Red Ormsby

During his 19 years as an American League umpire (1923-1941), Emmett “Red” Ormsby presided over some of baseball’s most memorable moments. He was behind the plate for nine of Babe Ruth’s record-setting 60 home runs in 1927, called balls and strikes in the deciding games of two World Series (1927 and 1937), and officiated the stunning professional debut of Bob Feller.1 It was also Ormsby who received the lineup card from a tearful Lou Gehrig that marked the end of the Iron Horse’s streak of 2,130 consecutive games played. Considered tough but fair by his contemporaries, and correct more often than many peers, Ormsby worked 2,537 regular-season games, 21 World Series games, two no-hitters, and the 1935 All-Star Game.

Formerly a minor-league spitballer, Ormsby joined the Marines at the height of World War I. A grenade thrower in a machine gun battalion, he was injured in combat just days before hostilities ended. On his return to the States, Ormsby took up umpiring. A fruitful marriage produced 12 children, with staged family photographs appearing in newspapers nationwide long after Ormsby last yelled “play ball!”

Once retired, Ormsby had varied pursuits. He was a vice cop, a scout for the Chicago White Sox, director of the home ballpark for a women’s professional baseball team, and co-founder of a charity that helped ex-ballplayers in need.  He also became a popular after-dinner speaker, sharing anecdotes and stories from his fascinating life.

***

Emmett Thomas Ormsby was born in Chicago, Illinois, on April 3, 1895, to Thomas Ormsby and his wife Philomene (née Caron). A stonecutter like his father, Thomas was born in Philadelphia shortly after his family arrived in the US from Ireland.2 He died in April 1897, leaving Philomene, of French-Canadian and Prussian heritage, to care for two-year-old Emmett and two older daughters.3

By 1910, the Ormsbys lived a few blocks west of newly opened Comiskey Park in Bridgeport, a neighborhood that was also home to future Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom.4 Emmett attended nearby De La Salle Institute, a private Catholic high school, and pitched for the school’s baseball team. In his final season, he did double duty as team manager.5 After the 1911 scholastic season, Ormsby played in the semipro Chicago City League for the Auburn Parks. One newspaper scribe described him as “a find” – “a spitball man” playing for a second year in “fast company,” and someone who “all the minor league scouts of the middle west have commented [upon] favorably.”6

One of those scouts landed Ormsby for the Aurora Blues of the Class C Wisconsin-Illinois League.7 A strapping 6-feet-2 and 200 pounds in his prime, Ormsby was hailed as “a coming star” by the Rockford (Illinois) Register–Gazette, but was cut before the regular season.8 After a brief stint with a team in the independent Upper Peninsula-Wisconsin League, Ormsby landed back in the Wisconsin-Illinois with Green Bay.9 The “sorrel-top” righty went 10-9 in 21 appearances under manager Jim Garry and was one of five batters to earn a package of tobacco for hitting a Bull Durham advertising sign.10 Among Ormsby’s outings was a one-hit shutout of the Madison Senators in which he faced the minimum 27 batters.11

Back with Green Bay in 1913, Ormsby posted a 14-13 record over 248 innings, allowing a team-low 3.67 runs per game despite a team-high 95 walks.12 Scouts from the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers saw him pitch during the summer, but nothing came of those visits.13

In October, Ormsby was drafted by the Omaha Rourkes of the Class A Western League.14 He failed to impress over five outings and so was reassigned to Grand Island of the Class D Nebraska State League. Unwilling to accept the demotion, Ormsby returned home to try out for the Federal League’s Chicago Chi-Feds.15 Unable to land a Chi-Feds contract, he wound up with the Waterloo Jays of the Class D Central Association.16 Ormsby’s 1-5 record and 5.33 ERA there earned him an early-June release.17

After another futile attempt at impressing Chi-Feds manager Joe Tinker, Ormsby resurfaced in the Wisconsin-Illinois League.18 He won five of 11 starts for the Appleton Papermakers, including a league-high 13 strikeouts in a four-hit shutout of Green Bay.19 That caught the attention of Bays owner Frank W. Murphy, who spent $350 in August to reacquire Ormsby and his Appleton batterymate, Pat Hayes, for the stretch drive.20 When Green Bay failed to overtake first-place Oshkosh, Murphy pressed the National Commission to void his deal for Ormsby and Hayes, claiming the pair was handicapped by injury when they arrived.21 Ormsby indeed showed up with a sprained ankle, but was able to make seven appearances. Murphy’s claim was denied but Ormsby never played another game as a professional.22

Over the next three years, Ormsby pitched for a bevy of Chicago semipro and Midwestern town teams; no fewer than 20 in total.23 During that span, he also signed on with the St. Paul Saints of the American Association.  A sore arm spelled the end of that opportunity before the start of the 1917 season.24

Two of Ormsby’s semipro outings in 1916 were particularly noteworthy. Pitching for the West Ends on May 7, Ormsby lost, 5-2, to Rube Foster‘s Chicago American Giants before a Sunday crowd of 5,000. In that game he surrendered multiple hits to future Hall of Famers Pete Hill and John Henry Lloyd.25 In early August, Ormsby met a similar fate while twirling for Garden City, touched for two hits by future Cooperstown enshrinee Cristóbal Torriente, in a loss to the Cuban Stars (West).26

In April 1917, the US declared war on Germany, joining a conflict that had been raging for nearly three years. The military needed soldiers, lots of them, and before the year was out, a duty-bound Ormsby enlisted in the Marines.27 He spent the next seven months at the Marine Corps Barracks in Quantico, Virginia, one of 10,000 Marines in training for trench warfare in France. While at Quantico, he was assigned to a machine gun battalion as a grenade thrower.28 “I was given the job because I had been a pitcher and could throw the grenades with good accuracy,” Ormsby later explained.29 When not pitching projectiles, Ormsby took the mound, and sometimes played the outfield, for the Barracks’ baseball team, a talented group that included major league veterans Jay “Nig” Clarke,  Dots Miller, Mike Cantwell, and major-leaguer-to-be John Singleton.30

