| Lonnie Warneke 1909 -1976 Lon always knew he wanted
to play baseball. He came from rural Montgomery County, Arkansas and made it as an ace pitcher. "I was just happy to play, one game, any
day" |
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A pitching ace with a "sizzling-fast and darting form of delivery" for fifteen seasons reached his peak during the Great Depression and made little more than $5,000/year. |
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| Country Boy | |||||
| Lonnie grew up in rural Montgomery County,
Arkansas, six miles south of Mount Ida in the Owley Community attending
school at the one room weatherboard building just down the road from the
family farm. Marion Covington the teacher would take the lads behind the
school near the pines to catch and throw. This church/school building still stands across the road from the
Owley
Cemetery and is only used for funeral services today. Lonnie born
March 28, 1909 was
the son of Luke and Belle Scott Warneke. Luke enjoyed hunting and his
son Lon always a keen sportsman. During the off season Lon would
enjoy going home and go off into the woods to hunt. He always spent his
winters in Montgomery Co. AR. Once when he came back to Mount Ida people
gathered on the street for him to show his pitching and took
pictures. |
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| Family | |||||
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Luke Warneke homesteaded
160 acres in the Owley Community October 8, 1901 Sec 9 2S 25W. He was appointed the Montgomery County road overseer from 1907 -1913 and
major improvements were seen under his direction including the purchaser
of the first graders drawn by teams of eight mules. He resumed farming
in Owley Community. Lon loved his mother and would prefer to help her in the kitchen
then work outside on the farm. Once he took
her on a trip to the big city, Houston, TX. In the 1950s the family moved
into Hot Springs. Lon was a good musician, could play the guitar and
fiddle and and was a square dance caller. He even played for a band in St
Louis, the Mudcat band.
Lon chewed tobacco.
Lonnie's father Louis (Luke) married twice. 1st: L.W.
Warneke, 19, to Della Martin, age 17, 6
Aug, 1891 Montgomery Co. marriage Book B page 472. Lonnie married Charlyne Shannon, a 1930 graduate from the CVA in Norman. They had a son and daughter. 5/20/95 One of President Clinton's high school teachers was honored Friday during a White House reception for working women. Lonnie Warneke Luebben taught Clinton in her 11th-grade honors English class at Hot Springs High School. Lonnie is the daughter of Lonnie the baseball pitcher. |
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| School Days | |||||
| Owley School
pupils 1923. He is the tall boy,
back-row, to the left of the other tall boy. End of third row to the
right is Archie and fourth in is Albert Warneke. On the second row fifth
in from the right is Lois Warneke.
Lon Warneke played baseball with a team in Montgomery County before making it big and his teammates were local lads including Andrew Baker and Evervet L. Sims. In those days Saturday afternoons in the small towns baseball sandlots provided entertainment. Mt Ida, Bear, Joplin, Buckville, Cedar Glades and Washita had teams. Lon attended high school in Mount Ida and during his first year he was not picked for the team as the teacher /coach didn't think he was good enough. In 1926 for the Mt Ida team he played first base. During the 1927 season he pitched. |
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| Try Outs | |||||
| Lonnie went to Houston were his brother was working and Lon held a job for a downtown telegraph company until at age eighteen he paid his own way to a tryout camp in Louisiana and told them he wanted to be a first baseman. | |||||
| "The Arkansas Hummingbird" Record | |||||
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LONNIE WARNEKE
Pitcher Born: Mt Ida, AR March 28 1909 Bats: Right Pitchers: Right Height: 6' 1½" Weight: 180lbs 193 career wins and 121 defeats. Pitched 31 shutouts. Appeared in 154 games without an error. Lifetime win percentage of .613 5x National League All Star Won 20 or more games three times. ERA - career 3.18. 'earned run average' is a run for which the pitcher is held accountable. Stats. Stats A spectacular pitcher and popular player! Pitched for the Cubs from 1930 to1936. Pitched for the Cardinals from 1937 to 1942 Returned to the Cubs from 1943 to 1947 1928 Age 19. Won 6-lost 4. Cotton States League at Laurel, MS 1929 16-10 Alexandria, MS. Cobs buy Warneke for $100. 1930 Spring trail for the Chicago Cubs- 9-12 Reading, PA for International League 1930 Reached the National League Cubs 1931 2- 4 1932 Age 22. Won 22 and lost six for the Cubs, with 2.37 ERA. Cubs won the pennant but lost, to the Yankees in the World Series 4-0. 1933 Played in the first major league All Star Game in Chicago as a side light to the Worlds' Fair. Warneke relieved Bill Halahm in the third inning after Babe Ruth had hit a two-run homer, making the score 3-0 in favor of the Americans, Warneke allowed six hits and one run in the next four innings, striking out Ruth and Lou Gehrig in the process. In the sixth, Warneke sliced a liner that got by the aging Ruth for a triple, setting up the National League's two run inning. The final score was 4-2. ERA .54 1934 Opening day in Cincinnati with Lon Warneke of the Cubs no-hits the Reds for 8 innings. Score 6-0 with one hit in the ninth. 1935 20-13 for the season. World Series with the Detroit Tigers winning 4-2. Pitched the first game and beat the Tigers 3 to 0. Had eight assists. The Cubs lost the next three games but Warneke came back in and while he was pitching on the sixth inning he felt something give in his right shoulder and was ordered to the bench. Gave five and defeated the Tigers 3 to 1. ERA 2.63. New York Times, Oct 7, 1935 "I don't give a damn if it's the World Series. Your arm is more important than any ballgame," yelled manager Charlie Grimm to Warneke when he yanked the unhappy pitcher. New York Times Oct 7, 1935
New York Times Jun 24, 1933; p. 11
Lonnie Warneke, the Ozark hat wrecker.
