Born in Jacksonville, Texas in 1905, Benge earned the nickname "Silent Cal" for both his slight physical resemblance to the thirteenth president and his reserved demeanor. "Don't talk very much," Benge once said of himself. In 1924, he left Sam Houston College in Huntsville to play baseball for the Mexican Gulf Oil Company. He played on both sides of the Rio Grande River, and the baseball was rough and tumble. One game was interrupted by a spectator wielding a revolver and long knife astride a pony. In 1925, Benge split a Texas League season between Houston and Waco. In 32 games, he won 13 and lost 10, surrendering 198 hits and 92 earned runs in 187 innings. At the end of the season, he had a cup of coffee with Cleveland, appearing in 2 games.

Benge spent part of the 1926 season with the Decatur Commodores of the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. He appeared in 8 games, winning 5 and losing 2. In 59 innings of work, Three Eye batters tallied 50 hits and 16 earned runs. Benge finished with a 2.50 ERA. The Commies roster also included future big leaguer Pinky Whitney. In 1928, the two Texans were reunited in Philadelphia. After his brief term in the Three-I League, Benge returned to Cleveland, winning 1 game in 8 appearances. In 1927, he spent the entire season in Waco. He won 19 and lost 12 in 37 Texas League appearances. In 240 innings, he gave up 109 earned runs. That was his last year in the minor leagues.

From 1928 through 1932, Benge started 143 games for the Philadelphia Phillies, winning 57 and losing 78. During that five-year stretch, the Phillies were a ghastly 147 games below .500. Although the Phillies, featuring the likes of Whitney, Chuck Klein (another Three Eye veteran), and Lefty O'Doul, scored plenty of runs, the second-rate fielding and lack of quality arms produced a perennial second-division club. In 1931, Benge started 31 games, winning 14 and 18. Although his loss total was second among National League pitchers, his 3.17 ERA was eighth best. After the 1932 season, the Phillies traded their workhorse righthander to the Dodgers for Three-I League veteran Mickey Finn, Austin Moore, and cash. 

In Brooklyn, the hard luck Benge faced a similar situation. From 1933 through 1935, he won 33 and lost 38 for a club that finished no higher than sixth. On December 21, 1935, the Dodgers traded Benge, Tony Cuccinello (yet another Three Eye graduate), Al Lopez, and Bobby Reis to the Boston Braves for Ed Brandt and Randy Moore. In 1936, Benge's last full season in the big leagues, he started 19 games for the Braves and another 6 for the Phillies, finishing with a combined 8 victories and 13 defeats. Two years later he wrapped up his Major League career with a brief appearance in Cincinnati.

His lifetime record of 101-130 included 102 complete games in 249 starts. He struck out 655 in 1,875-plus innings and finished with a 4.52 ERA. His yearly winning percentage and ERA were usually better than his team's. In his 9 full seasons, only the 1932 Phillies (78-76) played better than .500 ball. Benge died on June 27, 1997 in Centerville, Texas.

The Browns came across Blaeholder playing semi-pro ball in California, and the perpetually troubled organization first shuttled the prospect to the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. He split the 1923 Three-I season between the Terre Haute Tots and the Bloomington Bloomers. Appearing in 25 games, he won 7 and lost 8. And in 134 innings of work, he fanned 52 while surrendering 142 hits. That year, the Three Eye featured a number of future big league arms, including Phil "Fidgety" Collins, Jumbo Elliott, Jake Miller, and Cooperstown inductee Red Ruffing. The Decatur "Commies" claimed the pennant with a record of 81-54, with Terre Haute (71-60) and Bloomington (72-64) finishing third and fourth respectively.

Blaeholder then spent four years (1924-1927) with Tulsa of the Western League. In four seasons of Class A ball, he appeared in 181 games, winning 80 and losing 41. He won 27 in 1926 and a league-leading 26 in 1927. Blaeholder's perseverance paid dividends, and in 1928 he earned a spot on the Browns starting rotation. In his first full season of big league baseball, he went 10-15 in 26 starts, ending the season with a 4.37 ERA.

