Lon Warneke

Luke Warneke, from 1907 to 1913, was in charge of improving the county roads and, using the newly acquired road graders drawn by eight mules, he made major improvements to the roads throughout the county, transforming them from dirt trails often overgrown by brush, pocketed by mud holes, and punctured by tree stumps, to passable, graded two-lane (wagon) roads—although still unpaved.

Lonnie Warneke (March 28, 1909 – June 23, 1976), nicknamed "The Arkansas Hummingbird", was a Major League Baseball player, Major League umpire, county judge, and businessman from Montgomery County, Arkansas, whose career won-loss record as a pitcher for the Chicago Cubs (1930–36, 1942–43, 1945) and St. Louis Cardinals (1937–42) was 192–121.

Lonnie Warneke, which was his baptismal name, was born March 28, 1909, the fourth of five children to Louis W. ("Luke") Warneke and Martha Belle Scott Warneke in Owley, Arkansas, six miles south of Mount Ida, the county seat of Montgomery County.

Montgomery County was one of the most rural and sparsely populated counties of Arkansas; by 1910 its population had peaked at 12,455.

At the time of Lon Warneke's birth the county had no paved roads, no electricity, and no running water.

Mount Ida had a population of 298 in 1920 and 512 in 1930.

Luke Warneke (who stood 6ft 6in) had homesteaded 160 acres and was a successful farmer in the farming community of Owley, which consisted of fifteen families.

In Spring 1928, Warneke approached the president of the Houston Buffaloes, a Texas League baseball team in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, and asked for a tryout as a first baseman.

Rebuffed at first, Warneke offered to pay his own way to training camp.

At camp, Buffaloes manager Frank "Pancho" Snyder (former catcher for the Cardinals and New York Giants) took a look at Warneke and told the nineteen-year-old that he had the arm of a pitcher.

After Snyder's evaluation, Warneke was sent off to pitch for the Laurel Cardinals of the Cotton States League.

Warneke impressed no one at Laurel and the Cardinals released him.

Due to Warneke's ensuing major league success, the St. Louis Cardinals later instituted a policy such that "any decision to release a player who possesse[s] even one major-league skill (speed, arm, defense, hitting, power) must be made by more than one person" of their organization.

Warneke completed the year with another team in the Cotton States League, the Alexandria Reds, a team affiliated with Shreveport of the Texas League.

As a converted pitcher in his first professional season, Warneke posted a 1928 combined record for Laurel and Alexandria of 6 wins, 14 losses, with a 5.32 ERA in 176 innings pitched.

Warneke returned to Alexandria for the 1929 season and posted a 16–10 record, with a 3.09 ERA in 245 innings pitched.

Alexandria finished first under manager Pete Kilduff.

Warneke's success attracted the Chicago Cubs, that year's National League pennant winner.

On August 23, just before the Cotton States season closed, the Associated Press carried a story announcing that Warneke had been sold to the Cubs "for $10,000 or more", the highest price ever paid for a Cotton States League player.

The sale was initially denied by the Shreveport organization but then confirmed by telegraph to the Alexandria Daily Town Talk a few days later by Kilduff, although he stated the sales price of Warneke was $7,500.

Electricity and running water would not come to most of the county until the 1930s.

Young Lonnie Warneke attended grade school in the one-room schoolhouse in Owley.

He soon grew to be among the tallest students in the tiny school.

He helped his father on the farm and did chores for his mother.

In his free time, he enjoyed the outdoors, hunted and fished; he also played the guitar and fiddle—pursuits that would occupy him his entire life.

"Lonnie Warneke is a country boy. He loves hunting dogs and good guns, the trails and loneliness of the wilderness in the rugged mountains surrounding his old home."

Even after he became a professional ballplayer, he would return to the country and enjoy the outdoors—as well as play in ballgames with the locals.

Because the school in Owley went only through "middle school" years, Warneke attended the nearest high school, that in Mount Ida. Because of his 6ft 2in stature, Warneke played first base for the high school team.

In his final year he was pressed into service as a relief pitcher: Warneke faced a semi-professional team and struck out five of six batters he faced.

Warneke also played for the Mount Ida Athletics, a squad that played Montgomery County area teams.

After high school Warneke moved to Houston, Texas, where his older sister, Kate, and her husband lived.

Warneke got a job delivering telegrams by bicycle for Western Union.

Whatever the figure, Lonnie "Country" Warneke reported to the Chicago Cubs spring training facilities on Santa Catalina Island, California in late-February 1930, a month before his twenty-first birthday.

Warneke pitched in two World Series for the Cubs (1932, 1935), compiling a record of 2–1, with a 2.63 earned run average (ERA).

Warneke pitched for the National League in the first Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1933, hitting the first triple and scoring the first National League run in All-Star game history.

He pitched in two other All-Star Games (1934, 1936) and was also selected in 1939 and 1941.

He pitched a no-hitter for the Cardinals on August 30, 1941; opened the 1934 season with back to back one-hitters (April 17 and 22); and set a Major League Baseball fielding record for pitchers (since eclipsed) of 227 consecutive chances without an error, covering 163 games.

One of Warneke's teammates on Alexandria was Ray Prim, with whom he would pitch for the Cubs in 1943 and 1945.

After retiring as a player in 1945, Warneke was an umpire in the Pacific Coast League for three years and then in the National League from 1949 to 1955.

Warneke is the only person who has both played and umpired in both an All-Star Game and a World Series.