Bay Area pitching icon Vida Blue dead at 73

Baseball up top and Vita Blue. Unquestionable great player, one of 11 to win the Cy Young and MVP in the same season. He was everybody's friend and even a better person. Blue lost a year and a half battle with cancer late Saturday at age 73. Now we have this one minute, 30 second tribute to him, but for his stature, I'll be honest with you. It's not long enough. Vita was the best player in Bay Area.

History in terms of all the guys who played for both the Giants and A's. Vita Blue made his big league debut when he was only 19 years old. Two years later he was the American League Cy Young and most valuable player. Vita Blue was to the 70s. Would one Marcell was to the 60s. I tried to throw left handed because of him didn't always work out. By the healthy A's when three straight World Series titles in the 1970s, he was at the Coliseum last month for the 50th anniversary of the 1973 team.

Charlie Finley tried to create a nickname true blue and Vita said no way. I don't want any part of that. You don't mess with Vita Blue. It's the best name in baseball. You don't give him a nickname. A nickname wasn't the only thing Vita and Charlie Finley didn't agree on. When they couldn't come to terms on a new contract, Philly traded Vita across the Bay.

He was so good when the ace traded him to the Giants. The Giants gave up seven players to Oakland. He was named an all star three times with a Giants and on track for the Hall of Fame. But his career was derailed when he was suspended for the 1984 season after pleading guilty to cocaine possession. Vita Blue is not a bad person. Vita Blue's used bad judgment and used bad judgment on more than one occasion and that's okay. He had some issues along the way, of course, but you look at today's pitchers, they're not many better than Vita Blue and it's just this at all.

Here's age legend Dave Stewart. He tweeted, Vita Blue, rest in peace. My mentor, hero and friend. I remember watching a 19 year old phenom dominate baseball and at the same time, alter my life. There are no words for what you have meant to me and so many others. Segway to the Giants who held a moment of silence for Vita Blue. This is before the game with the Brewers.

But back to Vita Blue, you take all of his achievements, all of his accolades, but two of the things that he is most proud of, first ambassador to the Junior Giants program and then a contributor to the Northern Lights School in Oakland. He was all about helping kids.

Oakland A's, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants