Vida Blue: A Baseball Career Overview

 

Vida Blue made the cover of Time magazine during his historic 1971 season.

Blue pitched almost his entire career in the Bay Area.

Vida Blue has an awesome name-there's a band named after him. And he's one of the few players who at times wore his first name on his jersey.

It seems fitting that Vida Blue played for the Royals and got to wear those cool powder blue uniforms.

Vida Blue had a fascinating baseball career. I’ve always liked Vida Blue, in part because he has an awesome name. I got to meet Vida Blue at a baseball card show in 2017, and he was a really nice guy. Vida even remembered my name when he saw me walking around the show an hour later—he gets points for that. This post is an overview of his baseball career.

Drafted by the Kansas City Athletics in June of 1967, Blue was a mid-season callup two years later. By then the A’s had moved from Kansas City to Oakland. Blue was a September callup in 1970, and he made headlines when he threw a no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins on September 21, 1970. It was just the 8^th start of Blue’s big-league career. Blue came very close to throwing a perfect game, as he only allowed one walk to Harmon Killebrew in the 4^th inning.

Blue’s career major league record going into the 1971 season was 2-1. No one could have predicted the amazing season that Blue was about to have. 1971 would become a magical season, as Blue burst onto the national scene by going 24-8 for the A’s. By the time of the All-Star Game on July 13^th, Blue’s record stood at 17-3, and people were talking about Blue having the chance to win 30 games. Blue’s ERA was a miniscule 1.42, and after his shutout on July 16^th, his ERA dipped down to 1.35. By the end of the season, Blue had a league-leading ERA of 1.82, and threw 8 shutouts, another league-leading total. Blue struck out 301 batters, finishing second in the league to Mickey Lolich, who had 308 strikeouts. Blue won the Cy Young Award, and the AL MVP award. He’s still the last switch-hitter to win the AL MVP, which is a great trivia question you can stump your friends with.

After that blockbuster season, Blue figured he was due for a sizable raise. (This was in the days before free agency, when players were basically at the mercy of owners’ benevolence for securing raises.) Unfortunately for Blue, he played for the stingy Charles O. Finley, who was unmoving in his offer of $50,000 for the 1972 season. As negotiations between Blue and Finley dragged on with little chance of a successful resolution, Blue announced that he was retiring from baseball at a press conference on March 16, 1972. Blue said he was taking a PR job with a steel firm at a salary of $50,000. Blue was placed on baseball’s restricted list, which meant that he could not play during the first 30 days of the season. The 1972 season started late due to a players’ strike during spring training, and it wasn’t until May that Blue and Finley finally agreed on a contract for $63,000. Blue didn’t appear in a game until May 24^th, 1972 and didn’t make his first start of the year until May 28^th. Blue pitched well, with an ERA of 2.80, but missing almost two months of the season meant that he had no chance to repeat as a 20-game winner. Despite playing for another division-winning team, Blue had less run support: 3.95 in his 1971 starts, and just 2.98 in his 1972 starts. Blue threw 4 shutouts in 1972, but his record at season’s end was just 6-10.

It’s an exaggeration that Blue was “never the same” after 1971, but it’s true that he never dominated hitters in quite so overpowering a fashion ever again. After striking out 301 batters in 1971, his next highest season total was 189. But Blue rebounded from the chaos of 1972 to have several fine seasons. In 1973, he went 20-9 for another pennant-winning team. 1975 was Blue’s 3^rd 20-win season, as he went 22-11 for the last division-winning A’s team of the Finley era.

In 1976 Blue had another excellent season, finishing the year with a record of 18-13 and a 2.35 ERA. Blue hurled 20 complete games and 6 shutouts, for a now-unbelievable total of 298 1/3 innings pitched. As Charlie Finley saw the writing on the wall with the coming of free agency, he started to dismantle his A’s dynasty. At the 1976 trade deadline, Finley sold Blue to the New York Yankees for $1.5 million. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn voided the deal, along with the proposed sale of Joe Rudi and Rollie Fingers to the Red Sox for $2 million. Fingers and Rudi both suited up for the Red Sox, but never played for them before the deal was voided. It doesn’t seem as though Blue ever donned a Yankees uniform, as I’ve never seen a photo of him with the Yankees.

Blue languished on the A’s roster in 1977, the lone star left from the glory days. His record was 14-19, and he led the league in hits allowed and earned runs. In December of 1977, Finley traded Blue to the Cincinnati Reds for Dave Revering and $1.75 million in cash. But once again, Bowie Kuhn vetoed the trade as not being in the best interests of baseball. I had never heard of Blue’s short-lived trade to the Reds until I picked up a copy of the 1978 edition of The Complete Handbook of Baseball from a little free library recently. I was baffled as to why Blue was listed under the Reds section, since I knew he never played for the Reds, and baseball-reference had no record of Blue being traded to the Reds. I Googled it and learned about this little-known footnote.

