Vida Blue

HandednessBats Switch · Throws Left

Listed at6 ft 0 in · 189 lb

BornJuly 28, 1949 · Mansfield, LA, USA

MLB debutJuly 20, 1969

Final gameOctober 2, 1986

Seasons17 (1969–1986)

Oakland Athletics 1969–1977; San Francisco Giants 1978–1981; Kansas City Royals 1982–1983; San Francisco Giants 1985–1986

Percentile snapshot

1982 season — qualified pitchers

12.4

41.6

55.1

34.8

41.6

SHO

60.7

163

89.9

77.5

24.7

103

41.6

33.7

181.0

28.1

ERA

3.78

51.7

WHIP

1.343

37.1

K/9

5.12

60.7

FIP

4.31

FIP-

105.4

29.2

ERA+

108.3

60.7

sWAR

2.4

44.9

of 90 qualified 1982 pitchers (min 162 IP)

Career, era-adjusted

ERA+

108.6

68.7

sWAR

44.5

98.4

ERA+ measured against qualified careers (1,000+ IP), 1,334 of them; sWAR measured against every career in history, 24,011 of them. Only era-adjusted career stats carry a percentile — a raw career total gets a rank instead, because pooling the 1890s with the 2020s is a choice, not a measurement.

Season by season

Batting

Season	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	CS	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	wRC+	OPS+	wOBA	sWAR
1969	12	12	10	1	0	0	0	0	2	4	0	.000	.167	.000	.167	-38.6	-48.5	.126	-1.3
1970	6	17	15	1	3	1	1	3	1	7	0	.200	.250	.467	.717	93.5	97.6	.317	1.2
1971	39	121	102	6	12	1	0	2	4	63	1	.118	.167	.127	.294	-24.5	-13.8	.149	8.8
1972	27	52	45	4	2	0	0	0	5	34	1	.044	.140	.044	.184	-49.0	-41.3	.113	1.4
1973	38	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-121.6	-100.0	.000	3.6
1974	40	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	3.2
1975	39	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	4.9
1976	37	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	6.7
1977	38	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	-122.2	-100.0	.000	3.3
1978	35	101	79	8	6	1	1	2	16	51	0	.076	.240	.127	.366	19.0	7.3	.209	4.9
1979	37	97	83	7	10	1	1	3	6	35	0	.120	.180	.169	.348	-4.6	-1.2	.172	-1.9
1980	31	79	68	3	5	1	0	1	3	34	0	.074	.111	.088	.199	-56.1	-42.7	.102	3.3
1981	18	43	35	4	7	2	0	1	3	10	0	.200	.263	.257	.520	50.2	50.5	.254	2.9
1982	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	2.4
1983	19	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	—	—	—	—	—	—	—	-1.0
1985	33	41	30	0	4	1	0	0	3	12	0	.133	.212	.167	.379	9.5	9.6	.193	-0.2
1986	28	53	43	3	4	1	1	3	6	20	0	.093	.204	.186	.390	13.7	11.2	.199	2.2

