RIP Vida Blue (1949-2023)

Vida Blue, a left-handed pitcher who won 209 games and three World Series championships in 17 seasons in Major League Baseball, passed away on Saturday at the age of 73. Blue tossed a no-hitter as a rookie in 1970 and was just 22 years old when he won the American Cy Young and MVP Awards in 1971.  He was a six-time All-Star and the first pitcher to start the Mid-Summer Classic for both the American and National Leagues. Additionally, he is the only pitcher in MLB history to earn a win for both leagues in the All-Star Game.

Blue spent the first nine years of his MLB career with the Oakland Athletics (where he won his three rings) before a trade across the Bay to the San Francisco Giants, with whom he pitched for six of his final eight campaigns. Blue also spent two years with the Kansas City Royals. He retired before the 1987 campaign with a .565 career winning percentage (209-161) and a 3.27 ERA in 3,343.1 innings.

Blue remains to this day the unlikely answer to a fun trivia question: who was the only switch-hitter to win the A.L. MVP Award besides Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle? It’s one of those fun trivia questions because Blue was a pitcher. Still, the A.L. was a couple of years away from implementing the designated hitter, so Blue took his hacks from both sides of the plate, hitting .118 with a .284 OPS in 101 plate appearances.

Blue lasted only four years on the BBWAA Hall of Fame ballot, topping out at 8.7% in 1993 (75% of the vote is needed for induction to Cooperstown). He received only 3.1% of the vote in 1994 but oddly remained on the ballot in 1995. After getting 5.7% of the vote that year, he never appeared on the ballot again.

Having had his best years in the 1970s, Blue pitched in a golden age of starting pitchers and, as a result, looks significantly inferior by comparison. Blue’s career was also tainted (and shortened by) a prison term and suspension from baseball due to his use of cocaine.

In this piece, I’ll recap Blue’s 17 years in Major League Baseball and explore his Cooperstown credentials.

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Cooperstown Cred: Vida Blue (SP)

• Athletics (1969-77), Giants (1978-81), Royals (1982-83), Giants (1985-86)
• Career: 209-161 (.565 WL%), 3.27 ERA
• Career: 108 ERA+, 44.9 WAR (Wins Above Replacement)
• Won the 1971 A.L. MVP & Cy Young Awards (24-8, 1.82 ERA, 312 IP, 301 SO, 9.0 WAR)
• Top 10 in the Cy Young Award voting five times
• Won 20 or more games three times
• Six-time All-Star (winning pitcher in 1971 and 1981)
• Won three World Series Championships with the Oakland Athletics (1972-74)

Vida Blue’s Early Years

Vida Rochelle Blue, Jr. was born on July 28, 1949, in Mansfield, Louisiana, a small town about 35 miles south of Shreveport. He was the oldest of six children born to Vida Blue Sr. and Sallie Blue. Blue’s high school (DeSoto HS) did not even have a baseball team when he enrolled but the principal formed a team around him due to his noticeable talent.

Blue was a star both on the diamond and on the gridiron.  He was recruited by the University of Houston to play quarterback at a time in which there were no African-Americans playing quarterback for major colleges.

Sadly, Blue’s father passed away during his son’s senior year, so Vida Jr. decided that he could help support his family by becoming a professional baseball player. Blue was picked in the 2nd round of the 1967 player draft by the Kansas City Athletics; he was the 27th player selected overall. (The Athletics moved to Oakland for the 1968 campaign). Blue got a $25,000 signing bonus, which he said was like a trillion dollars “when you’re from Mansfield, Louisiana.”

The hard-throwing left-hander opened up the eyes in parts of three minor league seasons. He was particularly scintillating in 1968, pitching in the Midwest League; he struck out 231 batters in just 152 innings while posting a 2.49 ERA. After pitching just 104 innings in the Southern League (AA) in 1969, Blue was promoted to the majors. Blue was eight days shy of his 20th birthday when he made his MLB debut.

Blue started and lost his first start against the California Angels but earned his first MLB victory one day after his birthday by tossing eight innings of four-run ball against the New York Yankees in his debut in Oakland. Blue struggled in his next two starts before spending the remainder of the season in the bullpen. He finished the campaign with a 6.64 ERA.