In August 1918, Ormsby shipped out to France as part of the Army’s Second Division.31 According to one telling, he had tired of watching troop ships leave for Europe and threw a rock through a piano to get himself arrested and shipped off. Another version, circulated a decade later by the same columnist, had Ormsby intentionally wrecking the base recreation room.32

Ormsby entered combat on the Western Front “with a revolver and an apron-full of grenades” that he threw side-armed to protect himself from return fire.33 He came through battles in Saint-Mihiel and Champagne unscathed but was injured during combat in the Argonne Forest on November 9, two days before the armistice. Multiple reports claimed that he had been exposed to poison gas, but Ormsby told The Sporting News that he took shrapnel in the back from an exploding shell while advancing on an enemy position.34 Either way, Ormsby spent five weeks recovering in an Army hospital and was discharged from the Marines the following May.35

On his return to civilian life, Ormsby jumped back into baseball, as the vice president and player-manager of J.P. Sheehan, a Chicago semipro team.36 While on the road, Ormsby met millinery shop worker Helen Harty, one of 10 children in the family of a Chicago fireman.37 The couple married in April 1921, shortly before Ormsby began his first umpiring job in the Class B Illinois-Indiana-Iowa (Three-I) League.38

Ormsby debuted as the lone official in a May 5, 1921, game in Terre Haute, Indiana won by the home team. Afterwards, a newspaper covering the visiting Rockford Bells quipped, “As an umpire he is a fine soldier.”39 Another called Ormsby’s performance “very poor.”40 League officials thought otherwise. Within the month, Ormsby was promoted to the Class A Western League, replacing an umpire fired for carrying a pistol on the diamond.41 Over the next 16 months, Ormsby showed enough ability to earn a prestigious assignment, officiating the 1922 Class A championship series between the Western and Southern Leagues’ pennant-winners.42

In November 1922, Ormsby and his fellow arbiter in that Series, Ducky Holmes, were hired by AL president Ban Johnson. The press release announcing the signings called Ormsby “one of the best umpiring prospects in the country.”43 Later that same week, Ormsby and his wife welcomed their first child: a daughter, Rita, born on Armistice Day.

Ormsby’s first regular-season assignment as an AL umpire was at first base on Opening Day, April 18, in a game between the Tigers and Browns at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. Ormsby’s calls were well received, as witnessed by the fact that he went unmentioned in game summaries published in both Detroit and St. Louis newspapers.44

President Johnson was known to encourage AL umpires to toss unruly players without hesitation. “Kick somebody out of a game tomorrow,” Ormsby recalled Johnson saying, “so they know who’s boss.”45 Ormsby took that message to heart, ejecting Detroit’s Harry Heilmann from a game on May 2. Unhappy about a call at first base, Heilmann handed Ormsby a derby that someone had tossed onto Detroit’s Navin Field and told him, “You win the derby.”46 Heilmann became Ormsby’s first AL ejection and earned a brief suspension from Johnson for his cheekiness.47 Ormsby believed that umpires should never give an inch, and his 59 career ejections suggest that he rarely did.

A few days after handing down Heilman’s punishment, Johnson suspended Cleveland Indians player-manager Tris Speaker for calling Ormsby a “homer.”48 Johnson’s quick disciplining of two prominent ballplayers sent a message that Ormsby had his full support. Johnson “thought highly” of his new arbiter and the feeling was mutual; in 1927, Ormsby and his wife named their fifth child (Byron Bancroft) after him.49

During Ormsby’s first year, the press became fascinated with how he made calls. “The only living being who pronounces ‘Strike’ as a word of four syllables” according to the Des Moines Register, Ormsby punctuated each “Sss-ter-eye-kuh!” by thrusting his right arm skyward.50  The Washington Times called Ormsby’s strike-calling technique “one of the most impressive … ever seen.”51 Ormsby’s out calls could be equally captivating. “To watch ‘Red’s’ chin go out … and that wave of utter finality as he shouts: ‘You’re out!’ – well I call it ‘magnificent possession’,” wrote a Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune sportswriter. “‘Red’ … impersonates justice, whether cheers greet his decision or pop bottles fall about him.”52 The accuracy of Ormsby’s calls was something that ballplayers appreciated most. Al Simmons, who admitted to hating umpires, called Ormsby “a good guy” who “misses fewer close calls than most of them.”53

On September 4, 1923, Ormsby manned first base as the Yankees’ Sad Sam Jones no-hit the Athletics at Philadelphia’s Shibe Park. Three days later, he was back in that same spot when the A’s were again held hitless, this time by Howard Ehmke of the Boston Red Sox. Ormsby’s call that Slim Harriss had failed to touch first base after hitting an apparent double was pivotal in preserving Ehmke’s no-hitter.54 It proved to be the last major-league no-hitter that Ormsby officiated.

Reflecting on his career, Ormsby said, “Taking charge of the game, I think, is the No. 1 rule for being a good umpire… you definitely can’t do a top-notch job unless you feel you are the most important person on the field.”55 Ormsby’s hallmark was control, but during a Yankees-Nationals game on April 23, 1925, his passivity caused a righteous uproar.  With the Yankees leading by a run in the bottom of the ninth at Washington’s Griffith Stadium, he held up the game so that Nationals manager Bucky Harris could have Walter Johnson yanked out of a clubhouse shower to pinch-hit. Johnson clubbed a game-ending double, but the protestations of New York manager Miller Huggins goaded president Johnson into imposing a rule that limited substitutions to players in the dugout or warming up.56

Ormsby’s steady performance during his first few years in the AL earned him an assignment umpiring the 1927 World Series between the Yankees and Pittsburgh Pirates. With four children, and a fifth on the way, the $2,500 pay he earned for working the Series was nearly half of his annual salary.57 Ormsby was the home plate umpire in the deciding Game Four, won on a game-ending wild pitch by the Pirates’ Johnny Miljus with Tony Lazzeri batting and bases loaded – a full-count pitch that Ormsby considered the most stressful moment of his umpiring career.  With the score tied 3-3, Ormsby dreaded Lazzeri taking a close pitch and thereby forcing him to make a call.58 Ormsby worked three subsequent Fall Classics, notably calling balls and strikes for:

• Carl Hubbell’s 11-inning win over Washington in Game Four of the 1933 Series,
• Lefty Gomez’s complete game victories against the New York Giants in the first and deciding games of the 1937 Series, and
• Bucky Walters’ five-hit shutout of Detroit in Game Six of the 1940 Series.

