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Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

batmagadanleadoff Feb 02 2013 08:37 PM

I had Vida Blue running away with [ROY] in the A.L., unaware he was not eligible. Around that time, but at least one year after your school essay, Sports Phone's Quickie Quiz of the Day asked its' callers to identify the youngest Cy Young Award winner ever. It's currently Doc Gooden but at the time of that quiz, the correct answer was Vida Blue for his spectacular '71 season. When Sports Phone revealed that Dean Chance was the youngest CYA winner, I called in to correct them (after not getting initial credit for my right answer). I still remember that episode. A National story: cover illustration by country's then top commercial artist Bob Peak, at his peak

G-Fafif Feb 02 2013 09:45 PM Re: Baseball Passings 2013

batmagadanleadoff wrote: I had that book. Bought it at the East School book fair in third grade (after my composition). Read the hell out of it. On a handful of occasions in my life I've trimmed my baseball library, usually of season preview books and works I didn't much care for in the first place. That's in the handful I wish I'd saved. Not out of any great need to reference it for research, but because it was Vida Blue, baseball's new pitching sensation.

Edgy MD Feb 02 2013 10:17 PM Re: Baseball Passings 2013

And this is perhaps my favorite SI cover of all time: Guy looks like a baseball god. I got the idea that if you put that magazine cover on the mound with the A's behind it, you had better 'n' a 50% chance of getting the win.

Mets – Willets Point Feb 02 2013 11:51 PM Re: Baseball Passings 2013

Just to clarify that despite his presence in this thread, Vida Blue is still among the living, correct?

G-Fafif Feb 03 2013 01:51 AM Re: Baseball Passings 2013

Mets – Willets Point wrote: Just to clarify that despite his presence in this thread, Vida Blue is still among the living, correct? Vida = "Life" in Spanish. So yeah, as far as we know.

Frayed Knot Feb 03 2013 06:16 AM Re: Baseball Passings 2013

For a time there 'Vida Blue' was the answer to a number of trivia questions, to the point where there was a sort of mantra among trivia buffs that if you didn't know the answer to something then it was best to just guess Vida Blue. Stuff like: 'Last switch hitter to win the MVP' was one of the favorites. (like youngest CY, it was true at the time but has since been updated). I worked briefly a whole bunch of years ago with a guy who had been a Vida Blue fan solely on the basis that he shared the distinction of having the last name of Blue (funny how Green, Black, White, and Brown are quite common as last names while all other colors are virtually unheard of). He then went on to explain that the story behind his name involved his father, a first generation Jewish New Yorker named Isadora Bluestein, simply shortening the family name in an attempt to spare his children future discrimination following his being kept out of both the NYC fire & police departments despite scoring very highly on the tests.

SteveJRogers Feb 03 2013 06:20 AM Re: Baseball Passings 2013

Mets – Willets Point wrote: Just to clarify that despite his presence in this thread, Vida Blue is still among the living, correct? I had the same reaction looking at the first post on this page. Yeah, someone split this...faster than Vida's fastball!

seawolf17 Feb 04 2013 12:03 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

Didn't he have VIDA on the back of jersey for a little while?

Benjamin Grimm Feb 04 2013 12:06 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

I think he did when he was in San Francisco. Not sure about in Oakland.

Edgy MD Feb 04 2013 12:17 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

But also this.

Valadius Feb 04 2013 01:00 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

Sports Phone? What?

G-Fafif Feb 04 2013 01:05 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

seawolf17 wrote: Didn't he have VIDA on the back of jersey for a little while? In the book mentioned upthread, the story was told of how Charlie Finley, who turned Jim Hunter into Catfish, wanted Vida to change his first name to True. "The broadcast boys will call you True Blue," the owner said to the prodigy. Somehow, Vida (named for his father) declined.

Frayed Knot Feb 04 2013 01:07 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

Any others that we know of aside from Vida and Ichiro?

batmagadanleadoff Feb 04 2013 01:29 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

Andy didn't change his name to Channel, but still: and ....

Edgy MD Feb 04 2013 01:39 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

Swan Swan H Feb 04 2013 02:41 PM Re: Vida Blue Lives! (Split from Baseball Passings 2013)

Johnnie LeMaster, who was tired of hearing it from the crowd.