Blue spent most of 1970 with the Iowa Oaks (AAA); he went 12-3 with a 2.17 ERA before earning a September return to Oakland. In just his second start, Blue authored a complete game one-hit shutout in Kansas City, against the expansion Royals. The lone hit was an eighth-inning, two-out single by Pat Kelly.

Two starts later, pitching at home in front of just 4,284 fans, Blue tossed a no-hitter against the Minnesota Twins, who would go on to win the A.L. West. Blue, who bested the eventual Cy Young winner, Jim Perry, walked only one batter while striking out nine in that no-no. After the game, Blue found a bottle of champagne waiting for him in the clubhouse, courtesy of one of the Twins, who would have clinched the West that night with a win. Blue finished the 1970 campaign with a 2.09 ERA in 38.2 innings.

Vida Blue’s Magical 1971 Campaign

Vida Blue emerged as a young star with his September no-hitter in 1970. He justified the hype in 1971 with one of the best pitching seasons in baseball history. After getting bounced in the 2nd inning of his Opening Day start in Washington, Blue won 10 straight decisions, posting a 0.96 ERA in 11 starts.

Blue’s quick start, which helped the A’s to a 30-15 record and an early 7.5 game lead in the A.L. West, earned him the prestigious honor of being featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated (and, later in the year, on the cover of TIME Magazine as well).

Blue lost his start on May 28th, which was a few days before the SI cover, but was anything but jinxed after gaining that national notoriety. In nine starts after being the cover boy, Blue went 7-1 with a 1.56 ERA.

Overall, Blue finished the first half of the season with a 17-3 record, 1.42 ERA, and 188 strikeouts in 184.1 innings. Blue’s 17 victories were the most for any pitcher in the first half of the season since Major League Baseball showcased its first Midsummer Classic in 1933.

Blue could have had 18 wins by the All-Star break if his teammates could have scored a single run in the first 11 innings of his last start of the first half against the Angels. Blue held the Angels scoreless for 11 innings but neither team scored until the 20th inning when the A’s pulled out the 1-0 victory.

Not surprisingly, Blue was tabbed as the All-Star starter for the American League by manager Earl Weaver. The game, played at Tiger Stadium in Detroit, is one of the most famous in the history of the All-Star Game.

Blue started in style, retiring the side in order. This was no small feat. The first two batters (both of whom grounded out) were two of the greatest players in baseball history: Willie Mays and Hank Aaron.

Overall, Blue gave up three runs in three innings of work (thanks to home runs by future Hall of Famers Johnny Bench and Aaron) but wound up as the winning pitcher, thanks to home runs in the bottom of the third by another pair of future Hall of Famers, Reggie Jackson and Frank Robinson. The light-tower blast by Jackson, Blue’s teammate with the A’s, is one of the most iconic moments in All-Star history.

You can see some of the highlights of Blue’s first All-Star start by clicking on this Facebook link. (Blue and the A.L. ultimately won 6-4).

Although it seems unthinkable today, 30 wins for Blue was very much on the minds of baseball fans nationwide. After all, Detroit’s Denny McLain had won 31 games just three years prior.

30 wins certainly looked possible when Blue tossed a one-hit shutout in his first start after the All-Star Game, It was not to be, however. Blue “slumped” in his final 16 starts, going a mere 6-5 with a 2.58 ERA. Overall, he finished the season with a 24-8 record and a 1.81 ERA (with 301 strikeouts in 312 innings, 23 complete games, and 8 shutouts). By today’s metrics, he also had a 183 ERA+ and 9.0 WAR.

Both the A’s and A.L. East Champion Baltimore Orioles won 101 games in the regular season. Blue was the starting pitcher against the Orioles’ Dave McNally in Game 1 of the American League Championship Series. Blue and the A’s had a 3-1 lead halfway through the 7th inning but the 22-year-old lefthander gave up four runs in the bottom of the 7th. The O’s went on to win the game 5-to-3 and sweep the series in three games.

