Todd Blyleven

Trauma Advocate, Speaker & Survivor — Route 91 Harvest Festival

Todd Blyleven spent forty-five years doing what his father, Dutch Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven, taught him to do: push through, don't stop, there are people who want your job. It was a philosophy built for baseball diamonds and running hills in Villa Park, California. It worked until the night of October 1, 2017, when 22,000 people were caught in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history — and Todd ran toward the gunfire instead of away from it. Todd grew up in professional baseball. As a seven-year-old, he was the bat boy for the Pittsburgh Pirates during the 1979 World Series, known as 'Tomato Face' in the dugout, swinging from Dave Parker's arms and collecting gold stars from Willie Stargell. He was not just near greatness — he was part of the family of it, a child who absorbed the ethos of professional sport before he understood what ethos meant. His father's constant refrain: there are people who want my job. No stopping. As a prospect, Todd was legitimate — a star pitcher at Villa Park High School when his father was finishing his career with the Angels, his name in the Orange County Register on the inside pages while Bert's was on the front. Major League teams scouted him. The Houston Astros offered a signing bonus commensurate with a second-round pick. But Bert and Todd's mother Patty held out for the first round. The Astros moved on. Todd fell to the Angels in the 39th round, went to college, drank too much, didn't concentrate, and never made it past Double-A. The dream he had — to be what his father was — didn't happen. After baseball, Todd found purpose again as a scout. He signed Troy Tulowitzki for the Colorado Rockies out of Long Beach State — taken seventh overall in the 2005 Draft. He earned a 2002 World Series ring with the Angels. He carried that ring with him for years, slipping it on when things got hard, using the weight of it to remind himself of who he was capable of being. On October 1, 2017, Todd was at the Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas with his wife Cathie and a group of about 18 family and friends. Some of those friends were 21-year-olds he had watched play Little League. When the shooting started from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay — a gunman with 22 weapons firing into a crowd of 22,000 — Todd got his family and friends to safety. Then he went back in. For the next several hours, he carried bodies, checked pulses, escorted the wounded to triage, and ran back again. He estimates he assisted dozens of people. He held one woman as she died. He saw his World Series ring in that moment and it felt hollow — wrong. Something about that ring representing achievement when a woman was dying in his arms recontextualized everything he thought he valued. He later tucked the ring away, where it has remained. The aftermath was what most people don't talk about. Todd went back to doing what he had always done: kept moving. Got up. Went home. Took his son to baseball the next day. Didn't tell anyone the full story for six months because the culture he had grown up in didn't have a language for what he was feeling. When his father asked him when he was going to get over it, it wasn't cruelty — it was the same Dutch directness that had made Bert Blyleven one of the great pitchers in baseball history. There are people who want my job. No stopping. Except now it wasn't working. Todd found a specialist in EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — and slowly began to piece together the fragmentary movie of that night. He began to understand that PTSD is not something you get over. It is something you learn to walk alongside. He calls his framework 'walking with your trauma': you acknowledge what happened, you name it, you don't let it run your life, and you don't pretend it isn't there. As a result of carrying all those bodies that night, Todd required multiple surgeries — tears in his left labrum, bicep, and rotator cuff, a hernia in his right groin area. PTSD is now a permanent part of his life. When he and Cathie go out to eat, they find a table with their backs to the wall and a view of the room. Todd Blyleven now speaks publicly about trauma, healing, and what it means to finally ask for help. His message is aimed directly at men who have been taught the same lie he was: that moving forward means moving silently. Walking with your trauma, he argues, is not weakness. It is the most honest and the most courageous thing a person can do.

Key Insights from Todd Blyleven

When the shooting started, we were about 20 feet from the stage when Jason Aldean was up there. I got my group together, got my family out, and then I went back in.

— Todd Blyleven on The decision to run back in

I always looked back on it and think — if I were to fall that night, and that was kind of my mentality, I was going down proud. My family would know that I went down the way my dad taught me.

— Todd Blyleven on Fathered values meeting the ultimate test

In American culture, we're supposed to get stuff in like, 30 days.

— Todd Blyleven on The cultural lie about healing timelines

You acknowledge it. You name it. You do not let it run your life.

— Todd Blyleven on Walking with your trauma — the framework

When I set one woman down outside, I looked in her eyes and realized she was gone. I had my right hand upon her, and I saw my shiny, gaudy World Series ring staring back at me. It didn't feel right. That achievement now felt so hollow.

— Todd Blyleven on When achievement feels hollow — the revaluation

When do you think you're going to get over this?

— Todd Blyleven on The impossible question from a Hall of Famer father

If that thing is a movie, it starts to put those minute-long segments back in order for you over time. It allows me to process the good parts and the bad parts and to lean more on the goodness of things.

— Todd Blyleven on EMDR therapy and processing traumatic memory

Put your boots on and take the next step.

— Todd Blyleven on Taking the next step — the closing image

Notable Quotes from Todd Blyleven

I got my group together, got my family out, and then I went back in.

— Todd Blyleven

You acknowledge it. You name it. You do not let it run your life.

— Todd Blyleven

I saw my shiny, gaudy World Series ring staring back at me. It didn't feel right. That achievement now felt so hollow.

— Todd Blyleven

Frequently Asked Questions about Todd Blyleven

Who is Todd Blyleven and what happened to him at the Las Vegas shooting?