From 1930 through 1934, the Browns finished a combined 141 games under .500. During that grim stretch, Blaeholder soldiered on, and though he never enjoyed a winning season, he notched an average of 13 victories a year. In 1929, he led the junior circuit in shutouts (4), and in three consecutive seasons (1932-1934), he finished second among A.L. pitchers in games started. 

Blaeholder owes much of his success to the slider (a fastball that breaks sharply at the plate), a pitch he helped popularize. The Fireside Book of Baseball (Simon and Schuster, 1956) includes a Bob Feller essay on the slider. "A lot of people seem to think that the slider is a new pitch; others claim it's nothing more than a nickel curve with a new name," remarked the hall of famer during his career. "As far as I know, George Blaeholder, who pitched for the St. Louis Browns in the late twenties and early thirties, was the originator of the slider as we know it." Though he toiled far from the national spotlight, Blaeholder garnered considerable respect from his peers. "Never excitable, his work in the box is machine-like rather than spectacular, but none the less effective as so many American League batters can testify," reported the 1933 Who's Who in Major League Base Ball. "Jimmy Foxx . . . admits that of all the pitchers he is called upon to face, Blaeholder is the toughest to solve."

Blaeholder finished up with the Philadelphia Athletics and Cleveland Indians. His career mark of 104-125 (with a 4.54 ERA) is impressive when one considers his long association with lackluster teams. He died on December 29, 1947 in Garden Grove, California. He was only 43 years old.

Born in 1900, Bluege played baseball on the streets and sandlots of Chicago, studying under local legend Charley Pechous, a third basemen who played briefly for the Chicago Whales of the Federal League and afterwards the Cubs. Bluege and his younger brother Otto played ball for St. Mark's Lutheran Church and Schurz High School. "Squeaky" Bluege's professional career, though not as well-known as his older brother's, included stops in Dubuque of the Mississippi Valley League (1928-1929), Peoria of the Three Eye (1930-1931), Columbus of the American Association (1932), and Cincinnati of the National League (1933). 

Ossie Bluege reminisced about his early years in Donald Honig's The Man in the Dugout: Fifteen Big League Managers Speak Their Minds (Follett Publishing, 1977). "I was going to school at night, taking accounting courses, and holding down a job during the day with International Harvester," he recalled. "Through a fellow named Jack Doyle, an ex-major leaguer, I started playing some pretty fast semipro ball around Chicago. I was getting fifteen dollars a game--not bad money in those days." Bluege's semipro career also included a stint with Jimmy Callahan's Logan Squares, a barnstorming outfit of some fame.

Bill Jackson, the owner of the Three-I League Peoria Tractors, offered the gifted infielder a $200-a-month contract. Bluege promised his strict German father that if he didn't make the big leagues in three years, he'd finish school and begin a career in accounting. After his father grudgingly consented to the plan, Bluege signed the contract. "The next day I caught the night train to Rock Island [the Tractors were in the Quad Cities to play the Moline Plowboys] and got there at four in the morning," Bluege recalled. "I checked into the hotel, slept a few hours, and at 7:30 was up and ready to go. That was my normal routine--get up early and go to work. I hung around the lobby until nine o'clock, and nobody had showed up. What is this? I asked myself. So I rang Jackson's room and told him I was there. 'What the hell are you calling me up at this hour of the morning for?' he asked. 'It's time to go to work, isn't it?' I asked. That's when I began to get the idea that this was going to be a different life."

Chuck Dressen (who would later play for Cincinnati and enjoy a long managerial career with the Reds, Dodgers, Senators, Braves, and Tigers) was the everyday third baseman, so Bluege shifted to shortstop. In his first season of professional ball, Bluege appeared in 45 games, hitting .286 in 161 at-bats. He also committed 31 errors for the worst fielding percentage (.857) of his long career. In his first Three Eye season, Peoria won 67 and lost 71 to finish the campaign in sixth, 14.5 games behind the champion Bloomington Bloomers. He returned to Peoria in 1921, batting .293 in 140 games. That year, the 70-69 Tractors finished the season in fourth, 11 behind pennant winning Moline.

