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Opposing hitters spoke mystically of how Blue’s fastballs would disappear or jump over their bats. Reporters speculated about why he carried two dimes in his pocket when he pitched, with some suggesting it was a charm to help him win 20 games. Across the country, attendance at his outings swelled to levels that stadiums had not seen in years. Fans of an opposing team, the Detroit Tigers, chanted outside the clubhouse, “We want Vida!”
The A’s appeared in the playoffs for the first time since 1931, ultimately losing to the Baltimore Orioles in the American League Championship. Blue pulled off the feat of winning, in his first full season, both the Cy Young and the Most Valuable Player Awards (beating out his teammate Sal Bando to become the M.V.P.).
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After the ’71 season, Blue said he should make $115,000. Finley countered with $50,000 and made the dispute public. Blue held a news conference and declared that he would retire from sports to become a vice president for public relations at a steel company.
Ultimately, Blue and Finley settled on $63,150.
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Newton N. Minow. Some of you may recall that name: he was a former chairman of the FCC who, in 1961, gave a famous speech:
“Stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you, and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off,” Mr. Minow said. “I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland.”
The audience sat aghast as he went on:
“You will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men, Western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And endlessly, commercials — many screaming, cajoling and offending. And most of all, boredom.”
He added, “If you think I exaggerate, try it.”
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Bill Saluga. You may not recognize the name, but those of a certain age will recognize his most famous character: Raymond J. Johnson Jr.
I certainly remember the great Vida Blue, and his electric fastball. At one time, it was him and Nolan Ryan who were the dominant fastball pitchers. Now it is routine for pitchers to throw in the mid to upper 90’s. But back in the late 70’s, it was a rare pitcher who threw in the low 90’s with any control, other than Vida Blue and of course, the rare Nolan Ryan, who it seems now like they have decided now that he threw as fast as 107.8 mph.
And of course, I am old enough to remember Bill Saluga, although I never knew him as that name.
I had known that Ms. Gardner had resigned, and some of her difficulties. I think that there likely will be a few others who face the same problem, with their running the cities in the liberal fashion that they are, and often after seeing the problems that causes, instead of correcting course, they double down, which only fuels further problems.
You only need to look at Democrat controlled cities, and find that problems with drug addicts on the streets, homeless camps, violence and rapes and smash and grab robberies force stores to close and move out of their cities. I am thinking of cities like Chicago, San Francisco, LA, St.Louis, Detroit, Baltimore, the Twin Cities of Minnesota, Portland, and of course we could list more, but the point is, where lawlessness is tolerated, then lawlessness will increase. I hope that at some point, the left will recognize this, and decide to put a stop to it. But a I fear that they know all about it, and find it a positive of their policies, and not a bug.