Vida Blue passed away at age 73 this week, and the baseball world lost an absolute legend of a human in the process. He was a legend off the field in ways in which you’d hope your next of kin would be, his generosity celebrated throughout a lifetime that just so happened to also feature an elite ability to throw a speedball by you and make you look like a fool.
Blue won a Cy Young Award and an MVP in a remarkable 1971 campaign for the Oakland A’s, was a 6-time All Star, won a trio of World Series titles, won 209 games with over 2000 career strikeouts, and was more deserving of the Hall of Fame than Jack Morris ever was.