The NL and AL began staging All-Star Games after Ormsby’s career had reached its halfway point, but he did get to work the 1935 renewal. He was behind the plate for a first-inning, two-run home run by Jimmie Foxx that gave the AL an early lead, then a few innings later changed places with third base umpire George Magerkurth.59

Ormsby considered Foxx’s slugging rival, Babe Ruth, “a super-man,” and openly admired Ted Williams, whose major league debut he oversaw, but called Ty Cobb “the greatest ballplayer that ever lived.”60 The pair developed a friendship during the last few years of Cobb’s career, and at the age of 66, Ormsby considered a personal card from Cobb the most prized memento of his career.61 Not every exchange between the two was cordial, however.

On May 5, 1927, Cobb, playing for the Athletics, hit a fly ball at Shibe Park that passed over the right field wall inside the foul line for an apparent game-tying home run. Ormsby ruled it foul, as an AL rule specified that on balls hit out of play, “the umpire shall decide it fair or foul according to where it disappears from the umpire’s view.” He judged that the ball “veered foul in his sight after it had crossed the fence fair.”62 Cobb bumped Ormsby while arguing his case and was ejected. When the game ended with an A’s loss, hundreds of angry fans poured onto the field, forcing Ormsby to leave with a police escort. Cobb and his teammate Simmons, whom Ormsby also tossed, were fined $200 and suspended four days for inciting a near riot.63 Four years later, the rule was revised to specify that a ball clearing the outfield wall fair is a home run.64

Ormsby ran those who got physical with him but wasn’t averse to some verbal sparring. When infielder Jimmy Dykes screamed at him for missing a called third strike, Ormsby reportedly replied, “If I’d had that big bat of yours in my hand, I wouldn’t have missed it.”65

Ormsby parried that verbal attack, but on May 11, 1929, he was knocked unconscious by something he didn’t see coming at Cleveland’s Dunn Field. Hundreds of Indians fans, unhappy with a call by home plate umpire Bick Campbell, let loose a 10-minute barrage of pop bottles. Ormsby, who was manning third base, was struck above his right ear, dropping him to the ground and leaving a bloody gash. Nobody wearing a uniform was safe. Visiting A’s coach Kid Gleason was nailed in his back while coming to Ormsby’s aid; the A’s Joe Boley was hit in the back of his head.66 Briefly hospitalized, Ormsby was out of action for eight weeks.67 Several years later, the incident was mentioned as prompting the substitution of paper cups for glass bottles at Griffith Stadium.68

On November 12, 1930, the Ormsbys welcomed their eighth child, prompting the Chicago Tribune to publish a family photo, but at that time received little other notice.69 Once they had enough children to field a football team, though, the Ormsbys drew considerable attention. The Sporting News published a family scene and the Detroit Free Press detailed to its readers, most of whom had been hit hard by the Depression, the jaw-dropping quantities of essentials required to keep the children fed and clothed.70 The arrival of the Ormsbys’ 12th child in 1936 brought a tongue-in-cheek request from Ormsby, who asked bottle-throwing fans to use “milk bottles – full of milk.”71 For years, Christmas-themed wirephotos of the Ormsby family adorned newspapers coast to coast,72 some accompanied with stories about how his wife Helen ran their Evergreen Park household and Red brought home the bacon.73

In the latter half of the 1930s, Ormsby had a hand in what may have been baseball’s most electrifying debut and its most heart-wrenching finale. He was behind the plate for a July 1936 exhibition game between the reigning World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians in which 17-year-old Iowa schoolboy Bob Feller fanned eight batters in three innings.74  Afterwards, Ormsby declared Feller the fastest pitcher he’d ever seen, faster even than Walter Johnson.75 Three years later, Ormsby received the Yankees lineup card from Lou Gehrig before 11,000-plus dumbstruck fans at Detroit’s Briggs Stadium, on the day that Gehrig’s streak of 2,130 consecutive games played came to an end.76 Minutes later, Ormsby watched Gehrig “walk back to the bench and cry like a baby.”77

From 1930 to 1934, Ormsby umpired at least 151 games every season, but in 1935 the summer’s heat did him in. While officiating a Browns-White Sox game in St. Louis, he suffered heat stroke and was replaced by idled White Sox outfielder Jocko Conlan, a ballplayer from his old Chicago neighborhood.78  Ormsby returned to work a few days later, but persistent leg fatigue kept him out of commission for five weeks. Conlan’s playing career soon ended and he went on to a Hall of Fame career as an umpire.

During the winter of 1937-8, Ormsby wrenched his back playing handball. He managed to work a season-opening series in Chicago, then had to be hospitalized.79 Over the next eight months, he was in and out of hospitals, battling what proved to be arthritis, then an intestinal infection, pneumonia, and typhoid.80 Ormsby missed the balance of the 1938 season, but once he was back on his feet, signed on as an instructor for an offseason Mississippi baseball school where big leaguers taught youngsters how to hit, field, and pitch.81

Ormsby was so impressed with the operation, he bought it.82 Partnering with fellow umpire Bill McGowan, he transformed the enterprise into an umpiring school, with students paying $35 for a three-week course.83 The school folded after a year, but nearly two-thirds of its 60 pupils landed minor-league jobs. One, Bill McKinley, eventually reached the big leagues.84

By 1941, Ormsby had become the dean of AL umpires, his 18 years of service tops among his peers. Accordingly, AL president Will Harridge named him “umpire in chief” for the season opener in Washington, DC.85 The visiting Yankees topped the Nationals, 3-0, with President Franklin D. Roosevelt pausing from war preparations to throw out the ceremonial first pitch.86 This was Ormsby’s fourth presidential season opener, starting with Calvin Coolidge in 1927, then FDR in 1935 and again in 1936.87

On July 30, the day after he officiated in a Senators loss at Griffith Stadium to the visiting Indians, Ormsby underwent an emergency appendectomy.88  He missed the rest of the season and, in mid-December, elected to retire at age 46.89 Initial reports claimed that Harridge had dismissed him over health issues, but Ormsby later told reporters that he quit to spend more time with his family.90 The Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor had recently dragged the US into World War II, prompting many World War I veterans, including Ormsby, to apply for re-enlistment.91 “These young marines need veterans like me to tell ’em what it’s all about,” he said, “the shock and the Hell and the drudgery of battle.”92 Ormsby’s request was denied, and so he pivoted to a myriad of civilian jobs and money-making schemes over the next dozen years.

