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 Ossie Bluege Photo Gallery
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Another Edition of Baseball’s Forgotten Stars Ossie Bluege:

“The Brooks Robinson of the 1920s and ‘30s!”

…Or as his family likes to say: “Brooks Robinson was the 1960s and ‘70s version of Ossie Bluege!”

My recent post about the forgotten star from the 1930s, Wes Ferrell, got a nice response, so I’ll continue with the theme of highlighting forgotten stars from baseball’s Golden Era. Today I’m reposting my tribute to one of the greatest defensive third basemen the game has ever seen: the Senators’ Ossie Bluege (thanks to our reader, Todd Downey, for calling Ossie to my attention).

I’ve mentioned many times we always enjoy it when we’re contacted by descendants of former ballplayers. It doesn’t matter to us if he was a star or a sub. Anyone who makes it to the “Big Show” is special in our eyes, and we’re always glad to shine the spotlight on them for a brief moment or two. 

Many of our readers will recognize Ossie Bluege’s name. Some will remember he was a fine ballplayer from that by-gone era. But few, including myself, are aware of what a great player he actually was.

Recently I was contacted by daughters Wilor Bluege and Lynn Bluege-Rust. They’re rightly proud of their dad, Ossie Bluege, who has been largely overlooked with the passage of time. Like many fine ballplayers from baseball’s Golden Era, he’s been overshadowed by the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Hornsby, DiMaggio, Greenberg, and Foxx. To help give him some long-overdue recognition, they’ve written a book about him. They kindly asked me to review the manuscript prior to publishing. I told them it would be an honor.

The book is very well written and it didn’t need much input from me. As I was reading it, I was stunned to discover what an outstanding player their father actually was; and, what’s even more important, I discovered that he was an even better man. A devoted husband and father who always put his family’s best interests ahead of his own, I found it refreshing to read a biography of a ballplayer possessing such high personal attributes as Ossie Bluege.

Ossie spent 50 years in baseball, all with the Senators franchise, as a player (1922-1939), manager (1943-’47), farm director, and later as comptroller directly involved with the team’s move to Minnesota. Signed off the Peoria Tractors in 1920, the 5’ 10 ½” 152 pound Chicago native hit .272 over his career, with 43 home runs, 848 RBIs, 140 stolen bases, and a .353 on-base percentage. While his offensive numbers might seem modest, Ossie had a well-deserved reputation as a dangerous clutch hitter.

A 1935 All-Star, he was a member of Washington’s three pennant winners (1924, ’25, ’33), and the franchise’s only World Series championship (until this year) in 1924. The 1925 infield of Ossie Bluege, Roger Peckinpaugh, Bucky Harris, and Joe Judge is considered one of the best of all time. 

As farm director, Ossie was responsible for signing some of the biggest names in Senators’ history, including Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison, Zoilo Versailes, Jim Kaat, and Tony Oliva. At Ossie’s retirement party in 1971, owner Calvin Griffith had tears in his eyes as he reflected on how much Ossie had meant to him, saying “Ossie had become like a father to me” after the death of owner Clarke Griffith.

But Ossie left his mark on the game primarily as one of the best fielding third basemen the game has ever seen, known for making even the most difficult plays look easy. The comparison to Brooks Robinson is not an exaggeration. Babe Ruth once selected Ossie as the third baseman on his All-Star team. I was stunned to read contemporary comments about Ossie from his peers and from sportswriters. Here’s a small sampling:

• “I consider Ossie one of the best, if not the best fielding third basemen in the majors. -Sportswriter Shirley Povich, 1933
• “Bluege is fast on his feet and can go a long way in either direction. He has a fine pair of hands and no hit is too difficult for him to try to handle. He has a wonderful arm.” -HOF umpire Billy Evans
• “ I can tell you the two greatest infielders who ever played in my time. And there he is [pointing to Bluege] over there hitting fungoes. That’s him, and I mean the two greatest infielders. Bluege played third base and shortstop at the same time on those Washington teams. That’s how much ground he covered. I know. I played against him for 15 years…” –Luke Sewell
• “…If you’re looking for the best fielding third baseman who ever played, his name is Ossie Bluege.” –Pie Traynor (Non-verbatim quote witnessed by Lynn Bluege)
• “Nobody will get Bluege from us. He has a job for life. I got him for $3,500. Today I wouldn’t take $75,000!” – Clarke Griffith, owner Washington Senators
•  “Why do you think Washington always had great shortstops like Peckinpaugh and Cronin? It’s because Bluege was playing alongside ‘em and covering half of the regular shortstop territory, as well as third base.” -Washington sportswriter
• “Ballplayers who see him every day know that he is a great artist and that many of the changes he handles with such grace and ease would bowl over many others. We think he is the best third baseman in either league.” -Senators teammate
• “Neither of them was the equal of Ossie Bluege,”- Calvin Griffith, speaking of the comparison of Pie Traynor and Brooks Robinson to Ossie Bluege
• “If you hadn’t been playing 3rd base, I’d have hit over .400!”- Hank Greenberg, speaking to Ossie Bluege

So let’s all take a moment to remember Ossie Bluege, a fine ballplayer from a by-gone era, and give him the recognition he deserves from all of us who love baseball history!

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Gary Livacari 

Photo Credits: All from Google search; featured photo from the Charles Conlon collection

Check out my latest book now available on Amazon in e-book format (paperback soon to follow),  Reflections On the 1919 Black Sox: Time to Take Another Look. All profits go to the Illinois Veterans Foundation

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