Beyond Baseball | Vida Blue

 

About Vida Blue

Six time All Star, 3 time world series champion, MVP and Cy Young Award winner Vida Blue is quite a Baseball legend. Listen to his first hand experiences of what it’s like to play professional baseball and what’s the legend doing today?

 

Interview Transcript:

Alan
Welcome back. I’m here today with Vida Blue. He’s a legend in baseball, especially here in the Bay Area. had a successful career with the Oakland A’s and Vida. Welcome to today’s show.

Vida
Thank you very much for thanks for having me.

Alan
So, I gotta go back. And it’s great to have you here on the show today. And I remember watching you as a kid, one of my heroes.

Vida
You mean I’m that old?

Alan
How did you get into Web? How did you how did you transition into a baseball career from?

Vida
Well, you know, growing up in Louisiana in the summertime, that’s all I did play sports. There were no Game Boys and electronic devices around in my fat pants would kick me out gatehouse go do something yesterday. And you can’t rake leaves in the sun because you know, everything is in growth and bloom. And I played sports, it was just you know, pickup ball in the streets, stickball with my buddies next door, throwing balls against the garage door the way kids grew up. I’m sure that still happens. But not as much as it did then because that’s all we had, as I mentioned. So we got organized and played in the last summer league, that’s all and it just grew from there. But uh, I was just lucky to be blessed with to build either through a baseball, I just think is, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. I’m glad that you know, I took advantage of the opportunity to play professional ball because it was a source of income for me to help my after my father passed away to help my sisters through school and my brother and my mom’s to be able to function and survive. And it was just a, I guess a God saying that I was the chosen one out of my family to become the breadwinner after my father passed away being the oldest of the six kids.

Alan
How old were you when your father passed?

Vida
I was so septums I had turned. I had turned 18 at July of 69. I think it was Yeah. So but yeah, it’s it’s it’s crazy how it all just came about. And I got a chance. And I got drafted by I used to play baseball. And as I mentioned that, you know, opportunity presented itself and I took advantage of it.

Alan
So you started your career with the Oakland A’s right. And I imagine that baseball was much different than than it is today.

Vida
Well, no, it was it was the same same game, you know that they make a lot more money now, which is okay. I have no regrets about that the money I made. I put it to good use. And as I mentioned, it allowed me to function every day and with my sisters, helping them get through college. One’s a chemist, one’s a executive bank secretary, my sister and net is law enforcement. And she’s the dare officer in our little town back in Mansfield, Louisiana. Sister number four is Sandra. She works for I think sunbeam Wandy. Not sunbeam was one of the companies that they made me like toasters and stuff like that. Yeah. But uh, she works. She has worked for them for a long time, but they are successful. And I got to play baseball for a living, which I never think of it as a job when you’re out there having fun and entertaining people.

Alan
So you were 14 through your baseball career, the Oakland A’s some 69th, you 77 Then San Francisco Giants 78 through 81. And then to the Royals night 22 383 San Francisco Giants 8586 I lost those students is the one that you connected with the most.

Vida
Probably the 72 A’s because I was turning 22 That year, and we won the championship, the first of the three that we want. And all I got I was the youngest player on the team and all the guys were some of like uncles and more or less like a father figure to me because, again, being the youngest kid there you kind of like go into the World Series Series was new to all of us because we had never gone and played on teams that had had done that before. But it was great accomplishment. And it’s something I’ll never forget the connection that you have with your teammates. They’re kind of like an extension of your family because you’re spending so much time together and and you’re fighting for that one common goal which is to win a championship as a as an athlete.

Alan
When you went to Saigon, your word and 71 And how did that set?

Vida
I don’t know again, I was so young that I couldn’t appreciate winning the awards, the MVP and Cy Young. But as I’ve gotten older I appreciate it. The hard work that went into the commitment that went into doing what I did and have the success that I had, and being voted as the best player to win a say in what in photometrically, for sure, and to be voted the most valuable player of the whole league, you know, that’s like, one guy out of like seven or 800 Guys, and I was that Chosen One again, and pretty cool. Now that’s pretty cool.

Alan
I’m visiting here today with Vida Blue he is baseball legend here in the Bay Area. And we’ve been talking about his Facebook here and bite him when we get back. I wanted to fast forward this and to what you’re what you’re doing today to help you that we’ll be right back after these messages.

Alan
Welcome back, I’m here today with Vida Blue. He’s a baseball legend played for both the Oakland A’s and the San Francisco Giants said that you don’t imagine you hear the Baseball, baseball baseball all your life, right? Yeah, I do. But you know, I guess you kind of deserve it. winning the World Series three years in a row or being with the Oakland A’s.