At one point during his two years in Peoria, Bluege decided to quit baseball and return to his studies. With his bags packed and railroad ticket in hand, Jackson pleaded with his young infielder to stay the course. "Jackson said all the nice things--that I could hit, field, run and throw," Bluege recalled in a July 10, 1971 profile in The Sporting News. "He also said the job at home was always there in the winter, and he promised I would be sold to the majors after another season."

The Tractors owner was correct. Bluege would play in the big leagues by 1922. Several clubs, including the Philadelphia Athletics, kept a watchful eye on Peoria's sharp prospect, but after he injured his left knee sliding into second base, interest from the big leagues tapered off. Still, he continued to play hurt, and his raw talent and doggedness impressed Joe Engel, a scout with the Washington Senators. "Engel had me run a 75-yard race," Bluege remembered. "I won. So he bought me for $3,500." At the Senators spring training camp, manager Clyde Milan and owner Clark Griffith liked what they saw, and Bluege played shortstop until Roger Peckinpaugh ended his holdout. All told, Bluege appeared in 19 regular season games, hitting a light .197 in 61 at-bats. He was sent to Minneapolis of the American Association, and there he batted a much-improved .315 in 44 games. He also remembered fielding 27 chances in a doubleheader. 

The following season, Bluege was back in the American League to stay. In his first full season in the majors, he appeared in 109 games, all but a handful at third base. He batted .245 with 93 hits and 42 RBI. He had 131 putouts, 251 assists, and 25 errors. During his long and productive career with the Senators, he appeared in more than 100 games in 11 seasons. He ended his career with 1,751 hits, 276 doubles, 848 RBI, and a .272 batting average.

Bluege played for three pennant winners, including the 1924 club that defeated John McGraw's New York Giants. That epic World Series concluded with a 12-inning game seven at Griffith Stadium. Walter Johnson came off the bench in the ninth to hold the Giants scoreless in the final four innings. "That was the greatest thrill of my life, winning that Series--the only one the Washington Senators ever won," Bluege recalled. The following year the Nationals lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in five games, and in 1933 the New York Giants beat Washington in a five-game rematch.

During the off-season, Bluege forged a second career as a Washington, D.C. accountant, managing the books for several of the city's finer hotels. Griffith, concerned that such meticulous paperwork would ruin the eyes, ordered his dependable infielder to give up his white-collar practice. Bluege refused, since he never made more than $10,000 a season with the perpetually cash-strapped Senators. In 1933, during the Great Depression, the New York Yankees offered Bluege $40,000, but Griffith wouldn't let him slip away. Instead, the Senators staged Ossie Bluege Day and showered their loyal organization man with flowers, a shiny new Pontiac, and a silver goblet set. 

In 1943, Griffith named Bluege manager, a move that surprised no one. "The old man was something of a sentimentalist," noted Bluege years later. "He liked to hire his own boys to manage." Previous Washington managers George McBride, Clyde Milan, Donie Bush, Bucky Harris, Walter Johnson, and Joe Cronin had all played ball for Griffith's Senators. During Bluege's five years as manager, Washington twice finished second. The 1945 pennant race proved one of the more unusual in Major League history. "We finished the schedule a week ahead of everybody else because Griff had agreed to give the Washington Redskins the use of the field," Bluege remembered. "At the time the agreement was made, nobody expected us to be in the race. What the heck, we'd been dead last the year before. So it was very peculiar that last week. We were fighting for the pennant, only we weren't fighting--we were sitting around to see what the Tigers were going to do." Detroit finished the season 1.5 games ahead of idle Washington, and the Tigers went on the defeat the Chicago Cubs in the World Series. Bluege ended his career with a 375-394 (.488) record. 

Ossie Bluege died on October 14, 1985 in Edina, Minnesota, ten days short of his eighty-fifth birthday. 