After the season, Blue was named both the Cy Young and MVP winner in the American League. Interestingly, the Cy Young vote was closer than the MVP vote. Blue got 14 out of 24 first-place nods in the MVP vote, easily outpacing teammate Sal Bando, who got just 4 votes.

In the Cy Young ballot, Blue also got 14 first-place votes but Detroit’s Mickey Lolich finished with 9. Lolich went 25-14 with a much-higher ERA (2.92) but clearly impressed many voters with a whopping 376 innings pitched. If the vote were held today, Chicago’s Wilbur Wood might have won the Award, thanks to his 22-13 record for a 79-win team, his 1.91 ERA, and an incredible 11.7 WAR.

Vida Blue and the Oakland A’s Dynasty

In 2023, Major League Baseball’s minimum salary is $720,000 but it was nothing like that in 1971. Vida Blue, in what was his first full season in MLB, made just $14,750. It was a salary so small that he was qualified to live in the publicly subsidized Acorn Projects in West Oakland.

After his spectacular 1971 campaign, Blue wanted a commensurate pay raise, asking for $115,000. A’s owner Charley O. Finley offered $50,000. Blue did not report to spring training and the situation became known as “The Holdout.” The players had no leverage in 1972 and the two sides did not agree on terms until May 2nd when Blue signed for $63,000, much closer to Finley’s number than his. The 22-year-old reigning MVP was not in playing shape, however, and did not make his season debut until he appeared in relief on May 24th.

After a 24-win campaign in 1971, Blue went just 6-10 with a 2.80 ERA in 151 innings in 1972 for the A’s, who captured their second straight A.L. West title. After striking out 301 batters in 1971, Blue managed just 111 whiffs in ’72. Overall, a year after winning the Cy Young Award, Blue had become the A’s fourth starter, behind Hall of Famer Catfish Hunter, Ken Holtzman, and Blue Moon Odom.

Accordingly, manager Dick Williams used Blue out of the bullpen during the ALCS and World Series. Blue pitched well in relief, posting a 1.08 ERA in his first 7 appearances. Notably, he tossed four innings of scoreless ball in relief of Odom in Game 5 of the ALCS, helping the A’s to a 2-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers and a berth in the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds.

In Game 1 of the Fall Classic, Blue earned another save, pitching the final 2.1 innings behind Holtzman and Hall of Fame reliever Rollie Fingers. Blue did get the nod to start Game 6 in Cincinnati but took the loss after giving up 3 runs in 5.2 innings of work. (The A’s went on to win Game 7 in Oakland).

Blue rebounded in 1973, going 20-9 with a 3.28 ERA. Still, in the season in which he turned 24 years of age, Blue continued his transition from flame thrower to “crafty lefthander.” He struck out just 158 batters in 263.2 innings. The ’73 A’s had a “big three” in the rotation, with Hunter and Holtzman also winning 20+ games.

The A’s won their second straight World Series title, beating the Orioles in the ALCS and the New York Mets in the World Series but it was in spite of Vida Blue, not because of him. In four postseason starts, Blue went 0-2 with a 7.00 ERA, with the A’s losing all four games.

Blue had another decent campaign in 1974, going 17-15 with a 3.25 ERA, striking out 174 batters in 282.1 innings. With the A’s back in the playoffs for the fourth straight season, Blue was the 3rd starter for new manager Alvin Dark, behind 25-game-winner Hunter (who would win the Cy Young) and Holtzman.

The A’s split the first two games of the ALCS against the Orioles, with Blue taking the hill for Game 3 in Baltimore. Finally, the former phenom delivered a postseason gem, tossing a 2-hit shutout to best future Hall of Famer Jim Palmer in Oakland’s 1-0 victory.

Blue was the starter (and loser) of Game 2 of the World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He pitched respectably (3 ER in 7 innings) but was bested by Don Sutton, another future Hall of Famer.

In Game 5 (at home in Oakland), he was matched up against Sutton again, with the A’s poised to take their third straight title. Blue and the A’s had a 2-0 lead after 5 innings but gave up a pair of runs in the top of the 6th. After a two-out walk in the 7th, Odom came out of the bullpen to replace Blue, getting Davey Lopes to ground out to end the inning.

