Vida Blue, 1949-2023

When I was a kid, I was the biggest baseball trivia expert in school. Kids came up with trick questions to try and catch me. One was, "Who was the last switch-hitter to win the Most Valuable Player award?"

And I knew the answer: "Pete Rose, 1973."  They would say, "No, I got you! It was Vida Blue in 1971 -- oh... "

For the record, here are all the switch-hitters who have won the MVP in each League since its institution in 1931:

* National League: Frankie Frisch, St. Louis Cardinals, 1931; Maury Wills, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1962; Pete Rose, Cincinnati Reds, 1973; Willie McGee, Cardinals, 1985; Terry Pendleton, Atlanta Braves, 1991; Ken Caminiti, San Diego Padres, 1996; Chipper Jones, Braves, 1999; Jimmy Rollins, Philadelphia Phillies, 2007.

* American League: Mickey Mantle, Yankees, 1956, 1957, 1962; Vida Blue, Oakland Athletics, 1971.

Vida Blue had an interesting career, including still being the last switch-hitter in the American League to win the MVP.

Vida Rochelle Blue Jr. was born on July 28, 1949 in Mansfield, Louisiana. At DeSoto High School in Mansfield, he was a lefthanded pitcher and quarterback. Notre Dame, Purdue and the University of Houston wanted him to play football for them, but as a receiver, not a quarterback. At that point, at major colleges, black quarterbacks were even rarer than lefthanded quarterbacks.

So when he was drafted by the Kansas City Athletics in 1967, he signed with them. They moved to Oakland in 1968, and he made his major league debut on July 20, 1969, the day of the 1st manned Moon landing. Wearing Number 21, he started the 1st game of a doubleheader with the California Angels, at Anaheim Stadium (now named Angel Stadium of Anaheim). He didn't get out of the 6th inning, allowing 5 runs (3 of them earned) on 6 hits and a walk, and was the losing pitcher in a 7-3 Angels win. The A's won the 2nd game, 9-6.

Blue appeared in 12 major league games in 1969, and 6 in 1970. But in 1971, he not only broke out, but had one of the most sensational seasons in the game's history. Now wearing Number 35, he lost his 1st start, then won 10 straight decisions. He advanced to 16-2, 19-3, and by August 15, he was 22-4 with a 1.70 ERA. He was selected as the AL's starting pitcher in the All-Star Game in Detroit. (His A's teammate, right fielder Reggie Jackson, pinch-hit for him, and hit the ball so hard, it crashed into the transformer of a light tower on the right field roof.)

After facing him in the All-Star Game, Pete Rose said that Blue "threw as hard as anyone" he ever faced. Years later, baseball statistician Bill James called Blue as the hardest-throwing lefty of his era, and the 2nd-hardest thrower of either hand, behind Nolan Ryan.

Blue was put on the cover of Sports Illustrated. No surprise there. But the cover of Time? That was unusual for a baseball player, and hadn't been done since Denny McLain 3 years earlier. It's been even more unusual since: Only 9 active players have been put on the cover since Blue.

He may have let the hype get to him. He lost 5 of his last 7 decisions, including Game 1 of the AL Championship Series, to Dave McNally and the Baltimore Orioles, who swept the Western Division Champion A's in 3 straight.

Still, he finished the regular season 24-8, and led the AL with a 1.82 ERA, 8 shutouts, 8.7 strikeouts per 9 innings, and a 0.952 WHIP (not that anybody knew what WHIP was back then). Amazingly, he didn't lead the League in wins: Mickey Lolich of the Detroit Tigers went 25-14. Nor did he lead it in winning percentage: His .750 trailed McNally's .808, 21-5. But he was a unanimous choice -- getting all 14 votes for 1st place -- for the AL's Cy Young Award. He was also unanimously chosen for the MVP, with his A's team Captain, 3rd baseman Sal Bando, finishing 2nd.

He was 23 years old, and seemed to have the world at his feet. He accompanied Bob Hope on his USO Christmas Tour of Vietnam and other military installations. He spoke at several charity dinners, and played at celebrity golf tournaments.

