Word: hitter
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Coming in the heyday of the hitter, Vida Blue's success is all the more remarkable. It also points out one of the happy paradoxes of the game: while many fans prefer the action of a double rattling off the wall, just as many dote on that subtle little duel between hurler and hitter. Baseball has its troubles?shaky franchises, feuding owners, player dissents?but as long as its basic appeals thrive, so too will the game...
Farmed out to the Burlington, Iowa, Bees, he led the Midwest League in strikeouts with 231 and pitched a no-hitter. Moving on to Birmingham in 1969, he was briefly called up to the A's where as a spot starter he pitched 42 innings and, failing to effectively mix up his pitches, compiled a horrendous earned-run average of 6.21. After leading the American Association in strikeouts, he was brought up again last September...
...caution." The first thing to explode was, of all things, his bat. In his first start, Blue, one of the few switch-hitting pitchers in baseball, cracked a three-run homer to help the A's to a 7-4 win. In his second outing, he hurled a one-hitter against Kansas City. His fourth time out he stunned the hard-hitting Minnesota Twins with a no-hitter. The Blue Blazer...
...Streak Hitter. This April Willie hit .347 and clouted eleven homers to set a new record for the first month of the season. He also capped the month of June against the Philadelphia Phillies with his 28th homer to set yet another record for the first three months of the season. Now, with 32 home runs and 89 runs batted in, he is well on his way to his best season ever. Even so, Willie refuses to be overly confident-and for good reason...
Four-Mile Hikes. Stargell's new eminence as the league's most dangerous power hitter has caused other Pirates to stop calling their amiable 6-ft. 21-in. cleanup batter "Gentle Ben." Now, in mock reference to the tiny TV-cartoon cereal pitchman, he is known as "Sugar Bear." Fact is, during past winter hibernations, Stargell would balloon up to 245 lbs. and then have to spend spring training "exercising instead of batting." This winter he combined a strict diet with four-mile hikes through the Penn Hills section of Pittsburgh, where he lives. As a result...