Pitching

Season	G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	H	ER	BB	SO	HR	IP	ERA	WHIP	K/9	FIP	FIP-	ERA+	sWAR
1969	12	4	1	1	1	0	0	49	31	18	24	13	42.0	6.64	1.595	5.14	6.53	187.9	52.3	-1.3
1970	6	6	2	0	0	2	2	20	9	12	35	0	38.7	2.09	.828	8.15	1.63	45.5	170.8	1.2
1971	39	39	24	8	0	24	8	209	63	88	301	19	312.0	1.82	.952	8.68	2.11	63.0	183.9	8.8
1972	25	23	6	10	0	5	4	117	47	48	111	11	151.0	2.80	1.093	6.62	2.72	94.2	103.1	1.4
1973	37	37	20	9	0	13	4	214	96	105	158	26	263.7	3.28	1.210	5.39	3.90	108.8	109.6	3.6
1974	40	40	17	15	0	12	1	246	102	98	174	17	282.3	3.25	1.218	5.55	3.17	94.0	103.8	3.2
1975	39	38	22	11	1	13	2	243	93	99	189	21	278.0	3.01	1.230	6.12	3.30	90.1	121.7	4.9
1976	37	37	18	13	0	20	6	268	78	63	166	9	298.3	2.35	1.109	5.01	2.54	75.1	143.8	6.7
1977	38	38	14	19	0	16	1	284	119	86	157	23	279.7	3.83	1.323	5.05	3.62	90.2	104.9	3.3
1978	35	35	18	10	0	9	4	233	80	70	171	12	258.0	2.79	1.174	5.97	2.72	78.5	124.0	4.9
1979	34	34	14	14	0	10	0	246	132	111	138	23	237.0	5.01	1.506	5.24	4.21	119.2	70.4	-1.9
1980	31	31	14	10	0	10	3	202	74	61	129	14	224.0	2.97	1.174	5.18	3.22	91.6	118.3	3.3
1981	18	18	8	6	0	1	0	97	34	54	63	7	124.7	2.45	1.211	4.55	3.71	109.0	138.8	2.9
1982	31	31	13	12	0	6	2	163	76	80	103	20	181.0	3.78	1.343	5.12	4.31	105.4	108.3	2.4
1983	19	14	0	5	0	1	0	96	57	35	53	12	85.3	6.01	1.535	5.59	4.71	115.7	67.8	-1.0
1985	33	20	8	8	0	1	0	115	65	80	103	17	131.0	4.47	1.489	7.08	4.59	131.9	77.9	-0.2
1986	28	28	10	10	0	0	0	137	57	77	100	19	156.7	3.27	1.366	5.74	4.52	126.9	108.8	2.2

sWAR is the season TOTAL for a player who both hit and pitched: the record book carries one figure per season, not a split, so the same number appears on both lines rather than being counted twice.

Career totals

Batting

508

618

512

RBI

271

.1035

OBP

.1858

SLG

.1445

OPS

.3303

Pitching

G (P)

502

438th-most career G (P)

473

72nd-most career GS

209

103rd-most career W

161

118th-most career L

143

244th-most career CG

SHO

57th-most career SHO

3,343

92nd-most career IP

SO (P)

2,175

71st-most career SO (P)

BB allowed

1,185

57th-most career BB allowed

ERA

3.265

293rd-lowest career ERA

WHIP

1.2335

269th-lowest career WHIP

K/9

5.85

409th-highest career K/9

A total is called out only where it ranks in the all-time top 500; hover a figure for its rank and the size of the field it was ranked in. Ranks are absolute facts and carry no percentile — the population for "career home runs" would be an editorial choice, and the rank is not.

Best games

Batting

Date	Game	AB	R	H	2B	HR	RBI	BB	TB
1970-09-07	ATH @ CWS Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	3	0	4
1978-04-22	CIN @ SF Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	1	1	4
1979-07-09	SF @ PHI Gameday	1	1	1	0	1	1	1	4
1986-07-17	SF @ CHC Gameday	2	1	1	0	1	1	0	4
1971-04-18	ATH @ CWS Gameday	5	1	2	1	0	1	0	3

Pitching

Date	Game	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
1971-07-09	LAA @ ATH Gameday	11.0	7	0	0	0	17
1971-06-21	ATH @ MIN Gameday	9.0	7	2	2	5	13
1976-07-23	KC @ ATH Gameday	9.0	6	0	0	1	13
1971-04-09	KC @ ATH Gameday	6.0	3	0	0	2	13
1971-06-25	KC @ ATH Gameday	9.0	5	0	0	1	12

Ranked from our own play-by-play game log, which begins in 1901 — not from the record book, so a career played outside it shows nothing here rather than a short list.

Honors

1× Cy Young Award1× Most Valuable Player6× All-Star

Major awards only — the awards table also records Player of the Week, and forty of those would bury seven MVPs. Hover for the years.