A's owner Charlie Finley was cheap. And now, he had the reigning AL MVP. In 1971, Blue made $14,000. Hearing this, President Richard Nixon called him "the most underpaid player in baseball." For 1972, Blue wanted $92,500. He held out, throughout Spring Training, and through the 1st quarter of the season. Blue actually threatened to quit baseball and become a plumber. (Don't laugh: A good plumber can make very good money.) Finally, Blue and Finley settled on $63,150. 

He didn't make his season debut until May 24. As in 1971, he lost his 1st start. This time, though, he also lost his 2nd decision, and his 3rd. He didn't get his 1st win until June 18 -- the day after the Watergate break-in. He finished only 6-10, but with a 2.80 ERA.

The A's won their 1st Pennant in 41 years, since they were still in Philadelphia. He got the save in Game 1 of the World Series, but blew a save in Game 4, and started and lost Game 6. Still, with Ken Holtzman winning Game 1, and Jim "Catfish" Hunter winning Games 2 and 7, the A's were World Champions. 

In 1973, Blue switched his uniform number to 14. For a while, Finley wanted the name "TRUE" to appear on the back on his uniform, even suggesting that Vida legally change his name to "Vida True Blue." He Blue was named after his father, who died in Blue’s boyhood. "I honor him every time the name Vida Blue appears in the headlines," Blue told Time. "If Mr. Finley thinks it’s such a great name, why doesn’t he call himself True O. Finley?" It's unlikely that Commissioner Bowie Kuhn would have allowed it, anyway, but he did allow Blue to have "VIDA" on the back.

The 1973 season was a rough one for the A's. Blue went 20-9, but other players feuded, and even fought, with each other. And they feuded with Finley, who feuded with his manager, Dick Williams. At least Williams and the players generally got along, thanks to having a common enemy: Finley.

Finley had a heart attack during the season. Instead of making him rethink his life, what kind of person he was, and what kind of person he should be, the brush with death only made him meaner. As Bando put it, "Most players, prior to the 1973 season, anyhow, would consider Mr. Finley a father figure. With his heart attack, things started to change. He became more vindictive."

Indeed, that season, Blue told The New York Times, "That man has soured me on baseball. No matter what he does for me in the future, I’ll never forget that he treated me like a damn colored boy."

Following 2nd baseman Mike Andrews' 2 errors in the 12th inning that cost the A's Game 2 of the World Series (which Blue had started, getting knocked out of the box in the 6th), Finley had Andrews sign a false affidavit saying he was injured, allowing him to be replaced on the World Series roster. That was the last straw: Williams told the players that, win or lose, he was quitting after the Series. Despite Blue being the losing pitcher in Game 5, the A's won the Series in 7 games, and Williams kept his word.

Under new manager Alvin Dark, Blue went 17-15 in 1974, and lost Game 2 of the World Series. That was the only game in the Series that the A's lost, as they made it 3 straight World Championships. In 1975, Blue went 22-11, making his 2nd All-Star Game, and the A's won their 5th straight AL West title.

On September 28, the last day of the regular season, Blue started against the California Angels at the Oakland Coliseum, and allowed no hits and 2 walks over 5 innings. But Dark took him out, and gave 1 inning each to Glenn Abbott and Paul Lindblad, and let relief ace Rollie Fingers pitch the last 2 innings. The A's won, 5-0, and, for the 1st time, more than 2 pitchers on 1 team combined to pitch a no-hitter.

But the A's lost the ALCS to the Boston Red Sox, and Finley began to break up his team: Knowing that free agency was coming, he wanted to get something for these players, so he could more quickly build a new contender. He had already lost Hunter on a technicality triggered by his own cheapness. Hunter signed with the Yankees. Just before the 1976 season started, he traded his best player, Jackson, to the Orioles. After 1 season in Baltimore, he, too, would sign a big contract with the Yankees.

On June 15, 1976, the trading deadline, with Blue at 6-6 with a 3.09 ERA, Finley sold him to the Yankees for $1.5 million. The same day, he sold left fielder Joe Rudi and relief ace Rolle Fingers to the Red Sox for $1 million each. He also tried to sell Bando to the Chicago White Sox, and Don Baylor to the Texas Rangers, but was unable to make either deal.

Since the Red Sox were already in Oakland to play the A's, Fingers simply walked across the stadium, and suited up for the Red Sox. Rudi did not. And Blue did not leave Oakland for New York.