In the bottom of the 7th, Joe Rudi hit a solo home run to give the A’s a 3-2 lead. Fingers pitched the final two innings to save the game for Odom and deliver a third straight championship for Oakland.

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The Dismantling of a Dynasty

As three-time defending World Series champions, Charles Finley’s Oakland A’s were the toast of Major League Baseball. I first became aware of Vida Blue and all of the members of the A’s dynasty as an eight-year-old kid collecting baseball cards for the first time. Although I grew up in New York City, the A’s were my first baseball love. Neither of my parents cared for the game so I was a baseball fan “free agent.”

I latched onto the A’s because they were winners and I thought the mustaches were cool (in 1972, Finley had paid all of the players to grow mustaches as a publicity stunt). Ironically, given today’s featured player, Blue did not sport facial hair on his ’75 Topps card.

The 1975 season, my first as a fan, also represented the beginning of the end of the Oakland A’s dynasty. The reigning Cy Young Award winner, Catfish Hunter, became one of the game’s first free agents, thanks to a favorable ruling by an arbitrator in a dispute between Hunter and Finley. Hunter left for the Big Apple, signing a five-year contract with the New York Yankees.

Still, most of the championship squad remained in place for the ’75 campaign. With Hunter gone, Blue became the undisputed staff ace and turned in his finest season since 1971, going 22-11 with a 3.01 ERA (121 ERA+, 4.9 WAR), which was good enough for a second All-Star selection (he again started for the A.L.) and a 6th-place finish in the Cy Young vote. The team was good enough to win 98 games and their 5th straight A.L. West crown.

Although Blue had been the better pitcher during the regular season, manager Al Dark tabbed Holtzman to start Game 1 of the ALCS against the Boston Red Sox. The A’s and Holtzman lost Game 1 to the Sox 7-1, with Luis Tiant going the distance for the victory. (Incidentally, as an irrelevant but personal note, I immediately “fell” for Tiant, thanks to his Fu Manchu ‘stache and tornado windup. This fickle eight-year-old became a Red Sox fan and has been one ever since).

Blue got the Game 2 start at Fenway Park; the A’s got off to a 2-0 lead thanks to a first-inning home run by Reggie Jackson. The lead had been extended to 3-0 when Blue took the mound in the bottom of the 4th. After a leadoff single by Denny Doyle, future Hall of Famer Carl Yastrzemski hit a two-run homer over the Green Monster. Subsequently, Blue gave up a double to Carlton Fisk and a single to Fred Lynn, prompting Dark to remove his 22-game winner in favor of reliever Jim Todd.

The Red Sox went on to win 6-3 and completed the three-game sweep two days later in Oakland. Game 2 of the ALCS was the final postseason outing in Vida Blue’s career.

The dismantling of the Oakland A’s dynasty continued in the 1975-76 offseason when Jackson and Holtzman were traded to the Baltimore Orioles in a six-player deal that brought Don Baylor and Mike Torrez to Oakland. The five-time division champions got off to a terrible start in ’76 and were 11 games behind the Kansas City Royals in mid-June.

With full-scale free agency coming up in the next offseason, Finley decided to accelerate the dismantling of his dynasty by selling Blue to the New York Yankees for $1.5 million; he also sold Fingers and outfielder Joe Rudi to the Red Sox for $2 million. Sports Illustrated’s Ron Fimrite called it “the biggest sale of human flesh in the history of sports.”

The deals ultimately were voided three days later by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn using the “best interests of baseball” clause.

(Topps created an in-season card for Blue with a Yankees hat. As you can see, it was a photo-shopped version of a previous Sports Illustrated cover from the spring of 1972, when Blue was holding out for a better contract and took a job as a plumbing executive as “leverage.”)

One of the forgotten aspects of this story is that, on June 15th, Blue signed a three-year contract with the A’s for $515,000 with a promise that he would not be traded. Just one hour later, Finley reneged on that verbal agreement and decided to sell him to the Yankees, who were willing to spend $1.5 million for Blue specifically because he had just signed a contract and would not be able to leave as a free agent after the ’76 campaign.

