Alomar and Blyleven Inducted into HOF

With Puerto Rican flags waving in the breeze, Roberto Alomar has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Speaking first in his native Spanish, the third Puerto Rican player to be enshrined along with Orlando Cepeda and Roberto Clemente, said he feels proud to be a Puerto Rican.

“I always played for my island,” he said at Sunday’s ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y., before adding “it is a true blessing to be able to share this moment with all of you,” he said.

Alomar, a member of the Toronto Blue Jays’ World Series championship teams in 1992 and 1993, is the first player to enter the Hall of Fame wearing a Blue Jays cap and just the 20th second baseman to be inducted.

Bert Blyleven has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and the first Dutch-born player to be enshrined thanked his late father and his 85-year-old mother for the drive and determination he needed to succeed.

Blyleven, who won a World Series with Pittsburgh in 1979 and Minnesota in 1987, won 287 games and tossed 60 shutouts in his 22-year career.

Blyleven’s father, who died of Parkinson’s in 2004, fell in love with baseball and the Dodgers after the family moved to Southern California in the late 1950s.

“I wish he was here,” Blyleven said at Sunday’s induction ceremony in Cooperstown, N.Y. “But you know, mom, I know he’s up there looking down right now.”

The starting pitcher was elected on his 14th try.