In a 1986 interview with The Minneapolis Review of Baseball, Washington-Minnesota owner Calvin Griffith (Clark's son) called Bluege the game's greatest defensive third baseman. "All the oldtimers say hell, 'You see [Brooks] Robinson diving at the ball here and there. Ossie Bluege would be in front of the ball--he didn't need to dive.'"

Bridges played baseball at the University of Tennessee, and in 1929 Detroit Tigers scout Billy Doyle signed the young righthander to his first contract. At Wheeling of the Class C Middle Atlantic League, Bridges won 10 of 13 starts. The following season, Detroit promoted the talented but wild pitcher to the Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League.

Bridges appeared in 20 Three-I games for the Evansville Hubs, ending the season with 7 wins and 8 defeats and a 2.96 ERA. In only 140 innings of work, he struck out a league-leading 189. During a three week span in June, Bridges struck out 74 batters in 5 games: 19 on June 6 against Decatur; 13 on June 11 against Terre Haute; 16 on June 17 against Terre Haute; 17 on June 21 against Quincy; and 9 on June 27 against Springfield. He then fanned 20 batters on July 3 against Springfield. 

In 1930, the Three-I season was split in two. In the first season, Bob Coleman's Evansville club went 33-33 and finished tied for fourth with Bloomington. In the second season, the Hubs finished first with a 46-22 record. In the league's post-season playoff, the Danville Veterans defeated Evansville 4 games to 2.

Yet before the season was over, Bridges earned a promotion to Detroit, where he pitched in 8 games, winning 3 and losing 2. On August 31, he appeared in his first Major League game, a Yankees blowout in New York. The Bronx bombers had already tagged Tigers pitching for 13 hits and 10 runs in less than 5 innings. In the sixth inning, Tigers manager Bucky Harris ordered Bridges to the mound. The first three batters Bridges faced in his big league career were Babe Ruth, Tony Lazzeri, and Lou Gehrig. The unproven rookie was so nervous that he threw a warmup toss right over the head of catcher Ray Hayworth. Having seen enough, plate umpire Bill McGowan summoned the Tigers newcomer for a talk. Years later, Bridges recounted the one-way conversation. "Listen, son, you threw the ball past bats in the Three-I League that are just like the ones these fellows up here have in their hands," said McGowan. "And you're bound to do better than those two guys who were in here pitching before you. So just figure it's only another ball game and do your best. Luck to you." Ruth hit a pop fly to right field, Lazzeri chopped a base hit through the infield, Gehrig struck out, and Harry Rice grounded weakly to third. Although Bridges gave way to a pinch hitter in the seventh, he was well on his way to a successful big league career.

On August 5, 1932, the Tigers were ahead of the Washington Senators 13-0 in the top of the ninth inning. Bridges had pitched a perfect no-hitter through eight and two-thirds innings. With pitcher Bobby Burke due up, Washington skipper Walter Johnson sent in Dave Harris, who led the league that season with 14 pinch hits. Bridges threw a curve and Harris smacked a clean single to left. Sam Rice then grounded to first base to end the game. All things considered, Bridges remained philosophical about his flirtation with baseball immortality. "Johnson and Dave Harris were in there to do their best and it was up to me to stop them," he said. "I didn't want the perfect game to be given to me on a platter. I wanted to win it with the opposition doing its best to keep me from winning. And that's all there is to it." 

Tommy Bridges ended his career 194-138 with a 3.57 ERA. During World War II, he missed the 1944 season due to military service. He returned in 1945, but appeared in only 13 games over two seasons. If not for the wartime interruption, in all likelihood Bridges would have reached the 200-win plateau. In 1936, he led the American League in wins (23) and in 1935 and 1936 he led the junior circuit in strikeouts (163 and 175 respectively). He appeared in four World Series, winning 4 and losing 1. In the 1935 fall classic, Bridges pitched two complete games as the Tigers defeated the Cubs 4 games to 2 (in the second game, Bridges beat Three-I veteran Charlie Root). Reluctant to call it quits, Bridges pitched in the Pacific Coast League for several years, and at the age of 40, he led the circuit with a 1.64 ERA. 

