Mansfield native Vida Blue passes away at 73
DeSoto Parish’s Ed Jackson remembers Major League Baseball great
SHREVEPORT, La. (KSLA) - Six-time Major League Baseball All-Star Vida Blue passed away on Sunday.
The Mansfield native was a part of the Oakland A’s three consecutive World Series championships from 1972-74.
Blue, a graduate of the former DeSoto High School won the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award in 1971.
He pitched for the A’s for eight years, before joining the Giants in 1978. Blue ultimately retired in San Francisco in 1986.
Former Oakland Raider, and fellow Mansfield native Ed Jackson speaks to KSLA News 12 and remembers Vida Blue.
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“One thing for sure, it put Mansfield on the map, " says Jackson. “Any young guy who had that aspiration to be a great baseball player, or have a great name or be from a small town, it did a lot of things for that city. It did a lot of things for the people that were coming up during his era.”
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