Word: vida
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Perhaps a comparison will clarify the point. Johnny Neumann is just out of college. Vida Blue is barely old enough to vote, and John Misha Petkevich was winning national titles before he left Harvard. But we don't speak of any of these athletes as "little..., tearing up the professionals...
...Strategy. After a deceptively sluggish start, Baltimore had yawned its way to the American League's Eastern Division championship. In the playoff opener against the Oakland A's, the Orioles faced their sternest test: Vida Blue, the fireballing lefty who led the A's to the championship of the American League's Western Division with a record of 24 wins and eight losses (including two victories over Baltimore). Blue was brilliant through the first six innings, but tired noticeably in the seventh. Exploding for four runs, Baltimore went on to win 5-3. After taking...
Finley just harrumphed, but later he presented his prize pitcher with a new powder blue Cadillac with license plates reading V BLUE. "The car cost $10,000," says Finley, "and Vida came to me and said, 'Mr. Finley, that nice big car is fine. But that thing is going to take more than I make in a year to drive, what with upkeep and gas.' So I told Vida, 'O.K., I agree,' and the next day he had a credit card from me. A couple of weeks later, he came to me again and said, 'Mr. Finley, that nice...
...success spoiling Vida Blue? Not according to his teammates. Though it would be easy enough to resent him (when Finley gave Blue the Cadillac, one pitcher cracked: "If I win four games do you think Charley will give me a Honda?"), Oakland First Baseman Mike Epstein reflects the sentiments of all: "He's got it. He's a nice, likable kid. Nonassuming. It's hard for a kid getting the press like he's getting, but he comes and does his job." Mrs. Sallie Blue agrees. "He's a wonderful boy. He never changes. They make this fuss over...
Bachelor Blue lives with Teammate Tommy Davis in a modest apartment in a middle-class black section of Oakland. Davis, 32, a two-time National League batting champion, screens Vida's telephone calls and advises him on everything from hitters' weaknesses to handling the press. "I try to guide Vida," says Davis, "but I don't have to do that much. He's a 22-year-old who acts like a man of 30. The only thing I don't like about him is that he starts cussing and runs out of the apartment when I play my flute...