At the time of his “trade” to the Yankees, Blue was 6-6 with a 3.09 ERA. The attempted sale seemed to inspire the 27-year-old hurler. He went 12-7 with a 1.94 ERA in his final 22 starts, helping the A’s finish with 87 wins, just three games behind the division-winning Royals. Overall, it was Blue’s second-best season in his 17 years in the majors. He went 18-13 with a 2.35 ERA, which was good enough for a 7.6 WAR and another 6th-place Cy Young finish.

Anyway, the A’s were truly dismantled in the offseason, with most of the team’s remaining stars signing free-agent deals elsewhere. Rudi and Baylor signed with California Angles, Fingers and catcher Gene Tenace signed with the San Diego Padres, third baseman Sal Bando signed with the Milwaukee Brewers, and shortstop Bert Campaneris joined the Texas Rangers.

In 1977, now the only star on a bad team, Blue went 14-19 with a 3.83 ERA. He did make his fourth All-Star squad, however, as the A’s lone representative. The team won just 63 games.

Finley attempted to trade Blue again in December 1977, this time to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for first baseman Dave Revering and a cool $1.75 million. Once again, Kuhn vetoed the trade (and, no, I couldn’t find a Topps mock-up of Blue in a Reds uniform).

During spring training in 1978, the A’s and Blue finally parted ways. Finley sent his star pitcher across town to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for seven low-level players and an “acceptable” (to Kuhn) $300,000.

Vida Blue’s Final Eight Seasons (San Francisco and Kansas City)

At the age of 27, Vida Blue joined the San Francisco Giants as a three-time 20-game winner, former MVP, and three-time World Series champion. On the “fame” meter, he was the second-biggest star on the Giants, behind only 40-year-old first baseman Willie McCovey, who had briefly been Blue’s teammate in Oakland in 1976.

The 1978 Giants were a good team, not good enough to surpass the Reds and the Los Angeles Dodgers in the N.L. West, but good enough to win 89 games. Blue went 18-10 with a 2.79 ERA (5.8 WAR) and made his 4th All-Star squad. Additionally, he became the first pitcher to start the Midsummer Classic for both leagues. At the end of the season, Blue finished 3rd in the N.L. Cy Young voting, behind Hall of Famer Gaylord Perry (of the Padres) and the Dodgers’ Burt Hooton.

Blue regressed in 1979, going 14-14 with an unsightly 5.01 ERA and the team sagged to 71 wins. Blue’s ugly campaign, by today’s metrics, yielded an ERA+ of 70 and a negative WAR (-0.9).

In 1980, the 30-year-old Blue rebounded with a 14-10 record (2.97 ERA). He made his 5th All-Star team. He was also solid in the strike-shortened 1981 campaign, going 8-6 with a 2.45 ERA. He was again an All-Star and was the winning pitcher for the National League.

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At the end of spring training in 1982, Blue was traded again, this time without cash being involved. The Giants dealt Blue to the Kansas City Royals in a six-player deal that brought Atlee Hammaker to San Francisco.

The 32-year-old left-hander had a solid but unspectacular campaign in Kansas City, going 13-12 with a 3.78 ERA. It was a good enough season to keep the Royals in contention until the final week of the season. The team won 90 games, finishing three games behind the Angels.

In 1983, however, Blue was downright terrible. He went 0-5 with a 6.01 ERA and was released on August 5th.

The nightmare of 1983 was even worse off the field. Blue and Royals teammates Willie Wilson, Willie Mays Aikens, and Jerry Martin were indicted for buying cocaine. Blue plead guilty to possession and spent 81 days in prison. Once again on Commissioner Kuhn’s radar, Blue was suspended for the entire 1984 season.

Now 35 years old, Blue rejoined the Giants in the spring of 1985 and posted an 8-8 record with a 4.47 ERA. He returned to the team in 1986, going 10-10 with a 3.27 ERA in what would be his final MLB campaign.

