Vida Blue, who as a rookie with the Oakland Athletics in 1971 threw an unhittable fastball and have become baseball’s hottest participant, died on Saturday. He was 73.
The Athletics introduced his loss of life however didn’t say the place Blue died or present the trigger.
Vida (pronounced VYE-da) Blue was one of many stars of an Athletics group that gained the World Sequence three straight years, from 1972 to 1974. However his efficiency in these years by no means reproduced the adulation and hoopla of his first full season.
After dropping on opening day to the Washington Senators in 1971, Blue, a lefty, reeled off eight wins in a row. In his first dozen video games, he threw 5 complete-game shutouts. By the summer time, he was main baseball in not simply shutouts but additionally wins, strikeouts, full video games and earned-run common.
Sports activities Illustrated and Time journal put him on their covers. He turned 22 that July.
On the sphere, he was a person in a rush. In contrast to nearly all different pitchers in baseball historical past, he ran to and from the mound. His supply concluded with what author Roger Angell of The New Yorker described as a “leap.”
Opposing hitters spoke mystically of how Blue’s fastballs would disappear or leap over their bats. Reporters speculated about why he carried two dimes in his pocket when he pitched, with some suggesting it was a attraction to assist him win 20 video games. Throughout the nation, attendance at his outings swelled to ranges that stadiums had not seen in years. Followers of an opposing group, the Detroit Tigers, chanted exterior the clubhouse, “We would like Vida!”
The A’s appeared within the playoffs for the primary time since 1931, finally dropping to the Baltimore Orioles within the American League Championship. Blue pulled off the feat of successful, in his first full season, each the Cy Younger and the Most Invaluable Participant Awards (beating out his teammate Sal Bando to change into the M.V.P.).
Blue earned the paltry sum of about $15,000 as wage, and he ready for a significant payday. President Richard Nixon known as him “essentially the most underpaid participant in baseball.”
But he had already fought with the colourful, obstreperous proprietor of the A’s, Charles O. Finley, who supplied Blue $2,000 to legally change his title to Vida True Blue, hoping to make use of the moniker for promoting.
Blue was named after his father, who died in Blue’s boyhood. “I honor him each time the title Vida Blue seems within the headlines,” Blue advised Time. “If Mr. Finley thinks it’s such an ideal title, why doesn’t he name himself True O. Finley?”
After the ’71 season, Blue mentioned he ought to make $115,000. Finley countered with $50,000 and made the dispute public. Blue held a information convention and declared that he would retire from sports activities to change into a vp for public relations at a metal firm.
In the end, Blue and Finley settled on $63,150.
After Blue’s run of wins in ’71 — it appeared potential at one level that he would attain the belief-defying milestone of 30 — he began the ’72 season late and went a pedestrian 6-10. He pitched effectively however not spectacularly as a reliever within the postseason, which concluded with the A’s successful the World Sequence.
“That man has soured me on baseball,” Blue advised The New York Instances about Finley in 1973. “It doesn’t matter what he does for me sooner or later, I’ll always remember that he handled me like a rattling coloured boy.”
Blue went on to cement a status as a standout common season pitcher, recording 20 or extra wins in three of his first 5 seasons. He was a contributor to the A’s subsequent success within the playoffs.
And even with out altering his title, Blue was one in all a number of memorably named Athletics. Amongst them have been Blue Moon Odom, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Mudcat Grant and Rick Monday.
Blue was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 1978 and recorded one other robust yr, going 18-10 with a 2.79 earned-run common. However he would quickly be higher identified for his life off the sphere.
In 1983, as a pitcher for the Kansas Metropolis Royals, Blue and a number of other of his teammates have been questioned as a part of a federal cocaine inquiry. He pleaded responsible to possession of the drug, resulting in 81 days in jail and a yearlong suspension from baseball.
It was a stunning flip of occasions for a person whose maturity and poise had been praised when he was a 22-year-old famous person.
In his 2011 autobiography, “Vida Blue: A Life,” Blue instructed that he had struggled with substance abuse for a few years. “Together with all of the glory that I’d achieved, there was a rising darkness reaching for me,” he wrote. “And the sunshine started to dim as early as 1972” — the yr of his struggle with Finley.
Vida Rochelle Blue Jr. was born on July 28, 1949, in Mansfield, a small city in northern Louisiana. His household lived on an unpaved avenue, and his father labored at a metal mill. Vida’s status as an athletic prodigy prompted his highschool to kind a baseball group. His overpowering pace on the mound induced outfielders to zone out, realizing no person may hit him, and the hand of his catcher to harm for days after video games.
He was additionally a celebrated quarterback, however his plans to play faculty soccer modified when his father died on the age of 45. Vida’s mom, Sallie Blue, advised him that now he was the person of the household.
When he was round 18 years previous, he bought a proposal from the Athletics with a $35,000 signing bonus, in line with Time. He gave a lot of it to his household.
Blue retired earlier than the 1987 season. After his profession as a ballplayer, he labored as a tv analyst for the Giants. He was denied a spot within the Corridor of Fame, and he spoke to journalists periodically about his notion that his drug use was responsible.
Details about Blue’s survivors was not instantly accessible.
As an previous man, Blue spoke to a gaggle of highschool college students on the prompting of a good friend, The Washington Publish reported in 2021. One boy was going by a darkish interval at dwelling. Blue took him apart and mentioned his personal struggles in his youth. Each of them wound up crying.
“I labored my tail off to shine that picture again up and renew the title Vida Blue Jr.,” he advised The Publish. “It’s a continuing battle to try this each day.”