Ormsby’s first venture was an aborted attempt at starting an amateur baseball league.93 He then landed a position as deputy sheriff for Cook County, Illinois.94 For close to two years, Ormsby raided local taverns and strip clubs suspected of violating liquor and/or vice laws, one of which landed him in a Chicago courtroom to testify about a G-string.95 From public decency, Ormsby moved on to an auto transport company before turning back to baseball.96 He devised a pitcher’s training aid device that the Detroit Tigers used in the 1946 preseason, then became a scout for the White Sox, covering a territory that included much of the Midwest.97

Ormsby rose to the level of chief scout and unofficial associate minor league director, negotiating affiliate agreements, instructing at tryout camps and signing prospects, including his son Emmett Jr.98 He was dogged in filling the rosters of Chicago’s lowest farm teams, but by signing a high schooler too early in June 1947 he got the organization in hot water with commissioner Happy Chandler. The White Sox were fined, their general manager was suspended, and Ormsby’s management responsibilities were handed off.99 Ormsby’s most prominent signing during his three years with the White Sox was University of Illinois hurler Marv Rotblatt, who was handling mop-up duties for Chicago a few weeks after signing.100

As his scouting career was coming to an end, Ormsby began umpiring amateur baseball games, something he had done occasionally while toiling for the AL. (He had officiated the American Legion World Series a few times, and even worked a game at Sing Sing prison.101) He called balls and strikes at the 1949 Hearst Sandlot Classic, Chicago’s annual showcase for high school ballplayers, and worked a few Big Ten games.102 In 1950, Ormsby co-founded Baseball Anonymous, together with former major leaguers Ray Schalk, Tony Piet, and Lefty Sullivan, a charity created to help former ballplayers down on their luck. He later became the organization’s president.103

Ormsby next tried his luck at facility management, briefly becoming director of Chicago’s Shewbridge Stadium, home to the Tony Piet Queens of the National Girls Baseball League.104 He followed that stint with two unsuccessful bids to become president of the Three-I League.105

Once Ormsby reached his late 50s, he shifted from managing baseball operations to talking about them. He spent several years giving “spell-binding” talks about his life and baseball to civic groups, sports associations, industrial organizations and business executives on “goodwill tours” that crisscrossed the US.106 A “baseball raconteur,” according to The Sporting News, Ormsby made 80 speaking appearances in 1953 alone, more often than not wearing a tuxedo.107

Emmett Ormsby died of a heart attack on October 11, 1962, while raking leaves on his front lawn.108 Survived by his wife, 12 children, and 43 grandchildren, he was buried in the Saint Mary Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum in Evergreen Park, Illinois.109

In a lengthy obituary, The Sporting News called Ormsby one of the AL’s “most picturesque umpires” during his time there and offered examples of the respect given him by some of the game’s former stars. A Lou Gehrig remark may have been the most fitting epitaph of all: “How can you second-guess an umpire with 12 kids?”110

Acknowledgments

This biography was reviewed by Kurt Blumenau and Rory Costello and checked for accuracy by members of SABR’s fact-checking team.

Photo credit: Red Ormsby, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources listed in the Notes, the author consulted the following websites: familysearch.com, Baseball-Reference.com, retrosheet.org, statscrew.com, and findagrave.com..

Notes  

1 Ormsby was behind the plate for home run numbers 2, 3, 10, 18, 27, 37, 42, 54 and 56. He was stationed at either first or third base for a dozen more of Ruth’s 1927 four-baggers.

2 1850 US Census, Philadelphia, PA, South Ward, October 26, 1850; 1880 US Census, New York City, NY, Supervisor’s District 1, Enumeration District 495, Page 17, dated June 1, 1880. By 1880, young Thomas was plying his trade in New York City. He moved to Chicago with his bride in 1890. Edgar Munzel, “The Guy Who Wouldn’t Strike Out,” The Sporting News, November 17, 1954: 13.

3 “Deaths,” Chicago Tribune, April 22, 1897: 5; 1900 US Census, Chicago, Illinois, 6th Ward, Supervisor’s District: 1, Enumeration District 156, Sheet 15, June 9, 1900.

4 “Famous Names on Team,” Chicago Tribune, September 7, 1950: 3-9. The 1910 US Census lists the Ormsby family as living at 3360 Lowe Avenue.

5 “Cathedrals Win Ten In a Row,” Chicago Tribune, May 20, 1910: 8; “Cathedral Beats La Salle,” Chicago Tribune, May 4, 1911: 20; “Sporting News Notes,” Chicago Tribune, February 12, 1912: 13.

6 “Standards and Auburn Parks Clash Sunday,” Joliet (Illinois) Evening Herald, June 9, 1911: 14. The reference to a second year implies that Ormsby had played for Auburn Parks or another comparable team the year before; however, the author of this biography has not uncovered any 1910 game accounts that list Ormsby pitching for such a team.

7 “Aurora Signs Ormsby,” Rockford (Illinois) Register-Gazette, February 12, 1912: 5.

8 “Aurora Has Big Players,” Rockford Register-Gazette, April 13, 1912: 5; “Bits About W.-I. League,” Rockford Register-Gazette, April 17, 1912: 5. Listed as one of four Blues pitchers who stood six feet or taller and weighed at least 180 pounds, Ormsby was mistakenly identified as a former DePaul University star.