Todd Blyleven is the son of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven, a former Minor League pitcher, MLB scout (known for signing Troy Tulowitzki), and Route 91 Harvest Festival survivor. On October 1, 2017, Todd was attending the concert in Las Vegas when Stephen Paddock opened fire from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay, killing 58 people and injuring 851 in the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history. Todd got his family and friends to safety, then returned to the venue multiple times over several hours, carrying wounded people to triage, checking pulses, and assisting dozens of people. As a result, he suffered multiple physical injuries requiring surgery and developed PTSD, which he has addressed through EMDR therapy and public advocacy.

What is Todd Blyleven's 'walking with your trauma' framework?

Todd Blyleven's 'walking with your trauma' framework is a philosophy he developed from his own PTSD recovery after Route 91. It has three components: acknowledge what happened, name it clearly, and refuse to let it run your life. The framework explicitly rejects both suppression (the approach he used for six months after the shooting, which failed) and being consumed by it. Todd argues that trauma does not have a 30-day resolution timeline and that real strength is not moving silently past what happened but learning to coexist consciously with it. The framework is now central to his public speaking and advocacy for men who have been taught that asking for help is weakness.

What is Todd Blyleven's baseball background and connection to Bert Blyleven?

Todd Blyleven is the son of Bert Blyleven, the Dutch-American Hall of Fame pitcher who won 287 games over 22 MLB seasons and was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011. Todd grew up inside professional baseball — he was the bat boy for the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates World Series team at age seven. He became a legitimate pitching prospect, was scouted by Major League teams including the Houston Astros, and ultimately signed with the Angels as a free agent after college. He played five seasons in the Minor Leagues, never advancing past Double-A. He then worked as an MLB scout for the Angels, Rockies, and Arizona Diamondbacks, with his signature signing being shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, taken seventh overall in the 2005 Draft. He also holds a 2002 World Series ring from his time with the Angels.

What physical injuries did Todd Blyleven sustain at Route 91?

As a direct result of carrying wounded people to safety during the Route 91 Harvest Festival shooting on October 1, 2017, Todd Blyleven required surgeries to repair tears in his left labrum, bicep, and rotator cuff, as well as a hernia in his right groin area. His left hip also continued to give him trouble. Beyond the physical injuries, Todd developed PTSD, which manifests in hypervigilance (he and his wife always sit with their backs to the wall in restaurants), sleep disturbances, and emotional responses tied to the sights, sounds, and sensations of that night. He addressed the PTSD through EMDR therapy, a specialized treatment for traumatic memory processing.

What does Todd Blyleven speak about and who is his audience?

Todd Blyleven speaks about trauma recovery, the silence that men are culturally trained to maintain around suffering, and the mechanics of asking for help. His message is aimed at men who have been raised — as he was, in the culture of professional sport — to equate toughness with silence and to treat continued forward motion as the only acceptable response to pain. His framework, 'walking with your trauma,' challenges this directly: real strength is not suppression but conscious acknowledgment. He draws on his experiences as the son of a Hall of Famer, a minor league player, an MLB scout, and a Route 91 survivor to demonstrate what happens when the move-forward-silently approach finally fails.

How has Todd Blyleven processed the trauma of the Las Vegas shooting?

Todd Blyleven's processing of the Route 91 trauma began about six months after the shooting, when he committed to professional therapy. He worked with a specialist trained in EMDR — Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing — which helped him piece together the fragmented memory of the night into a sequential narrative. He describes the process as reassembling a movie: initially he experienced the night as disconnected fragments; over time, EMDR helped him sequence the events so he could access them with less emotional flooding and lean more heavily on the positive aspects — the people he helped, the selfless acts, the reunion with his wife. He and his wife also began attending church together as part of their healing journey. He has been open that PTSD is a permanent part of his life and is not something that goes away.

Interview with Todd Blyleven — Topics Covered

  1. Introduction and context — the man before Vegas (~3 minutes)
  2. Growing up the son of Bert Blyleven (~4 minutes)
  3. Playing baseball and the minor league years (~3 minutes)
  4. Finding purpose in scouting — Troy Tulowitzki and the 2002 ring (~3 minutes)
  5. Route 91 — the night of the shooting (~6 minutes)
  6. The aftermath — going back to normal (and why it didn't work) (~4 minutes)
  7. His father's question — 'When do you think you'll get over this?' (~3 minutes)
  8. EMDR therapy and learning to process (~4 minutes)
  9. Walking with your trauma — the framework (~3 minutes)
  10. What he wants men to hear (~3 minutes)

Todd Blyleven — Areas of Expertise

  • Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting and survivor advocacy
  • Trauma recovery and PTSD for men
  • EMDR therapy and traumatic memory processing
  • Walking with your trauma — framework for healing
  • Men's mental health and breaking the silence culture
  • Professional baseball scouting and MLB career
  • Growing up inside Hall of Fame professional sport
  • Faith, marriage, and rebuilding relationship after trauma
  • First responder mentality and protective instinct
  • Asking for help without feeling weak

Watch: From MLB Scout to Las Vegas Hero

Full Center Stage interview with Todd Blyleven on Mornings in the Lab.

Watch on YouTube

Todd Blyleven — Show Appearances

  • Mornings in the Lab (2025-12-15)

Todd Blyleven — Signal Brief

Signal Score: 6/100

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