Sport: Vida’s Blues

What are the chances of anyone’s demanding, and receiving, a 530% raise these days? Not too good—especially when there are Government wage guidelines and a boss like Oakland A’s Owner Charles Finley to contend with. Not too good—unless your name is Vida Blue, who last week mounted one of the more imaginative counterattacks in the history of baseball salary disputes. After months of futile negotiations with Finley and a brief disappearance, the 22-year-old pitching star emerged in Oakland to tell a disbelieving news conference that he was retiring to sell bathroom and kitchen fixtures.

Finley has good reason to hope that the announcement was only a ploy. In his first full season, Blue last year fashioned a stunning 24-8 record, posted 301 strikeouts and won both the Cy Young Award as the outstanding pitcher in the American League and the league’s Most Valuable Player Award. He provided Finley with an extraordinary return on his salary of $14,750, and set turnstiles spinning round the league. Well aware of his impact, Blue and his attorney agent, Robert Gerst, asked for $92,500 this year. Finley refused to go above $50,000.

Bizarre Proposal. As he explained to newsmen that he intended to take a job as a vice president with Dura Steel Products of suburban Los Angeles, Blue found it hard to keep a straight face. “Come on, guys,” he pleaded at one point, “I’m supposed to be serious.” He then listed the counterproposals he had made to Finley during the bargaining: he had offered to play for $50,000 with a retroactive bonus agreement; or on a long-range contract basis with assured increase; or if Finley would allow him to become a free agent at the end of the season. His most bizarre proposal called for the Atlantic-Richfield Co. to boost his income by paying him $42,500 to do a gas station commercial with Finley.

All of this is baseball theater at its most entertaining, but it still is likely that Finley and Blue will reach some sort of agreement. The next question is: Will there be a baseball season for Vida to pitch in? By week’s end, 13 major league teams had voted, most of them unanimously, to approve some form of strike before the season begins —if the owners do not kick in at least an additional $10 million for the players’ pension and medical-care funds.