In March 1978, Finley successfully traded Blue to the San Francisco Giants for the following players: Gary Alexander, Dave Heaverlo, Phil Huffman, John Henry Johnson, Gary Thomasson, Alan Wirth, and $300,000 in cash. Oh, and one more player to be named later, who turned out to be Mario Guerrero. Bowie Kuhn was just fine with that deal. It seems ridiculous to me that trading 1 player for 7 was more in the best interests of baseball than trading Blue for 1 player and a ton of cash.

Blue rebounded nicely after his trade across the bay, going 18-10 for the Giants in 1978. He was the starting pitcher for the NL in the All-Star Game that year, becoming the first pitcher to start the All-Star Game for both leagues. After a sub-par 1979, Blue had excellent seasons in 1980 and the strike-shortened 1981 season. In 1980, Blue went 14-10 with a 2.97 ERA, and in 1981 he was 8-6 with a stellar 2.45 ERA. Blue was the winning pitcher in the 1981 All-Star Game, becoming the first pitcher to win the All-Star Game in both leagues.

Just before the 1982 season began, Blue was traded to the Kansas City Royals. Now Vida Blue would be wearing royal blue. The Royals were one of baseball’s leading dynasties during that era. Prior to 1982, the Royals had made the playoffs in 5 of the previous 6 seasons. Blue had a decent but not great season with the Royals, as he went 13-12 with a 3.78 ERA, and the Royals finished in 2^nd place in the AL West, 3 games behind the California Angels.

Going into 1983, his age 33 season, Vida Blue’s career record was 191-138, with an ERA of 3.13. At that point, Blue had never won fewer than 13 games in a full season. It would be a stretch to say that Blue was on track to win 300 games, but it wouldn’t have been crazy to project him winning 250 games. If he won just 13 more games a year from 1983-1986, he would have been at 243 wins going into 1987, which was his age 37 season. Let’s say Blue pitched for 1987 and 1988, and was just decent in those years, he might end up with 255 or 260 wins.

But all that wasn’t to be, as 1983 was a disaster for Blue. He started 14 games and won none of them. The Royals even used him out of the bullpen in a few games. On August 5, 1983, the Royals released Blue, with a record of 0-5, and a 6.01 ERA. During this time, Blue pleaded guilty to cocaine possession. He served a three-month jail term, and Commissioner Bowie Kuhn banned Blue for the 1984 baseball season. Blue was a non-roster invitee to spring training with the Giants in 1985, and he pitched well enough to be added to their roster.

Blue pitched just 1/3 of an inning and picked up the win on Opening Day, April 9, 1985. After the Padres tied the score at 3-3 in the top of the 9^th, Blue came in to face Terry Kennedy with two outs. He got Kennedy to flyout to left field, and the Giants scored one run in the bottom of the 9^th, leaving Blue the pitcher of record. It was his first win since September 13, 1982, when he pitched a one-hit shutout against the Seattle Mariners.

The Giants didn’t use Blue very much, as he appeared in only 8 games over the first two months of the 1985 season. On June 2^nd, Blue made his first start of the year. He made 20 starts in 1985, finishing the season with a 4.47 ERA. Blue wasn’t great but continuing his baseball career at all was a victory.

Blue achieved a milestone on June 30, 1985, as he fanned Jim Pankovits of the Houston Astros for his 2,000^th strikeout. On October 5, 1985, on the next to last day of the season, Blue threw a complete game and picked up win number 199. His record was 8-8. Finishing the season at .500 for a team that lost 100 games was quite an accomplishment.

The Giants signed Vida for another year, and in 1986 he made 28 starts, and didn’t pitch any games in relief. Blue picked up win number 200 in his 3^rd start of the year, on April 20^th, against the Padres, as he pitched 5 scoreless innings. 1986 was a better year for Blue, as he went 10-10 with a 3.27 ERA, the same as his career ERA.

After the 1986 season, the Giants didn’t attempt to sign Blue again, so he became a free agent. On January 20, 1987, he signed with the A’s. The A’s seemed to be seeking a return to their 1970’s glory days by signing Blue, as they had already signed Reggie Jackson on Christmas Eve, 1986. But just as spring training was about to begin, Vida Blue abruptly announced his retirement on February 19, 1987. Blue’s press release didn’t shed much light on how he came to reach his decision. However, two days after Blue’s retirement, the San Francisco Examiner published an article that stated Blue had failed a drug test the week before he announced his retirement. I also found a short New York Times article from March 4, 1987, which says that Blue pleaded guilty in November of 1986 to violating his probation and was ordered to spend 90 days in a “drug after-care program.” It’s unclear from the article if Blue had served this time by March of 1987 or not. If not, it certainly would have impacted his 1987 season. The New York Times article also states that Blue tested positive for cocaine 3 times during the 1986 season, and both the Giants and the A’s were unaware of Blue’s drug testing, which was part of his probation.

