2298 replies to this topic

[Mike B]

Vida Blue 73.

Vida was a great pitcher on some great A's teams.  He was part of the best pitching duel, I ever saw in person.  I think 1974 playoffs, he beat Jim Palmer 1-0.  He threw a 2 hitter.  Palmer was almost as good, he made one mistake, a homerun to Sal Bando and Blue made it stand up.

[russsnyder]

Vida was a great pitcher on some great A's teams. He was part of the best pitching duel, I ever saw in person. I think 1974 playoffs, he beat Jim Palmer 1-0. He threw a 2 hitter. Palmer was almost as good, he made one mistake, a homerun to Sal Bando and Blue made it stand up.

I vaguely remember watching that game.

I was young, but remember when he burst onto the scene in 1971 and he won both the AL Cy Young & MVP awards. It seemed everyone was talking about him because he was so dominant.

[CantonJester]

If not for drugs he likely would've pushed 300 wins and been a first ballot HOFer. 

[mdrunning]

Vida was a great pitcher on some great A's teams.  He was part of the best pitching duel, I ever saw in person.  I think 1974 playoffs, he beat Jim Palmer 1-0.  He threw a 2 hitter.  Palmer was almost as good, he made one mistake, a homerun to Sal Bando and Blue made it stand up.

It was Game 3. The Orioles scored a grand total of one run in the final three games of that series after winning the opener. The A's batted .183 for the series while the Orioles hit just .177. Jim Palmer actually pinch ran for Boog Powell in the ninth inning of Game 4.

 

Vida Blue's 1971 season was one for the ages, but it was also his peak at the age of 22. After striking out 301 hitters that year, he never even reached 200 strikeouts in a season for the rest of his career. He also briefly "retired" after that season due to a contract dispute with A's owner Charley Finely (a somewhat frequent occurrence for A's players of that time).

[mdrunning]

If not for drugs he likely would've pushed 300 wins and been a first ballot HOFer. 

I think that may have something to with it, but that 1971 season undoubtedly took a toll on his arm. Sort of like Denny McLain a few years earlier. Three-hundred plus innings in one season tends to turn one's arm into a side of beef.

[Mike B]

I think that may have something to with it, but that 1971 season undoubtedly took a toll on his arm. Sort of like Denny McLain a few years earlier. Three-hundred plus innings in one season tends to turn one's arm into a side of beef.

Some guys were able to do it, but yea it was tough to be a pitcher in those days.

[Mike B]

I vaguely remember watching that game.

I was young, but remember when he burst onto the scene in 1971 and he won both the AL Cy Young & MVP awards. It seemed everyone was talking about him because he was so dominant.

I was in my teens but that game has stuck with me over the years.  We got our tickets from Jerry Hoffberger who owned the Orioles and was a customer of my father.  We were right down on the field, near the Orioles dugout, and watching Blue and Palmer up close was incredible.  Both pitchers completely dominated the game.  Both pitchers went the distance.  

[CantonJester]

I think that may have something to with it, but that 1971 season undoubtedly took a toll on his arm. Sort of like Denny McLain a few years earlier. Three-hundred plus innings in one season tends to turn one's arm into a side of beef.

 

 

Some guys were able to do it, but yea it was tough to be a pitcher in those days.

 

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you guys, but...Blue was also a dominant HS QB. Hell, he actually loved football more than he did baseball. But given the era he played, he opted to go the baseball route because that was both the earliest way to a pay day (and a fair shot at being paid at all). His father had passed away I believe in his senior year of HS. When you do the math, yes, he got drafted and then started earning a paycheck as a minor leaguer, but what was also likely not lost on him (Notre Dame, Purdue and Houston all recruited him hard to play QB) was that there just weren't any black QBs being given a shot in the NFL. Hell, a decade later, Warren Moon had to ship it to the CFL to prove himself by destroying that league for a half dozen years before being given a shot in the NFL. 

 

You have to wonder if he carried that chip on his shoulder during his confrontations with Charlie Finley whenever the A's owner tried to lowball him. 

[russsnyder]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you guys, but...Blue was also a dominant HS QB. Hell, he actually loved football more than he did baseball. But given the era he played, he opted to go the baseball route because that was both the earliest way to a pay day (and a fair shot at being paid at all). His father had passed away I believe in his senior year of HS. When you do the math, yes, he got drafted and then started earning a paycheck as a minor leaguer, but what was also likely not lost on him (Notre Dame, Purdue and Houston all recruited him hard to play QB) was that there just weren't any black QBs being given a shot in the NFL. Hell, a decade later, Warren Moon had to ship it to the CFL to prove himself by destroying that league for a half dozen years before being given a shot in the NFL.

You have to wonder if he carried that chip on his shoulder during his confrontations with Charlie Finley whenever the A's owner tried to lowball him.

Charlie Finley lowballed everyone.

I doubt Blue regretted his decision to play baseball. He had a hell of a career.

[russsnyder]

Some guys were able to do it, but yea it was tough to be a pitcher in those days.

In 1971, Mickey Lolich led the majors in IP with 376. Blue actually pitched 292 innings in 1976. I don't think 1971 " cooked" his arm. He was still really good, however, that 1971 season was really difficult to repeat.

[russsnyder]

If not for drugs he likely would've pushed 300 wins and been a first ballot HOFer.

Hey, Tim Raines did recreational drugs during games and made the HOF.

[CantonJester]

Hey, Tim Raines did recreational drugs during games and made the HOF.

 

Sure, but he only had to have a decent hit tool and speed to overcome whatever issues he may have had with his glove. Vida needed to recover between starts without self-medication. Something tells me he didn't do that. 

[mdrunning]

Sure, but he only had to have a decent hit tool and speed to overcome whatever issues he may have had with his glove. Vida needed to recover between starts without self-medication. Something tells me he didn't do that. 

Think Dwight Gooden. 

[CantonJester]

Think Dwight Gooden. 

 

Yup. The parallels are strong. 

[russsnyder]

Sure, but he only had to have a decent hit tool and speed to overcome whatever issues he may have had with his glove. Vida needed to recover between starts without self-medication. Something tells me he didn't do that.

No, he did coke during games.(Hence recreational drugs.)

He went into the tunnel betweem AB's.

[BSLMikeLowe]

Denny Crum, head MBB coach at Louisville for 30 years, 2-time national champion. He was 86.

[russsnyder]

Denny Crum, head MBB coach at Louisville for 30 years, 2-time national champion. He was 86.

I just found out today that he was an assistant under John Wooden at UCLA as well. RIP coach.

[mdrunning]

Former NFL quarterback Joe Kapp, 85. Kapp led the Vikings to their only NFL championship in 1969 (before the merger) before losing to Kansas City in Super Bowl IV. He is also one of just eight quarterbacks in NFL history to throw seven TD passes in one game, which came against the Colts in 1969. He is still the only quarterback to play in the Grey Cup, the Rose Bowl and the Super Bowl.

 

Kapp was also on the sidelines as head coach at Cal in 1982 when the Golden Bears beat Stanford on a wild kickoff return known forever after as "The Play."

[mdrunning]

I just found out today that he was an assistant under John Wooden at UCLA as well. RIP coach.

Wooden always hoped that when he retired, Crum would return to UCLA to succeed him.

[russsnyder]

Don Denkinger naseball umpire dies at 86.

ESPN gives his obituary and the crawl describes the call he blew in the 1985 WS.

Classless.