RIP Vida Blue

[MTM]

Not seeing this elsewhere, but Dave Stewart posted this.

Great player with a great name.

 

[goalmouth]

And the answer to a confounding trivia question -- the last switch-hitter to win MVP.

 

[Songbird]

I caught him in the end with the Giants when I was still getting into baseball.

One of those guys I would love to have seen in his heyday.

 

[qtlaw]

Seemed like a great guy ; bummed.

 

[HanSenSE]

Giants sent seven players across the Bay to pick him up during spring training in 1978. One of those things you hear first thing in the morning that you go "huh?"

RIP.

 

[Tarheel316]

I caught him in the end with the Giants when I was still getting into baseball.

One of those guys I would love to have seen in his heyday.

I saw him in Atlanta in 1978. Went to see a four-game series. I think the crowd was around 5,000 for each game. Before one of the games, I was one of four teenagers having a conversation with Vida down near the bullpen. At one point, he looked at me and said, "What is this, an interview?" I'll never forget that. I enjoyed watching him at the Coliseum when I lived in the Bay Area.

 

[Spartan Squad]

We did an elementary play about baseball and one of the songs was about Vida Blue (Cy Young and Whitey Ford) striking people out. As a kid, they were all legends to me.

RIP

 

[Starman]

Fairly similar career to Doc Gooden: burst on the scene as a dominant rookie fireballer, seemed a HOF slam dunk his first few years, seemed to become a cautionary tale of a sad wasted career, but ended up pitching effectively well into his late 30s.

Watched him pitch in the 71 ASG, which has become regarded as one of the greatest collections of players in the post teevee era.

 

[ChrisLong]

And the answer to a confounding trivia question -- the last switch-hitter to win MVP.

The first year I covered spring training, we showed up in Vero Beach, and the Dodgers coaches who were already there couldn't want to hit us with this trivia question --- in 1981.
Still a good one after 40+ years.

 

[maumann]

Dude could bring it. Pre-Statcast, pre-ESPN highlights, pre-radar guns, I don't care if you think the average pitcher was lobbing it underhanded back then. Vida Blue threw gas. He'd get that right leg cocked up well over his waistline and let loose, daring hitters to try and catch up with the heater.

He had a good curveball, which he used just enough to keep guys from getting locked in, but the fastball was his bread and butter. Man, the sound it made when it hit the catcher's glove was unique -- even if there weren't a whole lot of fans around to hear it.

His 1971 season was spectacular and the attention he received in the Bay Area and nationwide was similar to that of Fidrych and Valenzula later on. Then he got in a contract dispute with Charlie Finley in the off-season and missed most of 1972, but the A's were so good that they could start Hunter, Odom and Holtzman in the American League Championship Series and then give the ball to Vida to close out Game 5 with four innings of relief, just mowing down the Tigers.

He then went on to win 77 games over the next four seasons, and when Finley couldn't dump him on the Yankees or Reds because of Bowie Kuhn, he got stuck as the only good player on a roster of AAA players in 1977.

By the time he finished his first stint with the Giants, his off-field troubles pretty much ended his career.

Getting to see Blue in his prime was special. RIP, Vida.

 

[ChrisLong]

What were the A's colors? Emerald green, wedding gown white and Vida Blue.

 

[Baron Scicluna]

I was very young during his prime and my main memory was that late in his career, he had his first name on the back of his jersey. RIP