1936 3.44 for the season. The Cubs came in second behind the Giants.
Cardinals third. Lon pitched in World Series and later and was an umpire
for a World Series and he is the only man to play and umpire in
baseball's All-Star Game. Representing the Chicago Cubs, Lon pitched in
the All-Star games of 1933, 1934 and 1936 and umpired in 1952. |
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| Baseball Memorabilia | |||||
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If you watch ebay you can gather a fine
collection of Warneke memorabilia baseball cards, magazine covers, etc, "Heck, I can live a whole winter down home for $50. I can’t live a week up [North] for that," Lon once remarked. |
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| Umpire | |||||
| Phil Wrigley who owned the Cubs at that time encouraged ace players to stay in touch with the game and fans as umpires. Warneke read the book "Rules of Baseball". Wrigley pressured the Pacific Coast League to give Warneke a start as umpire in 1946. In 1949 he became a National League umpire for seven years. A "players umpire". "One of the most respected arbitrators for the game" . In the 1951 NCAA baseball championship pitcher Jim Waldrip from U of OK walked many and Warneke yelled at him "Hurry up and get the ball over, we gotta go eat.'" | |||||
| Judge | |||||
| Friends persuaded Lon to run for Garland County judge in November 1962. He won by a narrow margin and entered office in January 1963 and served for ten years. "I didn't have any organized machine backing." said Warneke in 1969. He did not seek a sixth term and retired in 1972 due to health reasons. L.J. Warneke, a nephew, was a county judge for Montgomery County, AR and Mayor of Mount Ida in the 1980s. | |||||
| Retirement | |||||
| Lon died of a heart attack at his home in Hot Springs, at age sixty-seven, Tuesday 23 June, 1976. The City Council Ambulance Service was dispatched at 0800 with its emergency lights and siren on but was involved in a broadside accident on Albert Pike while traveling west. A second ambulance was dispatched while a third ambulance was sent to the car / ambulance accident The driver and the two ambulance personal were all admitted to the Ouachita Memorial Hospital. Both vehicles were totaled. | |||||
| Obituary | |||||
| June 1976 Services for Lonnie 'Lon" Warneke, 67, will be 2 p.m. Friday in the first Presbyterian Church with Rev. James A. Beverley, Pastor officiating. Pallbearers will be Judge James Chestnutt, Jim Necessary, Major John Parker, Larry Stephens, Richard Vickers, Clarence Jones, Dr. John Lane and Judge L.J. Warneke. Honorary Pallbearers will be G.E. Atkins, Myles Johnson, A..D. Watkins, Ish Beam, Johnnie Simmons, Oscar Luebben, Joseph A. Kauffman. Elmer Wascaster, Ray Vickers, Kirk Couch, of Shreveport, La. Gerald Gunter and W.T. Bill Couch. Burial in Owley Cemetery in Mt. Ida by Gross Mortuary. Survivors include a wife, a son, a daughter and three brothers, Archie of Mt. Ida, Albert of Houston (Perry Co. AR) and Louie Warneke of California; five grandchildren and a number of nieces and nephews. Buried at Owley Cemetery, Montgomery Co., AR Albert, Sr. also played ball--in minor league in Nebraska, I believe, and was billed as the brother of Lon Warneke. Albert, aged 74, of Harris Brake (Perry County), formerly of Little Rock, a retired sales representative for the Wrigley Chewing Gum Company, died Tuesday. 08/28/87
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| Another Major League Pitcher from Mt Ida - played one game | |||||
| Sherman Edwards Sherman Stanley Edwards Bats Right, Throws Right Height 6' 0", Weight 165 lb. Debut September 21, 1934 Final Game September 21, 1934 Reliever, 31 yrs, Cincinnati Reds Born July 25, 1909 in Mount Ida, AR Died March 8, 1992 in EL Dorado, AR Contract : Big League Contract Salary :$ 350,000 Signed Through :1941 Years of MLB Service :6 Year(s), 30 Days (1062 total Days) MLB Service Days this Year :172 Day(s) Years on 40-Man Roster :6 Year(s), 33 Days (1065 total Days) Years of Pro Service :6 Year(s) Rule 5 Draft Eligibility :Protected (on 40 Man Roster) |
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