9 “New Pitcher for Bays,” Green Bay Gazette, June 12, 1912: 9; “Former Pitchers Are Making Good,” Escanaba (Wisconsin) Press, September 5, 1912: 7; “Form New League,” Racine (Wisconsin) Journal–News, April 5, 1912: 9. Ormsby’s time with a Gladstone, Michigan team is often mentioned in newspaper summaries of his playing career, but the author was unable to uncover any game accounts or box scores in which Ormsby was mentioned.

10 “Home Run Total 363 in W.-I. League Parks,” Rockford Register Star, October 3, 1912: 5; Waterloo (Iowa) Evening Courier and Reporter, June 4, 1914: 8. Baseball-Reference.com lists Ormsby’s throwing and batting sides as unknown. The author was unable to definitively identify which side of the plate he batted from. Ormsby’s 1912 statistics are based on a game log compiled by the author based on box scores and game summaries published in the Green Bay Gazette.

11 “Ormsby Applies The Brush on Senators,” Green Bay Gazette, August 14, 1912: 7.

12 Ormsby’s most impressive performance was a 1-0 loss to Oshkosh, the eventual pennant winner, on August 22 in which he took a no-hitter into the tenth inning. “We Won a Great Game,” Oshkosh Northwestern, August 23, 1913: 12.

13 “Scout of White Sox Watches Ormsby Pitch,” Green Bay Gazette, June 30, 1913: 9; “Green Bay Takes All Four Games,” Fond du Lac (Wisconsin) Commonwealth, July 19, 1913: 7. Former Baltimore Oriole Jack Doyle was the Tiger scout and former Boston Red Sox/Boston Doves manager Fred Lake was the White Sox scout.

14 “Draft Five More From W.-I, League,” Green Bay Gazette, October 9, 1913: 7.

15 “Ormsby Jumps Rourke to Join Chicago Federals,” Omaha Bee, May 10, 1914: 1-S.

16 “Official Bulletin Issued by Farrell,” Waterloo Evening Courier and Reporter, May 23, 1914: 14.

17 Waterloo Evening Courier and Reporter, June 4, 1914.

18 “Ormsby Seeks Job,” Rockford Register-Gazette, June 9, 1914: 2; “Base Ball Notes,” Appleton (Wisconsin) Crescent, June 16, 1914: 8.

19 Byron Beveridge, “Red Ormsby Shut Out Lynch Men 3-0,” Green Bay Gazette, July 3, 1914: 7; “Cantwell and Boothby Tied,” Green Bay Gazette, October 31, 1914: 7. Ormsby’s 1914 Appleton statistics are based on a game log compiled by the author from box scores and game summaries published in the Appleton Crescent, Green Bay Gazette, Oshkosh Northwestern and Wausau (Wisconsin) Record-Herald.

20 “Ormsby and Hayes Sold to Green Bay,” Appleton Crescent, August 14, 1914: 8; “Appleton To Drop Baseball,” Appleton Crescent, January 29, 1915: 8. The Appleton Crescent initially reported that Green Bay paid $250 for the pair, but receipts published the following January indicate that the club received $350 for them.

21 “Murphy’s Claims in Ormsby-Hayes Case,” Appleton Crescent, September 18, 1914: 8.

22 “Base Ball Notes,” Appleton Crescent, November 27, 1914: 2. Ormsby’s 1914 Green Bay appearance total is based on a game log compiled by the author from box scores and game summaries published in the Green Bay Gazette. Baseball-Reference.com mistakenly lists Ormsby as pitching in 19 games for Green Bay, with no mention of his stint with Appleton.

23 Based on author’s query of Midwestern newspapers archived at newspapers.com. It is possible that Ormsby represented other teams whose lineups or batteries were not published in sources archived there. Chicago clubs for which Ormsby pitched more than once included Snorky Signs (1916), Western Electric, where he worked for a time (1915-1916), Gunthers (1916), West End (1916-1917), Garden City (1916), Rex Tigers (1916) and Perez Council (1916-1917). The town teams that Ormsby pitched for included Janesville, Wisconsin (1915-1916), Rochelle, Illinois (1916), Whitewater, Wisconsin (1916), Morris, Illinois (1916) and Frankfort, Indiana (1917). Dick Edmonds, “Sports Echoes,” Sacramento Union, March 8, 1944: 4.

24 “Ormsby With Saints,” Green Bay Gazette, January 11, 1917: 10; “Releases Ormsby,” Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise, March 29, 1917: 8.

25 “Crowd of 5,000 Fans Sees Foster’s Team Beat West Ends, 5-2,” Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1916: 12; Mr. Fan, “American Giants Win,” Chicago Defender, May 13, 1916: 7.

26 “Cubans Win Second,” Fennimore (Wisconsin) Times, August 9, 1916: 2.

27 “Eighteen Stars in Service Flag For Semi-Pros,” Chicago Tribune, December 9, 1917: 18. Ormsby was one of 18 Chicago semi-pros ballplayers who had joined the military by early December 1917. Their commitment was honored by the City League with an 18-starred emblem displayed at the Thomas E. Wilson sporting goods store in downtown Chicago.

28 “In the Busiest American Training Camp,” New York Times, October 14, 1917: Magazine-7.

29 Munzel, “The Guy Who Wouldn’t Strike Out.”

30 “Marines Too Good To Get Contests,” Washington Evening Star, May 5, 1918: 5-2. For Quantico games in which Ormsby played, see, for example “Meigs Evens With Quantico Marines,” Washington Post, July 29, 1918: 4 and “Marines of Quantico Rout Capital Team,” Washington Post, May 6, 1918: 8. Various Washington D.C. newspaper articles identified Ormsby as affiliated with the Chicago Cubs, but the author did not uncover any contemporary reports of Ormsby either contracted by or trying out for the Cubs.

31 “Watch Your Step, Fans, When Kicking Against New Umpire,” Boston Globe, February 1, 1923: 16.

32 Joe Williams, “Joe Williams Says,” San Francisco News, December 23, 1941: 17; “Joe Williams, “Uncle Sam May Yet Decide Pennant Races,” Pittsburgh Press, May 22, 1952: 48.

