Blue Failed 3 Drug Tests Last Season

Vida Blue, former American League Cy Young Award winner, tested positive for cocaine on three different occasions last season while playing for the San Francisco Giants, court documents showed Tuesday.

Blue is on probation after having spent 81 days in prison on a 1983 drug possession conviction.

The Oakland A’s signed Blue Jan. 21, but the left-handed pitcher shocked the A’s by retiring Feb. 19. Blue has not been available for comment since.

Documents from U.S. District Court in San Francisco showed that Blue was charged with violating his parole last year when he tested positive for traces of cocaine in his urine on July 11, Aug. 6 and Sept. 3.

According to court records, U.S. Magistrate Wayne Brazil ruled Nov. 19, 1986, that Blue violated his parole and ordered the pitcher to complete a 90-day after-care program at an Oakland hospital. At that time, the court also ordered that Blue’s probation be ended once he completed the program.

“I have not received any notice of his completion of such a program,” said Robert Ward, head of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s office here. “I would think it hasn’t been completed yet.”

Brazil, over the objections of the U.S. Attorney’s office, ordered the case record sealed Nov. 25, 1986.

Frank Vasquez, U.S. probation supervisor, said that federal law prevented his office from notifying either baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth or Blue’s employer at the time--the Giants--about the positive test results.

“There is a confidential relationship between a probation officer and client much like that of a doctor and his patient,” Vasquez said. “Federal law prevents us from disclosing any information on this case. We are not allowed to deviate from those regulations unless we have written permission from the client.”

Vasquez said Blue signed such a release in 1985 but that the release was rescinded in 1986.

In spring training last season, Blue said he did not have a drug-testing clause in his contract.

The Giants, contacted at their spring training base in Arizona, expressed surprise, as did the A’s, upon learning of the positive drug test results.

“I knew nothing about it,” Giant General Manager Al Rosen said.

Sandy Alderson, A’s vice president, said he was unaware of Blue’s cocaine use last year and that had he known, he wouldn’t have signed the pitcher to a 1987 contract estimated at $300,000.

Blue won the Cy Young Award as the American League’s top pitcher in 1971 when he was 24-8, a record that included 301 strikeouts in 312 innings and an earned-run average of 1.82.

He was traded to San Francisco in 1978 for seven players. He won 54 games for the Giants over the next four seasons and then was traded to the Kansas City Royals. It was while he was with the Royals that he was arrested for cocaine use and possession.

Bowie Kuhn, baseball commissioner at the time, suspended him for the entire 1984 season. Blue won a spot on the Giants’ roster for a second hitch in 1985, posting an 8-8 record. Last season, the veteran went 10-10. For his career, Blue was 209-161.