Blue signed with the A’s in January 1987 but abruptly retired less than one month after signing. In early March, court documents showed that Blue had tested positive for cocaine three times during the 1986 season. These tests were administered as a result of the probation from his 1983 conviction; neither the Giants nor Commissioner Peter Ueberroth was informed.

Vida Blue never pitched again. When he published his autobiography in 2011, Blue indicated that he had struggled with substance abuse for much of his career dating back to 1972.

Although he has never gotten close to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, he was inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019.

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The Hall of Fame Case for and Against Vida Blue

Given the fact that he won only 209 games in an era that produced multiple 300-game winners, Vida Blue was always going to be a long shot to make it to the Hall of Fame. He had enough bullet-point credentials to get some votes during his four years on the ballot but was always overshadowed by his contemporaries.

Blue hit the BBWAA ballot in 1992, the same year that Tom Seaver debuted on the ballot. Tom Terrific won 311 games and three Cy Youngs, making him an easy first-round selection (with 98.8% of the vote) for Cooperstown while Blue got just 5.3%. In subsequent years, Phil Niekro (311 wins), Steve Carlton (329 wins), and Don Sutton (324 wins) joined the BBWAA party. No wonder Blue was off the ballot after four years.

On the other hand, the Hall of Fame has plenty of players who earn plaques in Cooperstown for reasons other than reaching automatic milestones. If, somehow, Blue made it to the Hall, it wouldn’t be hard to find credentials to put on his plaque: MVP, Cy Young winner, six-time All-Star, the first pitcher to start the All-Star Game for both leagues, 209 wins, .565 winning percentage, won 20+ games three times, three-time World Series Champion.

Although those who only look at his career 44.9 WAR might think that it’s silly to consider Vida Blue for Cooperstown, there are many players in the Hall with a lower number. After all, as I’ve written many times before, it’s the “Hall of Fame, not the Hall of WAR” (that line was “borrowed” from MLB Historian John Thorn). On the Bill James “Hall of Fame monitor,” Blue scores 117 “points” on a scale in which 100 denotes a player “likely” to make the Hall of Fame.

In December 2021, the Golden Days Eras Committee elected four players to the Hall of Fame (Minnie Minoso, Jim Kaat, Tony Oliva, and Gil Hodges) on a ballot that did not include Vida Blue. Of those four selections, two had a career WAR lower than Blue’s: Hodges (43.8), and Oliva (43.0). That obviously doesn’t mean that everyone with a WAR in the mid-’40s is a Hall of Famer but it does mean that their candidacy deserves strong consideration.

Anyway, in the lead-up to that vote, a couple of writers made the case for why Blue belongs in Cooperstown.

Martin Gallegos ranked Blue as the 2nd best member in the entire history of the A’s franchise who did not have a plaque in Cooperstown, behind only Mark McGwire, whose career was tainted by Performance Enhancing Drugs.

“He might have been overshadowed by fellow Hall of Fame teammates Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers, but Blue’s role on the powerhouse A’s clubs of the early 1970s was just as important in helping to form a dynasty that won three straight World Series titles from ’72-74… His exclusion from the Hall of Fame becomes somewhat of a head-scratcher when you consider his numbers are not much different from Hunter, who went 224-166 with a 3.26 ERA over 15 seasons in the Majors.”

— Martin Gallegos, MLB.com (December 1st, 2021)

Another writer felt that

“Blue’s raw talent, career numbers and lasting impact on the game are easily Hall of Fame worthy. The only thing holding him back are the selective remnants of baseball’s War on Drugs… He was Major League Baseball’s scapegoat during its crackdown on hard drugs, which was consistent with the country’s mission statement at the time. It was wrong then, it’s wrong now, and we’re long overdue for a course correction.” 

— Mark Mitchell, SFGate (December 2, 2021)

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Vida Blue vs Catfish Hunter

Let’s take a quick look at a comparison between Vida Blue and Catfish Hunter, who was noted in the article by Gallegos and also happens to be #2 on Blue’s “Similarity Score” list on his Baseball-Reference page.