33 Jimmy Powers, “The Powerhouse,” New York Daily News, July 23, 1939: 36; Frederick G. Lieb, “Ormsby, Long-Time Ump in Junior Loop, Dead at 67,” The Sporting News, October 27, 1962: 34.

34 “Red Ormsby Badly Wounded in Action,” Beloit (Wisconsin) News, January 4, 1919: 8; “Emmett Ormsby – Decorated Umpire,” St. Louis Star and Times, May 13, 1933: 12; “The Guy Who Wouldn’t Strike Out.” Some newspaper articles claim that Ormsby’s wartime injury came during fighting at Chateau-Thierry. However, hostilities at that French town concluded a few weeks before his arrival in France.

35 Emmet Thomas Ormsby Index Card, Veterans Affairs Master Index 1917-1940.

36 “Red Ormsby with Sheehans,” (Chicago) Englewood Economist, April 16, 1919: 1; “Ormsby’s Sheehans Coming,” Hammond (Indiana) Times, August 23, 1919: 3. “Hammond, 6; Sheehans, 1,” Chicago Tribune, August 25, 1919: 13.

37 “Red Ormsby Big Breadwinner,” Billings Times, December 30, 1954: 8; 1910 US Census, Chicago, Illinois, 1st Supervisor’s District, Enumeration District 1724, Sheet 3B, dated April 20, 1910.

38 Illinois, Cook County Marriages, 1871 – 1969; The St. Louis Star reported in 1925 that Ormsby “had to make good at [umpiring] before his bride-to-be would accept him.” As he did not make his umpiring debut until after the couple wed, the remark can be taken to mean that Helen wanted Ormsby to secure an umpiring job before becoming his bride. Ray J. Gillespie, “Emmett Ormsby, Former Hurler and War Hero, Had to Make Good as Umpire for Sake of Dan Cupid,” St. Louis Star, July 14, 1925: 1.

39 “Close Decisions,” Rockford Morning Star, May 6, 1921: 10.

40 “Evansville Is Host Today To Rockford Club,” Rockford Register-Gazette, May 6, 1921: 15.

41 Curley Anderson, “The Sport Spotlight,” Moline (Illinois) Dispatch, May 25, 1921: 13; John O’Donnell, “Sports Chats,” Davenport (Iowa) Democrat and Leader, August 3, 1950: 17.

42 “Mobile Opens Second Class ‘A’ Series with Tulsa Battle Today,” Dallas News, September 29, 1922: 9; “Ormsby, Ex-Marine Becomes Umpire in Majors in 2 Years,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 22, 1923: 22.

43 “’Red’ Ormsby Signed as A.L. Umpire; Has Pitched in Beloit,” Beloit News, November 8, 1922: 14.

44 Harry Bullion, “Tigers Defeat St. Louis, 9 to 6, in First Game,” Detroit Free Press, April 19, 1923: 1. That same day, the New York Yankees won the inaugural game at Yankee Stadium behind a three-run home run by Babe Ruth. Making his major league debut in the final inning of Ormsby’s game was Browns pitcher Charlie Root, who nine years later was victimized by Ruth’s “called shot” in Game Three of the 1932 World Series.

45 Rogers Hornsby, “Umpire Should Get More Respect,” Buffalo News, January 26, 1963: 8.

46 Harry Bullion, “Heilmann Expiates Crime of Hat Giving,” Detroit Free Press, May 4, 1923: 18.

47 “Lifts Ban on Heilmann,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, May 9, 1923: 18.

48 “Ban on Speaker,” Cleveland Press, May 7, 1923: 1.

49 “Sport Briefs,” Fall River (Massachusetts) Globe, July 18, 1923: 9; Westbrook Pegler, “Mr. Lazzeri Is Angry,” Chicago Tribune, October 9, 1927: 2-2.

50 “’Strike’ Is Sometimes Four Syllable Word,” Des Moines Register, September 2, 1923: S-3.

51 “Tagging All Bases,” Washington Times, July 31, 1923: 23.

52 David P. McAstocker, “Life’s Hour Glass,” Tacoma (Washington) News Tribune, April 3, 1937: 8. In his article, the News Tribune writer admiringly compared Ormsby’s jutting jaw to that of Italian dictator Benito Mussolini. That comparison is now inappropriate, and probably should have been at that time, given Italy’s ongoing subjugation of Ethiopia and alignment with Nazi Germany.

53 Lieb, “Ormsby, Long-Time Ump in Junior Loop, Dead at 67.”

54 “Ehmke Hurls No-Hit Game Against Macks,” Philadelphia Inquirer, September 8, 1923: 18. Gregory H. Wolf, “September 7, 1923: Howard Ehmke’s no-hitter saved by base-running blunder and official scorer’s change of heart,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/september-7-1923-howard-ehmkes-no-hitter-saved-by-base-running-blunder-and-official-scorers-change-of-heart/

55 Hornsby, “Umpire Should Get More Respect.”

56 Gary Sanoff, “April 23, 1925: Walter Johnson beats Yankees with pitch-hit double in 9th,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-23-1925-walter-johnson-beats-yankees-with-pinch-hit-double-in-9th/

57 Son Byron Bancroft was born on October 6, the day that Game Two of the Series was played. Between 1925 and sometime after 1950, major league umpires earned $2,500 for working a World Series. The Sporting News reported that Ormsby’s starting salary in 1923 was $3,500, with $500 annual raises that stopped during the Depression. “Putting World Series on Kerosene Circuit Banned,” San Antonio Light, February 11, 1925: 17; “McGowan Pens Need For Ball & Strike Men,” Bay City (Michigan) Times, December 24, 1950: 26; “Ormsby Started at $3,500 in A.L.; $10,000 Top Pay,” The Sporting News, January 17, 1962: 14.

58 Emmett T. (Red) Ormsby, “Calling the Tough Ones,” Chicago Tribune, February 26, 1939: 22.

59 Bob Considine, “Star Game Highlights,” Washington Herald, July 9, 1935: 21. Accounts of the game do not explain why the two umpires switched positions, but doing so was common practice in early All-Star Games.

