ACCORDING to eyewitnesses, it "pops," "hops," "skips," "jumps," "bams," "burns," "booms," "tails," "sails," "smokes," "swoops," "sinks" or just plain "whooshes." If it sounds like a UFO, that is only because the hitters who have faced the fearsome fastball of Oakland A's Pitcher Vida Blue tend to endow it with out-of-this-world qualities. Roy White, the otherwise stable outfielder for the New York Yankees, claims that the Blue darter "speeds up on you and then seems to disappear." Kansas City Royals Third Baseman Paul Schaal swears that "it jumps right over your bat." After his world champion Baltimore Orioles were beaten by Blue in two straight games, scoring only one run in 18 innings, Manager Earl Weaver had a more logical explanation. "I think I have the answer," he said. "Our guys just didn't see the damn ball."
If so, the Orioles are no less myopic than the other American League teams that have been chasing the phantom fastballs of Vida (as in Ida) Blue (as in lightning). After losing the season opener to the Washington Senators, he won ten games in a row and became a kind of fireballing folk hero. When he posted victory No. 11 against the New York Yankees, the largest crowd to see a night game in Yankee Stadium in three years turned out for what was billed as "Blue Tuesday." Five days later, Blue won No. 12 in Washington before 40,246 fans, the Senators' largest Sunday attendance in seven years. He blazed on, swelling attendance figures by an estimated 15,000 fans wherever he performed. When Oakland opened a series against the Minnesota Twins with Blue on the mound, the gate was 23,334; next night, with Blue on the bench, it was 11,147. Between victories Nos. 17 and 18, Vida took time out to become the second-youngest pitcher in history to win the All-Star Game. Then it was on to Detroit to No. 19 before a crowd of 53,565. Afterward, the fans thronged outside the clubhouse chanting "We want Vida! We want Vida!"
Three days later, on July 28, the hottest pitcher in baseball celebrated his 22nd birthday, then returned to the Oakland Alameda Stadium to win No. 20. As usual, the organist played Rhapsody in Blue, and as usual, Vida got off to a slow start by loading the bases in the first inning. He pitched his way out of that jam, found his groove, and went on to blank the Chicago White Sox 1-0. When he squeaked to No. 21 last week by defeating the Boston Red Sox 5-3 in extra innings, a near capacity crowd of 32,858 showed up in Fenway Park despite tornado alerts and a rainstorm that delayed the start of the game for two hours.