Vida Blue, a hard-throwing left-hander who became one of baseball’s biggest draws in the early 1970s and helped lead the brash Oakland Athletics to three straight World Series titles before his career was derailed by drug problems, has died. He was 73. The A’s said Blue died Saturday of medical complications stemming from cancer. Blue was voted the 1971 American League Cy Young Award and MVP after going 24-8 with a 1.82 ERA. He finished 209-161 with a 3.27 ERA and 2,175 strikeouts over 17 seasons. He was 22 when he won MVP, the youngest to win the award.