Because, before he could, Commissioner Kuhn stepped in. He put the sales on hold until he could make a decision about them, meaning the 3 players couldn't play for the A's, or the Yankees, or the Red Sox. Finally, on June 18, Kuhn announced he was voiding the transactions, in what he called the "best interests of baseball." He cited the fact that the sales would benefit already powerful teams without making them give up any significant talent in return.

What would have happened if the sales had gone through? With Blue, the Yankees probably wouldn't have traded with the A's for Mike Torrez the next season. But, knowing what we know now, New York might have been the worst possible landing spot for Blue. Add Fingers to the Boston bullpen, and the Red Sox would almost certainly have won the AL Eastern Division titles in 1977 and '78.

(Why they were interested in Rudi, who knows, because it made no sense: They already had the aging but still potent Carl Yastrzemski and the young slugger Jim Rice to play left field. Maybe Rudi would have been moved over to center field.)

Blue did not pitch again until July 2, and finished 18-13, as the sputtering A's dynasty came to an end, with the young Kansas City Royals winning the AL West. In the off-season, Fingers and catcher Gene Tenace signed with the San Diego Padres, Rudi and Baylor (acquired from the Orioles in the Reggie trade) with the Angels, Bando with the Milwaukee Brewers, shortstop Bert Campaneris with the Rangers.

Finley didn't lift a finger to sign any of them to their big new salary demands. Most people were lifting one finger to Finley: The middle one. Blue told reporters, "I hope the next breath Charlie Finley takes is his last. I hope he falls flat on his face and dies of polio."

By Opening Day 1977, the only players left on the roster from the 1974 World Series were Blue and center fielder Bill North. The A's went from 98-64 in 1975 to 87-74 in 1976, to 63-98 in 1977, to 69-93 in 1978, to 54-108 in 1979. So few fans came out to the Coliseum that it was nicknamed the Mausoleum. Ever since, under 3 separate ownership groups, the A's have been in a cycle of rebuild, make the Playoffs, and sell off.

For an awful A's team in '77, Blue was the only representative at the All-Star Game, and went 14-19 with a 3.83 ERA. On December 9, Finley traded Blue to the Cincinnati Reds. This time, Finley acted as though he had learned his lesson: In addition to $1.75 million -- $250,000 more than the Yankees had offered a year and a half earlier -- he was also getting a player, the Reds' top prospect, 1st baseman Dave Revering.

At the same time, Finley was working on selling the A's to oil baron Marvin Davis, who had announced his intention to move the team to his hometown of Denver. When The Complete Handbook of Baseball for the 1978 season was published, the book's editor, Zander Hollander, had to include a disclaimer that the move of the A's had not been finished at press time. He made no such qualification for Blue: He had Blue listed with the Reds, and predicted that, with this addition, not only would the Reds regain the top spot in the NL West that the Los Angeles Dodgers had taken from them in '77, but that they would win the 1978 World Series.

On January 30, 52 days after the trade, Kuhn voided it, again citing the fact that the A's weren't getting enough back. Apparently, in Kuhn's mind, the combination of $1.75 million and Revering, already 25 and not yet having made his major league debut, was insufficient compensation for a 28-year-old pitcher with 3 All-Star Game appearances, a Cy Young, an MVP, and a career record of 124-86.

Kuhn was not the smartest Commissioner in baseball history. But, in this case, he turned out to be right. Finley again tried to acquire Revering, and got the Reds to agree to send him and an undisclosed amount of cash for relief pitcher Doug Bair. Revering became the best player on the A's in the 1978, '79 and '80 seasons. He was traded to the Yankees, and they won the Pennant in 1981, winning the ALCS in 3 straight over... the resurgent A's. But he lost it in 1982, playing for 4 organizations over the next year, and retiring after the season, at 29.

On March 15, 1978, Vida Blue was free at last: Finley sent him to the San Francisco Giants, for 7 players and $300,000. Kuhn let that trade happen. Rejuvenated at Candlestick Park, Blue became the 1st player to be genuinely loved on both sides of San Francisco Bay. He also became the 1st pitcher to start the All-Star Game for each League. He went 18-10 with a 2.79 ERA, and finished 3rd in the NL's Cy Young voting.