60 Al Demaree, “Bambino Planning Make Yankees Pay,” Lincoln (Nebraska) Star, September 1, 1928: 8; Bob Barnet, “No Jeers For This Ump – And No Missiles!” Muncie (Indiana) Star, January 19, 1962: 21; “One For Ruffing,” Boston Globe, April 21, 1939: 29.

61 “Ex-Arbiter Ormsby Prizes Card Received From Cobb,” The Sporting News, January 17, 1962: 12.

62 James C. Isaminger, “Ormsby Rules Out Cobb’s Home Run,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 6, 1927: 24.

63 “Ty and Simmons Must Pay $200 For Dispute With Umpire at Philly,” Flint (Michigan) Journal, May 12, 1927: 16.

64 John A. Heydler, “New Rules to Benefit Game, Heydler Says,” Enid (Oklahoma) Eagle, January 3, 1931: 10.

65 “Quotable Quotes,” La Crosse (Wisconsin) Tribune, March 11, 1977: 11. Dykes allegedly delivered a zinger of his own to Ormsby on another day. He reportedly asked Ormsby if he was missing his coat and when Ormsby replied “No. Why?” Dykes shot back “Well, today you’ve been missing everything else.” “Dykes Critical of Ormsby’s Officiating,” Rome (New York) Sentinel, October 30, 1947: 24.

66 James C. Isaminger, “Ormsby Suffering Brain Concussion; Macks Washed Out,” Philadelphia Inquirer, May 13, 1929: 63.

67 “Red’s Calling ‘Em Again,” Chicago Tribune, July 9, 1929: 21.

68 “Sport Tips,” Frederick (Maryland) News, August 18, 1938: 6. By the late 1940s, most major league ballparks had reportedly banned the sale of drinks in glass containers. “Pop Bottles Banned,” Wilmington (Delaware) Morning News, August 23, 1949: 23.

69 One Short of a Nine,” Chicago Tribune, January 14, 1931: 23.

70 “Umpire Ormsby Looks Over His Own Line-Up,” The Sporting News, March 7, 1935: 2; Charles P. Ward, “Q.M. Never A.W.O.L. in Ormsby’s ‘Army”,” Detroit Free Press, May 7, 1935: 16. Between 1930 and 1933, Detroit’s unemployment rate was 34 percent, with the number of autoworkers at General Motors one-half of what it was before the crash of October 1929. Jim Lunday, “The Great Depression in Michigan,” Michigan League for Public Policy,  https://mlpp.org/announcement/the-great-depression-in-michigan/, accessed September 11, 2026.

71 “Bottles Welcome,” Cincinnati Enquirer, December 23, 1936: 12.

72 For examples of the Christmas photographs, see “Overtime,” New York Daily News, December 21, 1937: 64 or “Christmas at ‘Red’ Ormsby’s House,” Boston Globe, December 25, 1941: 26.

73 Like many ballplayers, Ormsby often took second jobs in the offseason to supplement his income. He worked as an ironworker, steam fitter, florist and sporting goods salesman. He opened his own toy store for a time and in the late 1930s sold toys for a department store and a wholesaler. “When the Umpire’s Own ‘Safety’ Is Doubtful” Toronto Star, February 20, 1926: 19; Stan Baumgartner, “Old Nick Rescues Sothern, of Phils, From Three I Loop,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 25, 1928: 10;“You Can’t Beat Hours of Umpires,” Kansas City Journal, December 27, 1927: 7; Los Angeles Times, November 23, 1927: 12; Bill McCullough, “Babe Ruth May Go To Japan With O’Doul,” Brooklyn Times Union, December 23, 1933: 11. Cincinnati Enquirer, January 7, 1937: 12.

74 Alex Zirin, “Bob Feller Fans 8 Cards in 3 Innings,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 7, 1936: 16. This unusual in-season exhibition between major league teams took place during the All-Star break.

75 John Whitaker, “Speculating in Sports,”  Hammond Times, July 9, 1936: 11. Ormsby probably did not see Johnson at his fastest. The Big Train was a 35-year-old, 17-year veteran by the time Ormsby first worked a game in which he pitched. On July 19, Ormsby was umpiring at first base in the second game of a doubleheader in Washington when Feller made his major-league debut, as a mop-up reliever.

76 As Gehrig, the Yankees captain, met with the umpiring crew on behalf of manager Joe McCarthy, the Tigers’ public address announcer notified the crowd that Gehrig was not playing. He had last sat out a game on May 31, 1925. Mike Whiteman, “May 2, 1939: Lou Gehrig’s streak ends in Detroit,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/may-2-1939-lou-gehrigs-streak-ends-in-detroit/

77 Lee Kemmel, “Scout Red Ormsby Recalls Some ‘High Spots’ of His Baseball Career,” Green Bay Press-Gazette, July 19, 1947: 9.

78 James M. Gould, “Coffman Again Knocked Out of Box; Cain is Second Pitcher,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 29, 1935: 13.

79 “Hildebrand Makes Third Start Today,’ St. Louis Globe-Democrat, May 4, 1938: 10; “Ormsby Ready for Duty Soon,” Honolulu Advertiser, May 19, 1938: 10.

80 “Ormsby Is Ill,” Tampa Tribune, June 6, 1938: 10. “Ormsby Back in Hospital,” Cleveland Press, August 4, 1938: 20; “Umpire Ormsby Is Taken to Edward Hines Hospital,” Chicago Tribune, September 21, 1938: 21; “Prominent in Weekend Sports Developments,” Fall River Herald News, December 12, 1938: 14.

81 “Hundreds of Diamond Hopefuls On March to Baseball Schools,” San Antonio Express, January 27, 1939: 2A.

82 “Ormsby Buys Umpire School,” The Sporting News, March 16, 1939: 7.

83 The Sporting News, November 9, 1939: 6. Ormsby’s umpiring school held classes in both Jackson, Mississippi and Palatka, Florida, the latter in conjunction with a baseball academy that featured Babe Ruth as an instructor. Bill McGowan, “Baseball Schools Are Big Help To Young Players – McGowan,” Washington Times-Herald, January 22, 1940: 15.