Vida
I guess I don’t know. I don’t, it’s it’s just something that I did. That’s why I made a living. It was my profession. And I was so involved in it and committed to it. Like you know, the job, you know, even though it’s a form of entertainment for the masses that watch it on television, and people that attend the games in person. I’m just out there throwing a baseball, I don’t think that’s that big of a deal. Now, if I could balance my checkbook, that’s more challenging activity to throw the baseball. But yeah, it’s same time I try to understand it from another person’s perspective. appreciating what we did as athletes on the field, and I get that part of it. But uh, it’s just as it I’m like, we just wrote a baseball.

Alan
You know it today. They have the sophistication, they got the radar, clocking how fast back then do they have all that technology?

Vida
No, they did. And they estimated that through like 9495 miles per hour, and I guess that’s accurate. I don’t know. And it wasn’t. Look, I was born and raised in Mansfield, Louisiana. And it was kind of sad. The environment that I grew up in, kind of depressed and suppressed, I guess I should say. But uh, you know, sports were the way out for me, not the only way out, but it was a way out. And I use that to get out of that situation. But I still go back to Mansfield, Louisiana. I mean, his home, home is home. But you can’t deny that a lot of things that I wish I could change. And hopefully, I will continue to have an impact on people of that town in a very positive way, hopefully. But uh, yeah, sports was just something that I did. And I, I’m glad people make a big deal of effect. Oh, he was this and he was at him. Like, I’ve just said another man that that played baseball. Now, I’ve always felt that when I’ve always had that attitude about it’s just a baseball game. But I’m glad that I can appreciate people walking up to me saying they saw me pitch. And they could appreciate what I did you know, to say you gave me a baseball 30 years ago, and I gave it to my son. And those are stories that I just love to hear.

Alan
Want to go back to the side Young Award and also being awarded the most valuable player and 71. What what led up to that? I mean, it just was it was it. The getting both? I don’t think many people have both in the same year saying.

Vida
There are about eight or 10 pitchers that have won it because a everyday player can’t win the show Young Award. And there’s always been a big controversy, as well, the pitcher should be allowed to win the MVP. And the answer to that is if he makes that big of an impact on the league overall, he should be considered and just so happened I was considered and I wonder why. I mean, I don’t remember who even finished second in the MVP voting. I know that Mickey lolis a left handed pitch from the Detroit Tigers finished second in the Cy Young voting. But it’s it’s quite a quite a an award to have But I don’t know, I just went out there and did everything that I could do. And I was just, again, blessed physically with the ability to throw a baseball. In that one year thing, just the stars lined up for me, were vital blue could be the MVP, and the second award winning, I didn’t do any more any less anything special. I just went out there and did what I was blessed to do, which is an asset and not just a cool baseball. And I guess I had that it factor that when you I don’t know.

Alan
Here today with Vida Blue, he’s the baseball legend in the San Francisco Bay Area played for both the Oakland A’s and San Francisco Giants. And by that I want to move beyond baseball. Because there’s obviously have been a lot of years between, you know, when you were when you stepped out of baseball in 1986. And come today, what have you been working on?

Vida
I do a lot of charity work. And I’m involved with a school in Oakland called Northern Lights. I went there like three years ago just to speak to eighth grade class three years ago, and counting. They’ve named a field after me do a golf tournament with my name on it to support Northern Lights, you know, academic programs and the arts and sports. And I am a strong believer of giving back to the community. Remembering how I grew up in Mansfield, Louisiana, all the neighbors, my mother’s neighbors in our neighborhood always stayed on my case and had to do the right thing all the time. So I had eyes on me all the time. And but just knowing that all those folks who always took the time to to give me some fatherly a motherly advice, and to help me in any way that they could as far as our, you know, my athletic career as an amateur when I played high school sports back in Mansfield, Louisiana, but uh, I, it’s just a natural thing for me to want to give back. And Northern High School is near and dear to my heart. So I do a lot of stuff there. I go and visit with the classes, I’ll sit in a great class, when they, I might sit with seventh grade class, the second half of the day, I might go to it’s our K through eight. So I’m gonna go sit with the kindergarteners and have lunch with them. So it’s pretty cool to be doing that. And they all know who I am, which is not a big deal. But the mere fact that they see somebody positive in their lives is a good thing. And I’m a true believer of there’s no such thing as a bad kid, I think he or she will do the stuff that we teach him or her to do. And if we can keep it all positive, I think we’re better off in the long run to always stay positive reinforcement with kids.

Alan
I love that positive reinforcement. Tell me what are some of the challenges you see happening?

