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Over at MLB.com, Chris Haft put together a list of the 10 most important Giants in the San Francisco era. He left off Juan Marichal, which means he's getting yelled at in the comments, but there was no way to avoid getting yelled at with something like that. If not Marichal, then Jeff Kent, Matt Williams, or Robb Nen.
One of the players included, though, was Vida Blue.
Though the Giants flirted with moving to Denver in 1985-86 and nearly left for Tampa-St. Petersburg following the 1992 season, '78 did much to entrench the Giants in the Bay Area. None of that would have happened without Blue.
Guess I never thought of it that way. The article made me look for Blue highlights from when he was a Giant. Of course, there weren't any on YouTube. Good work, baseball. But I what I did find surprised me: There are a squillion songs titled "Vida Blue."
Okay, maybe a handful. But enough to present to you today. This one leads off the revue, and it's funky. Damned funky.
Negative bonus points for mentioning Sandy Koufax in the first verse. Several bonus points for the funk. This song had a competitor, though.
Again with the Koufax, dang it. Still, another good Blue-inspired jam. If you're into jazz, there's something for you:
You just have to imagine all the awesome things Blue did because there aren't any words, but that's jazz for you, smh.
If you're into pop-punk, All has something about Blue, too:
The Descendants would have done it better, but now we're nitpicking. And, finally, today I learned that Vida Blue means "Blue Life" in Portuguese, which is how I found this awesome jam by the Portuguese Emerson Lake & Palmer:
That one probably wasn't necessary, but check that guy out in the background! He's playing a flute-like thing on a vacuum-cleaner attachment!
Also, there's an entire band named Vida Blue if you're into crunchy jams. I had no idea! Most likely, neither did you. This is the least important Very Important Theatre so far. But it was still really, really important.