After baseball, Bridges struggled with alcohol. In his rewarding memoir Sleeper Cars and Flannel Uniforms (Triumph, 2001), big league pitcher (and Three-I veteran) Elden Auker recounted a visit by his former teammate: "I'll never forget the knock on our front door in Birmingham Michigan early one evening. Knock . . . knock . . . knock. I turned the porch light on, but still barely recognized the disheveled man standing in front of me: rumpled clothes, dirty white shirt, badly in need of a shave, hair pointing in every direction, smelled like a damn brewery. Looked like hell. Looked like a tramp. I stared at Tommy Bridges and the face of shame stared back. Tommy and I roomed together on the road for six years with the Tigers. I didn't see Tommy have a drop to drink in those six years. The bottle found him after we went our separate ways, and it never let go."

Concluded Auker: "Every time I see one of those T-shirts you see nowadays, the ones that say, 'Baseball Is Life,' I think of Tommy Bridges. Baseball was everything to him. I guess once he could smell the end of his playing career on the horizon, the scent of liquor was the only thing that could kill that frightening odor."

On April 19, 1968, the hard-luck Bridges died in Nashville, Tennessee.

Born in Bartow, Florida, he attended the University of Florida where he played both shortstop and second base. In 1927, the Indians shipped the 22-year-old graduate straight to Cleveland, where he appeared in 17 games, mostly as a late-inning pinch runner. In 8 at-bats, he failed to record a base hit, though he did steal a base and score 5 runs. Barnett began the following year with Terre Haute of the Class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa League. In his first season of minor league ball, he totaled 104 runs, 172 hits, 2 home runs, 19 stolen bases, and a .326 batting average. He also led all Three Eye shortstops in games played (133). The Tots finished the split-season campaign with 75 wins and 59 losses, finishing second behind the pennant-winning Decatur Commies (81-49). At the end of the season, Burnett earned his second cup of coffee, appearing in 3 games (2 at shortstop) and smacking 5 hits in 10 plate appearances. 

At the start of the 1929 season, he was back in the minors, this time with New Orleans of the Class A Southern Association. In 72 games, he batted .310 with 54 runs, 88 hits, and 17 stolen bases. At the end of the season, he was back in Cleveland for the third time. Although he batted only .152 in 33 plate appearances, his glovework (10 games at shortstop and 8 at second base) impressed the organization, and he earned a roster spot in 1930. Splitting time between third base and shortstop, Burnett's true rookie season came to an abrupt halt on July 19 when he injured his wrist. He returned the following season to enjoy consecutive seasons of solid ball. He played primarily shortstop, though he was no stranger to second and third. During the 1931 and 1932 seasons, he appeared in 240 games, recording 166 runs, 280 hits, and 103 RBI. He batted .298 during that stretch.

On July 10, 1932, Burnett played a key role in one of the oddest games of the decade. The Indians lost to the visiting Philadelphia Athletics 18-17 in 18 innings. In order to save on train fare, A's manager Connie Mack had brought only two pitchers for the single-game series. Mack pulled starter Lew Krausse after 1 inning, and poor Ed Rommel had to pitch the remaining 17 innings. Although he earned the victory, he surrendered 29 hits, 9 walks, and 14 runs (13 earned). The Indians' Wes Ferrell pitched the last 11-plus innings for the loss. Jimmie Foxx of the A's hit 3 home runs and drove in 8 runs. In that marathon, Burnett smacked a record-setting 9 hits. The game clocked in at 4:05. 

In 1935, Burnett finished his big league career with the St. Louis Browns, appearing in 70 games (31 at third base, 18 at short, and 12 at second). He batted .223 with 46 hits (including 10 doubles) and 26 RBI. During his 9-year career, he appeared in 228 big league games, batting .284 lifetime.

After retirement, he battled leukemia. Johnny Burnett died on August 13, 1959 at the age of 54.