Vida Blue
September 13, 2006
By the time this picture was taken, Vida Blue had struck out over 300 batters in a single season, won 20 games three times, and helped lead his team to three consecutive World Series championships. He was only 26 years old and must have felt unbeatable. When I was that age I’d been sharing a small apartment with my older brother for years and had begun to worry that he and I were destined to live together forever, like Miss Emily and Miss Mamie, the spinster sisters from The Waltons. My brother slept in one room and I slept on a loft bed in a converted closet. There were glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling above the loft bed, left over from when previous tenants used the bed for a young child. I worked six nights a week at a liquor store and got drunk on the weekends, coming home late to pass out below the dim plastic heavens.
Cardboard Gods 
1. 1 comment from old CG site:
es said…
I recall being quite impresed that my father bought the Vida Blue pitchback for the backyard rather than the inferior non-celebrity endorsed version.
It did not include a package of cocaine, however.
11:06 AM
2. Being a native A’s fan, I recognize the background in Vida Blue’s card as the old, pre-“renovation” Oakland Coliseum, and, curiosly, it’s the same backdrop for your next two cards as well, Ed Brinkman and Jim Bibby. In fact, you can just make out some gold topped A’s players taking fielding practice behind Ed Brinkman, and possibly one by the outfield fence behind Bibby. I can only guess that Topps had a photographer living in the Bay Area and he probably took the opportunity to collect some shots during other team’s visits there.