Both pitchers won a Cy Young (with Blue having the added credential of an MVP Award), both won 20 games multiple times (5 times for Hunter, 3 for Blue), both made several All-Star squads (8 for Hunter, 6 for Blue), and both won multiple World Series titles (Hunter had 5, Blue had 3).

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It’s pretty darned close, isn’t it? Now, to be fair and also blunt, Hunter is on the low end of the Hall of Fame scale, as one of only four starting pitchers who are in the Hall with a career WAR of under 40 (the others are Bob Lemon, Rube Marquard, and Jesse Haines). Additionally, Catfish is one of only three Cooperstown-enshrined hurlers with a career ERA+ of 105 or less (100 is league average), the others being Marquard and Jack Morris.

If we use Blue’s numbers as a baseline, only one additional Hall of Fame pitcher has an ERA+ below his career mark of 108 (Herb Pennock). The list of Hall of Fame starting pitchers with a career WAR below 45 is a bigger one but there are still only ten. On the other hand, there are 51 starting pitchers from 1901 and beyond who are not in the Hall with an ERA above Blue’s 44.9.

Does all that mean that this author believes that Hunter doesn’t belong in the Hall? I’m not saying that, not really. He is on the lower end of the scale, of course, but I do think that, if given a binary choice between Hunter and Blue, I’d stick with Catfish. WAR is just an approximation and the rest of his numbers are superior. Additionally, Hunter was a much more significant contributor in the postseason to the three World Series than was Blue:

• Hunter: 7-1, 1 save, 2.24 ERA in 80.1 IP (1972-74)
• Blue: 1-4, 2 saves, 3.79 ERA in 54.2 IP (1972-74)

Final Thoughts

Vida Blue had a terrific career and one of the greatest pitching seasons in baseball history but, to these eyes, falls short of the Hall of Fame. Personally, just picking from the top 10 names on Blue’s “Similarity Score” list, I can name four starting pitchers that I would choose before him: Billy Pierce, Orel Hershiser, Luis Tiant, and Kevin Brown.

Blue certainly looked as if he was on a Hall of Fame track when he completed his age 28 season with the Giants in 1978:

• 142-96 (.597 WL%), 2.93 ERA, 118 ERA+, 34.8 WAR (1969-78)

Since 1901, only 14 pitchers had more than 142 wins through the end of their age 28 season. The problem is what Blue did in his final seven campaigns:

• 67-65 (.508 WL%), 3.91 ERA, 93 ERA+, 10.1 WAR (1979-86)

A total of 365 pitchers won more than 67 games in their age 29 seasons and beyond.

When I thought about Vida Blue today upon the news of his passing, my mind went immediately to Dwight Gooden. Both had immense talent and had amazing seasons at a very young age (Gooden was only 20 when he went 24-4 with a 1.53 ERA in 1985). Gooden famously started having problems with drugs at a very young age and it’s a certainty (in my mind, anyway) that he would be a Hall of Famer today if it weren’t for his drug abuse.

I was surprised to learn today (from his SABR bio) that Blue struggled with substance abuse for much of his career, dating back perhaps to 1972: “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.” Blue had many solid years after 1971 but none that remotely approached that level of excellence.

In a piece in the Washington Post written in August 2021, Blue told writer Candace Buckner that he still thinks he has a shot at the Hall of Fame, and still desperately wants to make it. He realizes though, why he isn’t there:

“Dammmmm. And I blew it. 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.”

— Vida Blue, as told to Candace Bucker (Washington Post, August 17, 2021)

I also had another “what if” thought today: what if Bowie Kuhn had not voided the sale of Blue to the New York Yankees in 1976? That deal would have reunited Blue with Hunter in the Bronx and, assuming that the Yankees kept him around, with Reggie Jackson in 1978-79. Blue would have likely won many more games than he did in Oakland and San Francisco from 1976-78 and also had the opportunity for postseason pitching glory that was mostly reserved for Hunter and Rollie Fingers during his years in Oakland. Would that have made a difference in the arc of his life and on his Cooperstown credentials?

These are things we will never know, of course. Today, we are sad to learn that Blue has left us too young, at the age of 73, and we celebrate a great baseball career. RIP, Vida Blue.

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