Vida Rochelle Blue Jr.
(born July 28, 1949) is a former Major League Baseball left-handed starting pitcher. In a 17-year career, he played for the Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, and Kansas City Royals.
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VIDA BLUE TICKETS
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Baseball career
In
1970, after spending the season in the
minor leagues with the
Iowa Oaks of the
American Association, Blue was called up in September, making two starts that provided a glimpse of what was to come. On
September 11, he
shut out the
Kansas City Royals 3-0, giving up only one hit, to
Pat Kelly in the eighth inning. Ten days later, he
no-hit the
Minnesota Twins, 6-0, at
Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, with the lone baserunner being
Harmon Killebrew, who walked in the fourth inning.
Blue was a
southpaw power pitcher. He possessed a breaking curveball that he threw on occasion and an above average change-up, but his signature pitch was a blistering fastball that dialed up to nearly 100 miles per hour.
[1] In
The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, all-time hits leader
Pete Rose stated that Blue 'threw as hard as anyone' he had ever faced,
[2] and baseball historian
Bill James cited Blue as the hardest-throwing lefty, and the second hardest thrower of his era, to only
Nolan Ryan.
[3]
Blue had a 24-8 record in 1971, winning both the
Cy Young and
MVP awards. Only one other starting pitcher,
Roger Clemens in
1986, has since won an MVP Award. That season, the Athletics won the
American League West title for the franchise's first postseason berth since the
Philadelphia Athletics in the
1931 World Series. He was the youngest American League player in the 20th Century to win the MVP Award.
[4] He was the starting pitcher for the
American League in the 1971
All-Star Game, and for the
National League in the 1978 All-Star Game.
Blue won 20 games in 1973 as he led the Athletics to the World Championship that year.
In 1976, baseball commissioner
Bowie Kuhn vetoed an attempt to sell Blue to the
New York Yankees and in 1977, Kuhn cancelled a proposed trade of Blue to the
Cincinnati Reds. In both instances, Kuhn said the trades would be bad for baseball because they would benefit already powerful teams without making them give up any significant talent in return.
In 1978, Blue won 18 games as he led the Giants to 89 wins and a second-place finish in
National League West Division, which was won by the
Los Angeles Dodgers. His great year was rewarded as he won the
Sporting News National League Pitcher Of The Year. He, along with
Chili Davis, were the last players before
Ichiro Suzuki to wear their
given name on the back of their uniforms instead of their
surname, having both done so with the Giants.
Blue battled drug addiction over the course of his career. After the 1983 season, he and former teammates
Willie Wilson,
Jerry Martin and
Willie Aikens pleaded guilty to attempting to purchase
cocaine. In 1985, he testified in the
Pittsburgh drug trials.
Blue also made a name and career after baseball for himself in the
San Francisco Bay Area by donating his time to many charitable causes, mostly promoting
baseball in the
inner city.
In 1971, Blue accompanied
Bob Hope on his
USO Christmas tour of
Vietnam and other military installations.
Vida currently lives in
Costa Rica and is active in promoting the sport of baseball in that country.
Career statistics
Pitching
W
| L
| WP
| GP
| GS
| CG
| Sh
| SV
| IP
| BB
| SO
| ERA
| WHIP
|
209
| 161
| .565
| 502
| 473
| 143
| 37
| 2
| 3343.3
| 1,185
| 2,175
| 3.27
| 1.233
|
See also
- Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
- List of Major League Baseball leaders in career wins
- List of Major League Baseball ERA champions
- Top 100 strikeout pitchers of all time
- List of Major League Baseball no-hitters
References
- A Bolt of Blue Lightning
- The Neyer/James Guide to Pitchers, 2004, ISBN 0-7432-6158-5
- The Mighty Fastball
- Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p.152, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, NY, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0