It’s unfortunate that Blue’s drug use directly contributed to his retirement from baseball. Blue’s addiction may have prevented him from putting up the statistics that would have put him in the Hall of Fame. Regardless of his personal troubles, Blue had an excellent major league career and was a Cy Young Award winner, an MVP, a 6-time All-Star, and he played on 3 World Series winners.

Vida Blue became eligible for the Hall of Fame on the 1992 ballot. He was overshadowed by Tom Seaver, who soared into the Hall with a then-record 98.8% of all the ballots cast. Blue received 5.3% of the vote, just enough to stay on the ballot for another year. 1993 was Blue’s best year on the ballot, as he received 8.7% of the vote. In 1994, Blue got less than 5% of the vote, and should have dropped off the 1995 ballot. But for some reason, Vida Blue was still listed on the 1995 ballot, along with George Foster and Don Baylor, who were both under 5% in 1994. On the 1995 ballot, Blue received 5.7% of the vote, but he was dropped from the 1996 ballot, which just seems like adding insult to injury.

Blue was overshadowed in the Hall of Fame voting by the many other great starting pitchers from his generation. With 300 game winners like Gaylord Perry, Tom Seaver, Steve Carlton, Don Sutton, and Phil Niekro to choose from, who was going to pay attention to a starter who only won 209 games? Of course, you could simply say that Vida Blue clearly isn’t a Hall of Famer and leave it at that. But I think Blue deserves another chance to be considered by the Era Committees for election to the Hall of Fame. Blue does have a better winning percentage than Don Drysdale, for example. (But that’s a subject for another post.) Now that the Hall of Fame has elected more starters whose win totals fall in the 200-250 range, perhaps Blue would get more consideration. I also think there’s an argument to be made that a Black pitcher who struggled with drug addiction during his career might find a more sympathetic audience in 2021 than he did in 1992.

Blue’s struggles with drugs were public long before the 1985 Pittsburgh drug trials, which brought baseball’s drug problem fully into the public eye. The only player who was implicated in the drug trials who has been elected to the Hall of Fame is Tim Raines. Did the drug trials keep players like Dave Parker, Keith Hernandez, and Vida Blue out of the Hall of Fame? Maybe not, since you could argue that Hernandez and Blue were never serious Hall of Fame candidates to begin with, but it sure didn’t help them with voters. As these players hit the Hall of Fame ballot in the early 1990’s, at a time before baseball’s steroid problem was widely known, the cocaine scandal of the 1980’s was the worst drug scandal that baseball had endured. Would that have affected how some people voted? I’d guess yes. Even Tim Raines, who hit the ballot in 2008, had to wait 10 years before he was elected to the Hall of Fame.

Vida Blue might be underrated because the rest of his career never lived up to what he did in 1971. If that’s the narrative of your career, then it makes it seem like you fell short in some way. But I wouldn’t fault Vida Blue too much for not repeating his 1971 season. It was a truly staggering achievement that very few pitchers have matched in the last 50 years.

I looked at all the pitchers since 1971 who have struck out 300 batters in a season, and then I checked to see if any of them had won 24 or more games in the same season. Mickey Lolich also achieved the feat in 1971, as he won 25 games and struck out 308 batters. Since 1971, only two pitchers have matched Lolich and Blue’s accomplishments, and they happen to be two of the greatest left-handed pitchers of all-time.

300 strikeouts and 24 wins in the same season since 1971:

Steve Carlton 1972: 27-10 with a 1.97 ERA and 310 strikeouts. Won Triple Crown.

Randy Johnson 2002: 24-5 with a 2.32 ERA and 334 strikeouts. Won Triple Crown.

Pedro Martinez’s legendary 1999 season just misses the cutoff: 23-4, 2.07 ERA and 313 strikeouts. Won Triple Crown.

Seeing how few pitchers have matched what Vida Blue achieved in 1971 has left me with more awe. It isn’t just “Oh, he had that one really great season.” It was more than just a great season; it was a historic season.

In a 2017 interview with The Sporting News, Blue had this to say about the Hall of Fame: “I think if I could get in there, it would be a great honor. But until then, I’ll just bide my time and continue to be Vida Blue.”