All-Time Indians: Rube Lutzke

While the greater purpose behind the All-Time Indians articles is to honor the best players in Cleveland baseball history, there is also a side purpose of bringing light to some Tribe regulars who have been all but forgotten.

One of those men was Rube Lutzke. He never played in the post-season, never made an All-Star game and never hit more than three home runs in a season, but he played his entire Major League career for the Indians and was a terrific defender for those five years.

From Wisconsin, Lutzke began his career North of the border in Winnipeg in 1919, then moved back to Wisconsin in 1920 to play for the American Association Milwaukee Brewers. After two more years in Kansas City where he established himself as a star defender, good contact hitter and doubles machine, he was purchased by the Indians in 1923 to replace Larry Gardner as starting third baseman.

While we don’t have great defensive numbers from prior to 2002, Lutzke was worth 1.4 dWAR according to Baseball-Reference, the best season ever for an Indians rookie third baseman. While he only hit three home runs (and would hit just one more over the next four seasons), he hit 20 doubles and knocked in 68 while walking more than he struck out.

The dead ball era was ending and, while Lutzke was still more a deadball style player, he took advantage of the Indians increase in offense that saw them score 888 runs, 120 more than the previous season and almost 300 more than they averaged per season from 1910 through 1919. Lutzke would start the year batting seventh and took advantage of the incredible year by the Hall of Famer batting 6th, Joe Sewell, who hit .353/.456/.479. Another Hall of Famer, Tris Speaker, had an even better season hitting third although it all wound up with just a third place finish in the eight team American League.

Lutzke began the 1924 retaining his starting position of starting third baseman, but got off to a slow start, batting 146 with just five extra base hits and 4 RBI through May 2nd. He would heat up for awhile, hitting .260 with 16 extra base hits and 38 RBI over his next 94 games, but an illness caused him to end his season early at the end of August with Frank Ellerbe, who had been signed mid-season from St. Louis, picking up the slack.

Lutzke wouldn’t return to the Indians until late April in 1925 and he started out hot with a five game hitting streak, but it would quickly fizzle. He would play only 85 games that year, batting .218 with just 9 doubles, a lost season by any standards.

At 28, he would have a resurgence in 1926, playing in 142 games (just one short of his rookie year) and setting a new career high with 28 doubles. Of course, that was the season that George Burns set the Indians record with 64 doubles in a season and won the team’s first MVP, so Lutzke was likely ignored then as much as he is today. In fact, six Indians hit at least 30 doubles that season with Speaker also surpassing 50. With the consistent offense, aided by Lutzke being able to extend the line-up down in the order and significantly improved pitching, the Indians finished just three games behind the Yankees, who lost the World Series to St. Louis.

At 28, Lutzke saw his defense drop some from his early season with his range factor dropping significantly from his first two seasons. At 29 in 1927, that trend would continue, but now he also wasn’t making the plays he should have with his fielding percent falling from a career .947 (mostly accrued when his range was more significant) and .960 in 1926 to .938.

While his bat was exactly what the Indians needed to fill out the bottom of the line-up with all those superstars on top, but when he was not longer an elite defender, it made a lot less sense. In modern terms, his dWAR dropping below 0.5 no longer boosted his oWAR that fell to -0.3 in 1927. He hit just .251 that season, which would not have been horrible for him in itself, but he also had his worst power season (that’s saying something considering his lack of power ever in his career) and his worst on base season. When a player who was a solid starter, but not a stand out, loses the two things that made him stand out, in this case defense and OBP, he falls out of favor.

In this case, it was the young Johnny Hodapp who came to the rescue. Hodapp had been with the Indians for two years as a middle infielder, but he took over the starting 3B role for the Indians to end the 1927 season and hit extremely well compared to his predecessor. Lutzke didn’t play in the final 20 games of the season and was released, never to play in the Majors Leagues again.

He would sign on with the independent Newark Bears for the next two seasons, playing for future Indians manager and Hall of Famer Walter Johnson in 1928 and his former teammate Tris Speaker in 1929. After one more season where he hit 39 doubles for the Chattanooga Lookouts in 1931 at the age of 33 to prove he still had something, Lutzke retired back to his home state of Wisconsin.

While the Indians would later have better defenders at third, including Graig Nettles and Ken Keltner, Lutzke was their first great at the position. He played alongside super stars and Hall of Famers, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve credit for what he did, and he did it all for the Cleveland Indians. Unfortunately, Lutzke died shortly after his playing career ended, at the age of 40 in 1938.