Let’s start with the romance. Vida Rochelle Blue, Jr., who died on Saturday at age 73, married Peggy Shannon, nine years his junior, on the pitcher’s mound at Candlestick Park on Sept. 24, 1989. Orlando Cepeda escorted Peggy to the mound; Willie McCovey was Blue’s best man. The marriage lasted only seven years, but they had twin daughters to whom Vida was a loving father.
In High School, in Louisiana, Blue’s athletic prowess was so impressive, it prompted the school to establish a baseball team. It didn’t even have a team before him! His teammates complained that he was too good. The catcher’s hand hurt for days after a game, and the outfielders didn’t think they should bother to take their positions — no batter ever hit a ball out to them.
Blue’s rookie year in the pros was 1971 with Oakland and he exploded. After losing on Opening Day, he won 8 in a row. Out of his first 12 games, five were complete game shutouts. He was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and Time before he turned 22. He was a dynamo — he ran to and from the mound and ended each delivery with a leap. In that rookie year, 1971, he won both the Cy Young award and the AL MVP. He was 24-8 with an ERA of 1.82. The next three seasons, Oakland won the World Series. Pete Rose said Blue was the hardest throwing pitcher he ever faced.
While 1971 was officially Blue’s rookie year, he was called up to the majors in September of 1970 and made a couple of starts. His first was a one-hitter against KC, and his second a no-hitter against Minny. He was the fourth youngest pitcher ever to pitch a no-hitter.
Even so, in 1972, Oakland owner Charles Finley f**ked Blue over. Blue was only paid $14,000 in 1971 and he wanted $92,500 in 1972, but Finley wouldn’t agree and Blue sat out for much of the year. President Nixon called Blue “the most underpaid player in baseball.” They finally settled on $63,000 and Blue went only 6-10 for the year. Blue never forgave Finley and it left scars that never healed. “That man soured me on baseball,” Blue told the NYT in 1973. “I’ll never forget that he treated me like a damn colored boy.”
Other demons began to undermine him. Drugs. In 1983 he was part of baseball’s cocaine scandal, spent 81 days in jail, and was suspended for a season. He finished his career at 209-161, with a 3.27 ERA, and 2,175 strikeouts. It was a fine career, with 6 All-Star appearances, but in the end, it fell short of its initial promise. He was never seriously considered for the Hall of Fame, in his mind due to the drug issue. Rest in peace, Vida Blue.
Also passing on Saturday was Newton Minow, at age 97, former head of the FCC. In 1961, speaking before 2,000 broadcast executives, he excoriated the industry for the “vast wasteland” of American television they created. The charge hit like a bomb and changed the cozy relationship of the industry with the FCC into an adversarial one. They were pushed to do better, and responded to some degree. But the execs maintained they were only giving the audience what it wanted. Sadly, they were mostly correct.
Amusingly, the industry took subtle little digs at Minow reflecting the ongoing animosity. For instance (and I’m not kidding), the boat in Gilligan’s Island that was supposed to be on a mere three-hour tour but ran aground was called “The Minnow.”
After leaving the FCC, Minow joined a Chicago law firm. In 1988, he recruited Barack Obama to work as a summer associate at the firm. It was there that he met Michelle.
Since today was Monday, several of us cruciverbalists continued our struggle to make the puzzle more of a challenge. Joseph Michael started things off with this comment:
“This was the hardest puzzle of the year so far. Tried solving it not only blindfolded, as usual on Monday, but also with my hands tied together behind my back. I was not able to get even one answer.”
I replied with:
“I admire your spunk, JM! Sorry to hear about your DNF. At the risk of overstepping my bounds, is it possible that, in your effort to increase the Monday challenge, you are ‘overshooting?’ Could you dial it back a smidge? Perhaps instead of the blindfold, an eye patch or sunglasses?
“I’m having trouble at the other end. For example, today I had a friend translate all the clues into Serbo-Croatian, a language I don’t speak, and rearrange their numbers randomly. But I was still able to finish in 11/16 of a second – not a Monday best for me, but close.”
He went next:
“Liveprof, thank you for the advice. I’m not sure that an eye patch would provide enough of a challenge, but two eye patches might do the trick. Maybe I’ll try that the next time my blindfold is at the dry cleaners.
“Meanwhile I admire your creativity in translating the clues into a foreign language, but I can see how Serbo-Croatian might be too easy to figure out during that 11/16 second. May I suggest that you try a more archaic language, such as Sanskrit or Mycenaean Greek?”
I had the final word:
“Two patches — of course! Your suggestion about those languages is excellent — I may have trouble sleeping until next Monday from the excitement. I just have to make sure I don’t accidentally attain fluency in them during the week.”
Good night, everybody! Thanks for stopping in.
The Wellington Files 