Vida
Well, you know, unfortunately, the old adage about children raising children, you know, teen pregnancies, and all kinds of crazy stuff that goes on in our world today to the world is going mad if and we got to slow that madness down. I do believe that. Again, as I said, if we teach kids to do the right thing, they will do that I don’t sit as a bad kid. Not that I know. And I always give a child benefit of the doubt. As I tell the teenager shake my head why you still know everything because you’re not just saying what it is to evolution of life sometime I think when I was 18, I want to be 21. And as I tell my 22 year old kids now, enjoy being 22 You’re not to be 25 when you’re 22 Enjoy being 22 Enjoy life on life’s terms today. And you may not be dealt made. Thank you, you haven’t been dealt a good hand. But sometimes you can go elsewhere and look around. And you’ll see that you’ve been blessed with with the hand that you’re dealt. So just just, you know, try to live life to the fullest and make yourself available to help someone else because when you give, it always comes back to you. At least that’s the way I was brought up and taught.

Alan
You have a lot of faith in you your life.

Vida
Oh, absolutely. Yeah. Look at me, man. Come on. This look, I’m this way every day. I don’t have a wrinkle in my forehead. I’ve been told because I’m not what is that I just life is good. And it should be this way every day. Again, you know, you can look at your circumstances and say Oh, this is not Try me. But you can also say, Okay, this happened. So every problem, there’s a solution gotta go to plan a oh, that didn’t work. Okay, I’ve gone to Plan B, I go to plan D sometime too, because I’ll try certain things. That doesn’t work, try something else. It doesn’t work, I try something else. And I just keep going until I get back. The positive stuff that I want to get out of my life that day in life is a day to day challenge. Trust me, it’s a day to day chance to survive for some people, to function for other people. And just just to get along with their day to day lives. It is challenging, it’s not easy, nothing is easy. And I wouldn’t sit here and lie to you, to you on this camera right now. It’s the life it is life is challenging for some people every day.

Alan
Out of all the kids that you work with, over the years, are there certain instances or memories that stand out?

Vida
Yeah, there’s a kid now I know who who, just to reference what I just talked about, who wasn’t dealt, in my opinion. He didn’t get a good handle life. His mom had issues. And he was like a crack baby, you know, and he went to the same school in northern High School. He’s had some issues now he’s attending De La Salle High School, which a lot of students from Northern High School have gone to. He’s put his life together. He’s moved on. His mother will always be his mother. And he’s always got to show respect to her as his mother, as her son. But he’s come a long ways in this kid that I said no way. The deck is stacked against his kid, but he’s fought through all those odds, in he’s like a miracle child for me. Because he’s done all the right things. He works his tail off to be a good student at De La Salle, but he’s a good athlete, but he wants to be a good student athlete. And I expect good things from him in the next two years of his life.

Alan
So you’re working with the kids at Northern Light, you’re you’re really on on campus.

Vida
I enjoyed and can’t say enough about the staff that they have that too, because they show so much patience, which students in you know, an average classroom probably has about eight to 10 students. So the one on one with the from the instructor to the student is very, very surreal, because they get to take the time. It’s not, they don’t have some agenda where they got to be be on chapter 20. By this time next week, you know, they can go real slow to make sure that everybody’s getting what they need to make sure everybody’s learning what’s being taught. And that’s the beauty of going to a small school like that. But it’s great for students who, who can’t move at that same pace, and there’s some student Epsom gets the students there who can move really fast. But that same student would go over and assist the teacher and assisting another student of getting what it is teaching and make sure that he or she is learning the proper way.

Alan
What advice would you have for a student who aspires to be an athlete in bed, they got to get through the school too.

Vida
Well, you know, obviously, if you want to be an athlete, you care about sports and sports is a is a good, it’s a good teacher as far as learning how to work together. It teaches about failing when you lose a game. And my advice to a student that wants to be a student athlete, as you’re gonna have to be committed to do both you got to be work just as hard on the athletic field, as you do in the classroom, if not hard in the classroom, because the other one opens the door for you to do bigger and better things. You can be a great athlete and not be a good student. But the deal is to be a good person. That’s the bottom not to be a good person on a day to day basis. We all have challenges with doing the right thing and the trick is to do the right thing.

Alan
Why do you have a golf tournament coming up? I do. And when is that? Can you give us more information?

Vida
The date October 27 at TPC Harding Park in in I’m sorry TPC in Hayward, excuse me. The new course they have a new clubhouse there. And we’re raising money for Northern high school and I was so convinced to put my name on the tournament. It’s our second annual tournament. And I’m looking forward to participating in hopefully somebody here and your big audience will will be able to come and participate October 27 I don’t have a phone number off the top of my head but I’m not sure if you guys put that in there or not.

Alan
Right on the screen right here. Northern Lights school and and go ahead and click the link and register for the tournament

Vida
Thank you. Okay, bye.

Alan
Thanks for being up to date. We’ll be right back after these messages.

 

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This transcript was generated by software and may not accurately reflect exactly what was said.

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