On July, 26th, 1984, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announced that free-agent pitcher Vida Blue will be suspended for the remainder of the season as a result of his conviction on cocaine possession charges in November 1983.

In July of 1984, I was living in Houston, Texas, and going to Astros games. I was a child of the 1970s and did not share the older generation’s view of drug usage by Major League players, rock stars, or movie stars.

Vida Blue was my boyhood hero. And he remained so. My attitude at that time was that baseball (and America) was too much influenced by the “Reagan Revolution” and all the bulls–t that came with it. (In this case, Nancy Reagan and her ‘Just Say No’ campaign). It was a political thing for me more than a baseball thing then.

40 years later, I guess I feel the same way.

I have never liked the singing of the National Anthem before every single game. I think it should be saved for special occasions like the Season Opener. I also dislike when a club decides to “honor America” by singing God Bless America instead of Take Me Out to the Ballgame during the seventh-inning stretch. If there is anything truly sacred about baseball that we all can agree on it is that “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” is the one rite that must be performed at any and all baseball games.

Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Commissioner Peter Ueberhoff, and President Ronald Reagan. Three old white men, I would like to forget.

Vida Blue, Willie Wilson, and Dave Parker. Three black men suspended for using a drug that politicians, stock brokers, and entertainment stars regularly used. Three names I will always remember with affection.