He was an All-Star again in 1980 and '81, for a total of 6 All-Star berths. Also in 1981, along with George Brett, Bobby Bonds, Pete Rose, Rusty Staub, Reggie Jackson, Dan Quisenberry, Rod Carew, Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver, Steve Garvey and Mike Schmidt, he was 1 of 11 current players mentioned at the end of "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey and the Duke)" Terry Cashman's musical tribute the 1950s baseball.

He was 32, in his prime, still a star. It looked like he was headed for the Baseball Hall of Fame -- or, as the song said, "If Cooperstown is calling, it's no fluke." But there was a secret he was keeping. The Giants traded him to the Kansas City Royals for the 1982 season, in which he went 13-12. But in 1983, he was 0-5 with a 6.01 ERA when he was released on August 5.

A probe into drug use in baseball revealed that Blue and 3 Royal teammates -- Willie Wilson, Willie Aikens and Jerry Martin -- were addicted to cocaine. They each cut a deal: 3 months in prison, a $5,000 fine, and suspension for the entire 1984 season. They were all sent to a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas, making them the 1st active MLB players to go to prison. They also agreed to testify in what became known as "the Pittsburgh Drug Trials" in 1985.

In his memoir, Blue suggested that he had struggled with substance abuse for many years: "Along with all the glory that I'd achieved, there was a growing darkness reaching for me. And the light began to dim as early as 1972" -- the year of his holdout. Although he beat his cocaine addiction, there would be more substance abuse: In 2005, he was arrested on DUI charges, though he avoided jail time after going to rehab.

In 1985, he returned to the Giants as a free agent. He pitched 2 more seasons with them, going 18-18, and retired. His career totals: 209 wins, 161 losses, 2,175 strikeouts, an ERA of 3.27, an ERA+ of 108, and a WHIP of 1.233. He made 6 All-Star Games, and reached the postseason 5 times, winning 3 World Series.

He later became a baseball analyst for NBC Sports Bay Area, and married Peggy Shannon on the pitcher's mound at Candlestick Park in 1989. Both the A's and the Giants elected him to their team Halls of Fame, and he was elected to the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame.

Vida Blue died yesterday, May 6, 2023, in Tracy, San Joaquin County, California. He was 73 years old. No cause of death has been released, but Reggie Jackson said he was shocked by how much weight Blue had lost when he saw him at the reunion for the 50th Anniversary of the 1973 A's World Series win: "I did not recognize him. I was shattered. I was shaken. That will stick with me the rest of my life."

Vida Blue had a very interesting career, with a good deal of success. Should he have been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame? He admitted that the drug issue hurt him. On one occasion, he said, "I had some issues in my life that might have had a tendency to sway voting. There are some guys in the Hall of Fame who don’t have halos."

On another, he said, "That Hall of Fame thing, that’s something that I can honestly, openly say I wish I was a Hall of Famer. And I know for a fact this drug thing impeded my road to the Hall of Fame -- so far." Indeed, another player linked to the Pittsburgh drug trials, Keith Hernandez, has also been kept out of the Hall so far.

Based on stats alone, it would look like he doesn't quite have the career totals to get in. Perhaps a closer look would help. Baseball-Reference.com, a website which makes this blog a lot easier to write, has a "Hall of Fame Monitor," on which a "Likely HOFer" has a score of 100. Blue is at 114, suggesting that he should be in. But they also have a "Hall of Fame Standards," which is weighted more toward career stats. On that, the "Average HOFer" is at 50, and Blue is at 35, suggesting he falls well short.

They also have "Similarity Scores," which shows the 10 players most statistically similar to the player, usually correlated for position. The 10 pitchers most statistically similar to Vida Blue are, in order: Billy Pierce, Blue's former Oakland teammate Catfish Hunter, Orel Hershiser, Hal Newhouser, Bob Welch, Milt Pappas, Luis Tiant, Kevin Brown, Don Drysdale and Bucky Walters.

Hunter, Newhouser and Drysdale are in. That's 3 out of 10. There are many who think Tiant should be in. Pierce and Walters aren't that far behind. Putting Blue in the Hall of Fame would be a stretch, but it would hardly be outrageous. He wouldn't be the pitching equivalent of Harold Baines, whose election has infuriated some very stupid people.

Vida Blue, at the end of his life, was not a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. But, for the last 52 years of his life, he was a baseball legend.