Can You Name This Week’s Mystery Player?

How well you do know your old-time players?

My goal with this feature is to shine our baseball spotlight on some very good players from days gone by who have been overshadowed by the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Speaker, Hornsby, Grove, Greenberg, Robinson, Paige, Gibson, and Williams, among many other superstars the game has produced. Hopefully, we can give them a little exposure before they are totally lost over the passage of time. 

As always on Baseball History Comes Alive, we can have some fun while enhancing our baseball history learning experience. Each entry will include a short description of the player and highlights from his career. Some of the entries might require you to do a little research on your own. I might even add a personal comment or two about him.

Player Identity: Jocko Conlan

So as to give everyone a chance to guess without the player’s identity being immediately revealed, send me your answer via e-mail instead of leaving your answer in the comments section. Send your answers to me at: Livac2@aol.com.

This week’s Mystery Player (from Wikipedia):

We had a lot of fun with last week’s Mystery Player, Lon Warneke, who was both a ballplayer and an umpire. So I’ll continue with another “double duty” guy – a ballplayer who became an umpire.

In the featured photo above, we see him wearing his characteristic bow tie and flashing his engaging Irish grin. To the right, we see him during his brief playing career.

This week’s Mystery Player was a major league umpire who worked in the National League from 1941 to 1965. He had a brief major league career (1934-’35) before entering umpiring in which he hit .262 in 65 games with no home runs and 39 RBIs. He umpired in five World Series and six All-Star Games. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1974 by the Veterans Committee.

Here’s how he got his start in umpiring:

During a game in 1935 against the St. Louis Browns, umpire Red Ormsby fell ill due to the heat. In those days, only two umpires covered typical regular-season games, and a player with a reputation for honesty might be pressed into service if one umpire became incapacitated. ***** was asked to fill in and took to it well. The following year he made the transition from player to umpire complete, beginning in the minor leagues.

This week’s bonus questions:

1. What city was his hometown?
2. What team did he play for in the major leagues? What position?
3. He was the last NL umpire allowed to wear what large piece of umpire equipment?
4. He was well-known for clashes with a volatile manager known as “The Lip.” What was this manager’s name?

Good luck! 

If you’d like to take a stab at identifying this player, please send me your answers via email. But feel free to add any thoughts or personal reflections you might have about him in the comments section below. Remember you don’t have to answer everything to submit an answer. Just give it your best shot!

Send your answers to me at: Livac2@aol.com

At the end of the week, I’ll post the names of everyone who go the correct answers, including the winner, the first one to get it right. 

Last Week’s Winners:

Congratulations to: 

Paul Doyle

He was the first to identify last week’s Mystery Player and answer all the bonus questions correctly. The Mystery Player was:

Lon Warneke

Answers to the Bonus Questions:

Lon Warneke played for the Cubs and Cardinals. He pitched for the Cubs in the 1932 and 1935 World Series. He is the only player to play and umpire an All-Star game and a World Series. His nickname was “The Arkansas Hummingbird.”

The following also identified the Mystery Player and correctly answered the bonus questions:

William Carter, Kevin Barwin, Larry Rockensuess, Marvin, Fred Holbrook, Bob Galella, Ed Cassidy

The following identified the Mystery Player correctly but not all the bonus questions:

Rod Nelson, Dennis Dockins, John Leichliter, Everett Shockley, Don Stokes, Mark the Mayor, Terry Farmer, Ray Banko, Al Citro, Bill Cunniff, Mike Bresina

Mystery Player Contest Standings

Occasionally I’ll post the standings of the weekly winners:

Terry Farmer -4, Paul Doyle -4, Don Stokes -2, Ed Cassidy -1, Robert Rambo -1, Pete Aman -1.  

Thanks to all who have participated!

Click here to see previous Mystery Player entries