#Shortstops: Blue leather

And after nine innings, the only one enjoying champagne was Vida Blue, Oakland’s 21-year-old rookie who had just thrown a nine-strikeout no-hitter and led the Athletics to a 6-0 victory. As a reward for his dazzling performance, Blue received a bottle of bubbly from the Twins’ stash.

Wielding this brown MacGregor glove on his right hand, Blue attacked hitters all night with his legendary fastball, throwing what he estimated to the Redwood City Tribune to be “90 per cent fastballs.” The heater’s combination of velocity and location rendered Minnesota’s bats useless.

“It sort of exploded when it got halfway to the plate,” Twins third baseman Rick Renick – who went 0-for-3 with a strikeout – told the Minneapolis Star of Blue’s fastball. “If it was above the knees it seemed to rise, below the knees, it dropped.”

Blue’s primary offering was formidable, but the need to develop an off-speed pitch resulted in an early-career setback. The Mansfield, La., native struggled in his 1969 debut, allowing 13 home runs in 42 innings with a 6.64 ERA. As a result, he spent the first five months of the 1970 season in Des Moines, Iowa, with Oakland’s Triple-A affiliate. There, he improved his curveball and better equipped himself to navigate major league lineups.

The free pass to Killebrew came on a curveball, as Blue protected a 1-0 lead and approached one of the era’s great power hitters with caution.

“Killebrew was the batter who bothered me the most,” Blue told the Tribune. “He can hit the ball out of the park.”

But Blue also struck out Killebrew twice and retired Tony Oliva, the .319-hitting future Hall of Famer, all three times. Oakland finally broke free in the bottom of the eighth with five insurance runs.

“I started thinking about the no-hitter in the fifth inning,” Blue told the Tribune. “The runs we got in the eighth helped take the pressure off. I started telling my brain ‘no-hitter, no-hitter, no-hitter.’”

Blue completed the seventh no-hitter in franchise history with 114 pitches, and Athletics owner Charlie Finley rewarded him with a $2,000 bonus. Catcher Gene Tenace received $1,000 from Finley for his work behind the plate. “I couldn’t have done it by myself,” the left-handed pitcher told the Tribune, also alluding to stellar defensive plays by third baseman Sal Bando and shortstop Bert Campaneris.