Thursday, October 27, 2022

SPECIAL REQUEST: 1972 VIDA BLUE HIGHLIGHT CARD

By special request, today the blog offers up a 1972 "Highlight" card celebrating the enormous season young Oakland A's starter Vida Blue had, eventually taking home the Cy Young and A.L. MVP Award:

 
Of course, we all know that Vida Blue absolutely exploded onto the Major League scene in 1971, on his way to capturing both awards by season's end.
All he did in this epic season was post a record of 24-8, with a league-leading 1.82 earned run average, striking out 301 batters and tossing eight shutouts.
Oh yeah, he was only 21 years of age!
His WHIP of 0.952 and strikeouts-per-nine-innings of 8.7 also led the league, and he completed 24 of his 39 starts, putting in 312 innings of work for the upstart Oakland A's, who were about to go on the three-peat championship run between 1972 and 1974.
Blue would go on to post 209 career victories in the Majors, having some successful seasons with the San Francisco Giants, even starting the 1978 All-Star game for the National League, while finishing up his 17-year career in 1986.
It’s amazing for me to remember that when Blue started that NL All-Star game in 1978, he wasn’t even 30 years old, yet to me he already seemed to be an aging veteran by then.

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