March 2012, Dykstra was sentenced to three years in prison for charges that in cluded grand theft auto and money laundering. He was released on probation in June 2013 and we wish him all the best in his new chap ter, “Nails” in a nutshell. Dykstra graduated from Garden Grove High School in 1981 and was picked in the 13th round by the Mets that year, making the team for good in 1985. His best baseball mo ment came in the 1986 post season when he smacked a walk-off homer in Game 3 of the National League Cham pionship Series against the Houston Astros, and then hit two more in the World Series in defeating the Bos ton Red Sox. His off-field exploits are almost too numerous to pick just one as the best, or worst. Perhaps the time the escort accused him of pay ing her with a $1,000 check that bounced. (Dysktra de nied it though she showed reporters the purported bad check.) That would be major league bad behavior right there, we reckon. Got an idea, a comment, a tip for ol’ Brainiac? Write Brainiac@ocregister.com or call 714-796-7787 to share. ABOVE: California An gels pitcher Bert Blyle ven throws a pitch dur ing a game against the Baltimore Orioles on May 3, 1990. RIGHT: Blyleven gives his speech as he is induct ed into the Baseball Hall of Fame after 22 years in the league and 14 years of eligibility. FILE PHOTO: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ‘AS ALL FILE PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES ABOVE: Lenny Dykstra of the New York Mets thrusts a fist in the air after his game-winning two-run home run in the ninth inning of Game 3 of the National League Championship Series. RIGHT: Dykstra was convicted of money laundering and grand theft auto in 2012. FILE PHOTO: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE PHOTO: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Newspaper Details
Garden Grove Journal
Garden Grove, California, US
Thu, Feb 13, 2014
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Stephanie J.
USA 19 Feb 2026
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Garden Grove Journal
