The Hall of Fame vote of the nearly 575 eligible members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America will be announced Monday. The one sure thing appears to be leadoff man extraordinaire Rickey Henderson, who is making his first appearance on the ballot and could be a near-unanimous selection.

Others on the ballot are less certain to collect enough votes, including two former players who are nearing the end of their 15 years of eligibility with the writers. Jim Rice, who is making his 15th and final appearance on the writers’ ballot, seemed like a sure thing for much of his career. His raw numbers don’t seem to impress today’s writers, perhaps because of the offensive explosion of the 1990s.

Time’s also running out for Bert Blyleven, who was 287-250 (3.31 ERA) with 242 complete games over 22 big league seasons, many with mediocre teams. He also collected 60 career shutouts. Among major league pitchers over the last 75 years, only Warren Spahn (63), Tom Seaver (61) and Nolan Ryan (61) -- all Hall of Famers -- have more. Blyleven, who is in his 12th year of eligibility, threw a wicked curveball that numerous former major leaguers who faced him say was the best in the business.

Blyleven surfaced with the Twins in 1970 and won his first major league start, just two months after his 19th birthday. The 6-foot-3 right-hander proved durable, as he worked more than 275 innings in each of his first six seasons, exceeded 200 innings in 16 of 22 big league campaigns, and claimed his 287th and final win at age 41. He is one of only three major leaguers to win a game as a teenager and after turning 40.

Although there was only one 20-win season -- in 1973 for the 81-81 Twins -- Blyleven won 15 or more games in a season 10 times. His team had a winning record in only three of those 10 years. Blyleven was on course for a second 20-win campaign with Cleveland in 1984, when a broken bone in his right foot cost him at least four starts and the right-hander finished 19-7 for the 75-87-1 Tribe. His 2.87 ERA ranked third in the American League.

The 1984 Cy Young Award winner in the AL was reliever Willie Hernandez, who saved 32 games and posted a 1.92 ERA over 140.1 innings for the World Series champion Tigers. Perhaps a few more successful starts might have made the difference for Blyleven. The Orioles’ Mike Boddicker, at 20-11 with an AL-leading 2.79 ERA, was the league’s only 20-game winner in ‘84.

Blyleven still ranked 11th in wins during the 1970s with 148, and Vida Blue is the only one of the other 10 not in the Hall. Only Nolan Ryan, Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton had more strikeouts in the '70s. In the 1980s, Blyleven was sixth in wins with 123 -- the top three were Jack Morris (162), Dave Stieb (140) and Bob Welch (137) -- and fourth in strikeouts behind Ryan, Fernando Valenzuela and Morris.

One knock on Blyleven’s Hall bid is that he didn’t win a Cy Young Award, about which the humorous pitcher-turned-broadcaster has quipped that even Cy Young didn’t win one. On the other hand, Blyleven won World Series titles with the 1979 Pirates and 1987 Twins.

With Uncle Charlie his best friend to the very end, Blyleven retired in 1992 with 3,701 strikeouts, then the third-most in major league history behind Hall of Famers Ryan (5,714) and Carlton (4,136). Blyleven has been passed since by Randy Johnson (4,789) and Roger Clemens (4,672) and ranks fifth all time. Blyleven is the only Hall-eligible player among the top 17 in all-time strikeouts who doesn't have a plaque in Cooperstown.

Missing out on 300 wins shouldn’t be an issue, as there are Hall of Fame pitchers who don’t meet that standard, and some of them were less talented than Blyleven.

Maybe not having 300 wins does work against Blyleven in a close vote, but the baseball writers should bury the milestone as a Hall standard. Winning 300 games was a standard that developed in the days of the four-man rotation. If you adjust it accordingly for the era of five-man rotations, today’s 300 is more like 240 wins. Greg Maddux’s career total of 355 is truly incredible.

Blyleven also worked in five-man rotations, except for his first few years in the majors, and posted 287 wins. He rarely pitched for an elite team, and a couple of years with a dominant club might have paved an easier path to the Hall.

A notorious prankster with a reputation for going to any length to make one happen, Blyleven would crawl under the dugout bench to light a teammate’s shoelaces on fire. His hot foot skills were legendary. Many of Blyleven’s pranks were far more elaborate, yet others as simple as when he pied then-Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda in the face around 1990.

Blyleven was just as likely to ignite a smile with a quip, a skill he still calls on regularly today. He awaits the Hall results from the writers for a 12th time on Monday, and he deserves the call. If it doesn’t work out, Blyleven, who was born in the Netherlands but came to the United States as a young boy, will deal with it in his usual good humor.

"I know I've got a lock on the Dutch Hall of Fame," he has been known to say.