Vida Blue, who broke into the major leagues with a no-hitter fastball and became baseball’s hottest player in 1971, died Saturday. He was 73 years old.
OA’s announced his death but did not specify the place or cause of his death.
Vida Blue was one of the stars of the athletics flamboyant, world champion for three consecutive years from 1972 to 1974. But his performances in those years never generated as much adulation as in the first season.
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO ARCHIVES
Blue Vida, baseball player for the Oakland Athletics, in action, 1971
After losing in the opening game against the Washington Senators in 1971, Blue, a left-hander, won eight straight. Five of his first 12 games were complete games and shutouts. In July, he led both leagues in shutouts, wins, complete games and ERA.
He turned 22 in July, when his photo made the cover of the magazine Sports Illustrated AND time storageIt is.
On the hill, he was a man in a hurry. Unlike most pitchers, Blue would run to and from the mound. Baseball columnist Roger Angell marveled at his extremely dynamic swing on the mound.
“We want Life! »
Opposing hitters recalled with amazement how his fastball would disappear or deflect from their bats. Journalists were obsessed with the two coins he always carried in his pocket on the mound: some wrote that it was a lucky charm to help him win 20 games. Across the American League, attendances soared when he pitched, hitting records not seen in years. On one occasion, fans of an opposing team (the Detroit Tigers) chanted, “We Want Life!” “before departure.
The OA’s lost to the Baltimore Orioles in the 1971 American League Championship, but Blue accomplished the feat of winning the Cy Young and Most Valuable Player trophies in his first full season.
In 1971, Blue earned a meager salary of $15,000, an amount that even earned a comment from the President of the United States:
He is the lowest paid player in baseball.
Richard Nixon, President of the United States
After the season, Blue asked for $115,000 for 1972. The A’s eccentric and strong-willed owner Charlie O. Finley offered him $50,000 and released the figures. Blue, already irritated with Finley for publicly offering him $2,000 to change his first name, responded with a press conference in which he announced that he was leaving the sport to become vice president of public relations for a steel company.
In the end, Blue and Finley agree on a sum of $63,150.
His sophomore season ended with a modest 6-10 record. In the playoffs, he pitched well – as a reliever – without being exceptional. The A’s won the World Series.
This man made me bitter about baseball. No matter what he does in the future, I will never forget that he treated me like a fucking colored kid.
Blue Life about Charlie O. Finley in 1973
Blue became a standout regular season pitcher, with 20 or more wins in three of his first five seasons, contributing to the A’s success in the playoffs.
mustache gang
Blue was one of many athletic greats of that era, including Blue Moon Odom, Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Rollie Fingers, Mudcat Grant and Rick Monday, nicknamed the Mustache Gang (wearing mustaches was started by Reggie Jackson, who would sign in 1976 as free agent with the New York Yankees for $3 million a year after turning down a $5 million a year offer from the Montreal Expos).
The Blue was traded to the San Francisco Giants in 1978 and had another strong season, going 18-10 and having a 2.79 ERA.
His life off the court, however, would make headlines in 1983 with the Kansas City Royals. Blue and his teammates were questioned as part of a federal cocaine investigation. He pleaded guilty to drug possession, served 81 days in jail and was suspended for one year by Major League Baseball.
This event came as a surprise, with Blue showing remarkable maturity and composure despite being a 22-year-old superstar.
In his 2011 autobiography, Blue Life: my life, Blue said he struggled with drug addiction for many years. “Along with all the glory I gained, a growing darkness took hold of me,” he wrote. “And the light started to dim as early as 1972, the year he fought Finley.
Vida Rochelle Blue Jr. was born on July 28, 1949 in Mansfield, a small town in northern Louisiana. His family lived on a dirt street and his father worked in a steel mill. Excellent on the mound, he was also the star quarterback for the school’s football team.
He intended to play college football, but his father’s sudden death at age 45 changed his plans. His mother told him that from then on he was the man of the family. When, at age 18, the A’s offered him a $35,000 signing bonus, he accepted and gave a large portion of it to his family.
Blue retired before the 1987 season. He then worked as a game analyst for the San Francisco Giants. He was not inducted into the Hall of Fame. A refusal attributable, he said, to drug use.
This article was published in New York Times (In English)
