Luzerne Atwell "Lu" Blue (March 5, 1897 – July 28, 1958) was an American professional baseball first baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers, St. Louis Browns, Chicago White Sox, and Brooklyn Dodgers between 1921 and 1933.
A native of Washington, D.C., Blue played professional baseball, principally as a first baseman, for 18 years from 1916 to 1933, including 13 years in Major League Baseball for the Detroit Tigers from 1921 to 1932, the St. Louis Browns from 1928 to 1930, the Chicago White Sox in 1931 and 1932, and the Brooklyn Dodgers for one game in 1933. Blue was a switch-hitter who had a career on-base percentage of .402 and was one of the best fielding first basemen of his era. He interrupted his baseball career for military service in World War I and was later honored with burial at Arlington National Cemetery. In 2001, baseball historian Bill James ranked Blue as the 77th best first baseman of all time.
Early years
Blue was born in Washington, D.C., in 1897. He was one of two sons born to Charles H. Blue, a New Jersey native born in 1852, and Ida Mae (Reamer) Blue, a Pennsylvania native born in 1856. His parents divorced when he was a child.
Blue grew up a fan of the Washington Senators. Despite discouragement from his family, who thought baseball was a waste of time, Blue was determined to play baseball. He attended Briarly Hall Military School in Poolesville, Maryland, where his play for the school's baseball team drew the attention of professional scouts.
Professional baseball
Minor leagues
Blue began playing Martinsburg Blue Sox of the Blue Ridge League. He compiled a disappointing .216 batting average in 1916, but his average jumped to .319 with a .517 slugging percentage in 1917. A switch-hitter, Blue reportedly hit grand slams from both sides of the plate in the same game during the 1917 season.
The Detroit Tigers purchased Blue's contract in the fall of 1917. He did not make the team in 1918 and was drafted into the U.S. Army, serving at Camp Lee in Virginia during World War I. After the war, the Tigers assigned Blue to the Portland Beavers in the Pacific Coast League. Blue appeared in 174 games for the Beavers in 1919 and compiled a .281 batting average. The following year, he appeared in 165 games for Portland and compiled a .291 average.
Detroit Tigers
In 1921, with Ty Cobb as the Tigers' new player-manager, Blue finally made it to the big leagues at age 24. He immediately became the Tigers' regular first baseman, starting 152 games at the position in 1921, and compiling a .308 batting average and a .416 on-base percentage. Blue later gave credit to Cobb for helping him to improve his performance as a hitter.
Blue remained entrenched as the Tigers' starting first baseman for seven seasons, from 1921 to 1927. Blue was a reliable hitter in his years at Detroit, hitting above .300 four times, including a .311 season in 1924. He finished among the leaders in the voting for the American League Most Valuable Player award three times for the Tigers: 10th in 1922, 19th in 1924, and 12th in 1925. In addition to hitting for average, Blue had a keen eye and a talent for drawing walks. He was among the league leaders in bases on balls ten times in his career (1921–1923, 1925–31). He finished his career with 1,092 walks.
Driven largely by his ability to draw walks, Blue was also among the league leaders in on-base percentage four times, including a career-high .430 on-base percentage in 1931 – second best in the American League. Blue's career on-base percentage was .402 – 115 points above his .287 career batting average.
With his ability to get on base, Blue was also a top run scorer, with 1,151 runs scored in his career, including six seasons with 100 or more runs and a career-high 131 runs as the leadoff hitter for the 1921 Detroit Tigers.
Blue was also an excellent fielding first baseman. In 1,571 games at first base, Blue had 15,644 putouts and a career range factor of 10.60 – almost 3.00 full points above the league average of 7.64 for first basemen in his era. In 1922, his range factor was 11.2 – more than 4.20 points higher than the league average of 6.94. He had 1,506 putouts in 1922 and led American League first basemen in putouts in 1929 (1,491) and 1931 (1,452). He also led American League first basemen in assists in 1928 (107) and double plays (121). Often among the league leaders in fielding percentage, Blue would get to balls other first baseman could not touch. On September 8, 1922, Blue had two unassisted double plays in a single game.