Todd Blyleven, son of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher and Fort Myers resident Bert Blyleven, ran from the outdoor concert venue with his wife of 15 years, Cathie, and a group of 15 friends and family to safety late Sunday night in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Todd, 45, then ran back to danger. He helped fellow concert goers survive what became the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history.

When the first shots were fired, some but not all realized they were coming from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay and raining downward across Las Vegas Boulevard to the outdoor concert venue, Blyleven said. But he knew pretty fast.

“It is like a bad, scary, traumatic war movie that happened in real life with your real family and friends sitting there,” Blyleven said Monday night, after returning with his wife to their two children and their Dallas, Texas home. “And praying to God that you don’t fall during that fight and in the script.

“It was extremely scary and shocking. One minute I’m listening to a country artist that everybody loves and the next I’m ducking for cover. Right away, once we identified the gunfire, looked up at Mandalay and saw the light coming off the muzzle, I knew that’s where the shooting was coming from. Everything was just kind of ricocheting. The volume of the pops. I’m looking at my wife, and I’m going, ‘We’ve got to get the hell out of here.’ It was just pure survival mode at that moment to try and get your family into safety.”

As the chaos ensued, Blyleven knew those among the estimated 22,000 in attendance for the Jason Aldean portion of the outdoor Route 91 Harvest country music festival, those seeking cover by lying on the field, were far from safe. They were like sitting ducks.

The 6-foot-5 Blyleven, himself a minor league pitcher for seven seasons with the Angels, Pirates and Brewers in 1993-97, ran back, even as shots were still being fired by the lone gunman. Blyleven estimated he helped 30 to 40 people run for true cover, away from the scene.

He said he assisted one woman to a life-flight helicopter. He was fairly certain she died. He wheeled two or three survivors away from the scene in a wheelbarrow taken from an adjacent construction site. He and others helped carry or usher more away from the scene and toward the first responders.

“I just felt like I had to,” Blyleven said. “I had two arms and two legs. There were people in need. I felt like I needed to. There’s still the idea that maybe there were more gunmen down on the ground by the stage. We didn’t know if anybody was in there. The whole idea of going back was to get people to get out.

“You hope to God he’s not pointing the weapon at you. You do what you can. We can’t let these people win. That’s the whole bottom line here. It was a tremendous amount of courage displayed by off-duty EMTs and firefighters and police and nurses and ER nurses. Once they saw there were other people going in, we were putting people into wheelbarrows and wheeling people out and into pickup trucks and hauling people away.”

Las Vegas shooting: At least 59 dead, gunman was 'crazed lunatic full of hate'

Todd and Cathie were staying at the nearby Venetian. They were scheduled to fly home at 4 p.m. Monday. Instead, they rescheduled their flight for 1 p.m. They couldn’t wait to leave Las Vegas.

“I’m going to at least need a day,” Blyleven said, meaning he did not plan an immediate return to work as the director of business development at OrderMyGear, a sports apparel and equipment company. “I don’t normally get this shaken up over anything. To have this feeling is really strange. I don’t know. It’ll be a day or two.

“It was absolutely, chaotic crazy. After that 15-minute stand (of shooting) there were still rumors that there were gunmen at Hooters, gunmen at Tropicana, a bomb threat at Luxor. Everybody needed to get off the Strip. It was crazy.”

Bert Blyleven, now a TV broadcaster for the Minnesota Twins after playing 10 of his 22 big-league seasons for the team, first learned his son faced trouble at 1:30 a.m. Monday from his Fort Myers home. That’s when he received a text message from his daughter in Denver, who was watching the news.

Bert Blyleven first text messaged Cathie, his daughter-in-law. She and her brother and the rest of their group ended up in a condominium near Mandalay Bay. It had opened for those fleeing the scene. She told Bert she was OK. She stayed there until all was declared safe.

Bert then called his son, who answered the phone. Todd said he could not remember if shots were still being fired at that point or not. He just remembered seeing pure chaos around him. He told his dad that he was safe and would have to call him later. Their conversation lasted seconds.

“When I talked to him last night, I turned the TV on,” Bert Blyleven said. “They were saying two were deceased and 50 were injured. Now it’s up to 59 dead and over 500 who were injured. So pretty dramatic and very horrible what happened.”

The father said he was proud of his son.

“It just shows the kindness that people have,” Bert Blyleven said. “We saw it in New York during 9/11. It’s the same thing here. There are people who run away, and there are the marines who run in. Hopefully, I’ll never have to be put in that situation. I know Todd didn’t want to be put in that situation, but he reacted like the person he is.

“He’s always been G.I. Joe anyway. He wouldn’t just walk away. He always used to dress up in army fatigues and stuff like that. Growing up, we had a hill in the back of the house, and he was always aggressive that way.”

Todd Blyleven previously worked as a baseball scout with the Anaheim Angels and the Colorado Rockies. As a minor league player, advancing as high as the Double-A level, he compiled a 16-13 record with a 3.01 ERA, starting in 25 games and appearing in 56 others. He struck out 215 in 269 innings, solid numbers.

“I really enjoyed playing,” he said. “It came down to I lived my whole life of living the lifestyle of Major League Baseball. When you’re seeing your college friends graduate and get into relationships and have some sort of normality in their lives, you’re going, ‘That would be really nice to have a wife and kids and have a normal life.’ That became more important. It’s not that I didn’t love baseball, but I really wanted to have a family. One day, I played for the Brewers. I went out and pitched pretty good, but I came back and said I had had enough, mentally.”

Yes, machine guns are legal under Nevada's liberal firearms possession law

Todd Blyleven repeated that recovering from this emotionally could take some time, for him and Cathie.

“I’m scared,” he said. “Yeah. It’s just surreal. I’m just really thankful that my wife is safe. From our group of 15, everybody is safe. We had one girl with some lacerations on her left leg. We’re not sure if that’s from a bullet graze or from the panic leaving, but we’re safe.”

Bert Blyleven repeated his pride in his son.

“I’m very proud of him,” he said. “I’m very, very proud of him. He’s a good boy.”

Connect with this reporter: David Dorsey (Facebook), @DavidADorsey (Twitter).