84 Eddie Brietz, “Sports Round Up …,” Rhinelander (Wisconsin) News, March 23, 1940: 6; Ray Billings, “32 McGowan-Ormsby Umpire School Grads Get Jobs in O.B.,” The Sporting News, March 21, 1940: 9. Chris Pelekoudas was another major league umpire helped along the way by Ormsby. Years after Ormsby and McGowan closed their school, Ormsby encouraged Pelekoudas, a Chicago sandlot official and Air Force veteran, to attend an umpiring school run by McGowan. Bill Shilstone, “Blame It on Pelekoudas,” Redwood City (California) Tribune, April 3, 1962: 9.

85“Harridge Reveals Lineup of Umpires For Loop Openers,” Flint Journal, April 14, 1941: 16.

86 Yankees prospect Phil Rizzuto made his major-league debut in the game, at shortstop. Larry DeFillipo, “April 14, 1941: FDR deals and Rizzuto debuts for Yankees as the drumbeats of war grow louder,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/april-14-1941-fdr-deals-and-rizzuto-debuts-as-the-drumbeats-of-war-grow-louder/

87 Bob Thayer, “Griffs Defeat Red Sox, 6-2, in First Game,” Washington Herald, April 13, 1927: 1; John B. Keller, “Griffs Reveal Class in Season Start,” Washington Evening Star, April 18, 1935: D-1; Vincent X. Flaherty, “President Cheers Nats,” Washington Herald, April 15, 1936: 19.

88 “Aderholt, Fresh From Farm, Given Nats’ Third-Base Job,” Washington Evening Star, July 31, 1941: 54.

89 “Ump Ormsby Retired With AL Pension,” New York Daily News, December 20, 1941: 38.

90 Joe Williams, “Joe Williams Says,” San Francisco News, December 23, 1941: 17; Charles Johnson, “The Lowdown on Sports,” Minneapolis Star and Journal, July 20, 1946: 6.

91 “Happenings Of Interest In Various Training Camps of U.S. Forces,” Waterville (Maine) Morning Sentinel, February 11, 1942: 7.

92 Williams, “Joe Williams Says.”

93 Amateur Ball Loop Cards Meet July 1,” Tampa Tribune, April 5, 1942: 19.

94 “Ormsby Is Still Hard to Dodge,” Spokane (Washington) Spokesman-Review, March 14, 1943: B3.

95 “Still Watching Curves,” Baltimore Evening Sun, April 15, 1943: 42; Ed Burns, “Red Ormsby Rides Again – As Arbiter,” The Sporting News, November 18, 1943: 8; “Whatzit?” New York Daily News, December 4, 1943: 12; “’Exotic Dance’ or ‘Art,’ Judge Agrees That Surroundings Make Difference, Omaha Evening World-Herald, December 3, 1943: 9.

96 “Disabled Hero Buckles Down to New Job,” Buffalo News, January 22, 1945: 18.

97 “Something New Has Been Added to Tigers’ Training Methods,” Detroit Free Press, March 17, 1946: 39; “Ump on Chisox Staff” Pittsburgh Press, June 27, 1946: 31.

98 “Central Loop to Be Set Finally At Oct. 18 Meet,” Muskegon (Michigan) Chronicle, October 10, 1947: 10; “Rapids Sox Have Excellent Prospect in Ormsby’s Son,” Wisconsin Rapids (Wisconsin) Tribune, March 7, 1947: 5; “White Sox Claim Error By Chandler in Ruling,” Fall River Herald News, October 28, 1947: 17; Don Unferth, “Looking ‘Em Over,” Wisconsin Rapids Tribune, September 30, 1947: 5. Another baseball playing son of Ormsby, Ed, got away, signing with the Phillies in early 1950. Neither of Ormsby’s sons appear to have played professionally, but grandson Byron Bancroft Ormsby Jr. did, spending two seasons in the 1970s as an infielder in the Boston Red Sox organization. “Two Pitchers Join Staff of Phillies,” Scranton (Pennsylvania) Tribune, February 4, 1950: 10.

99 AL Bosses to Discuss O’Connor, Sox Ban,” New York Daily News, October 31, 1947: 63; “Rigney, Minor, Ormsby to See Opener Tonight,” Muskegon Chronicle, April 29, 1948: 17.

100 “Marvin Rotblatt,” The Sporting News, July 7, 1948: 6. The author has not identified any other future major leaguers signed by Ormsby.

101 “Baseball at Sing Sing,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Union, August 23, 1924: 12. For examples of Ormsby officiating in American Legion championships, see, for example “Coast Boys Victors,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 8, 1928: 13 or Herbert Caldwell, “Victory Denied Sizelers After Great 10-Inning Battle,” New Orleans States, August 29, 1930: 11.

102 Alan Cohen, “July 11, 1949: Chicago Herald-American All-Star Game: a tripleheader of future stars,” SABR Games Project, https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/july-11-1949-chicago-herald-american-all-star-game-a-tripleheader-of-future-stars/; “Iowa Defeats Badgers for 9-3 Victory,” Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Gazette, May 14, 1950: 4-3.  The 1949 Hearst Classic was remarkable in that each team fielded a Black catcher, one of the umpires was a Negro League official and Marilyn Monroe was one of the young actresses who served as batgirls.

103 Dick Day, “Taking Time Out,” Rockford Register-Republic, May 8, 1950: 32; “’Baseball Anonymous’ Aids Ex-Players in Need of Jobs,” The Sporting News, July 4, 1951: 11.

104 (Chicago) Southtown Economist, April 25, 1951: 18. “Ormsby Asks for Volunteers To Help Boys’ Little League,” Southtown Economist, June 3, 1951: 1. While running the ballpark, Ormsby was also commissioner for a Little League based there. The Queens were the second women’s professional team to call Shewbridge home. In 1948 and 1949, the stadium was home to the Chicago Colleens of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

105 “Totten Re-elected; Three-I Plans 134-Game Card, All-Star Game,” Waterloo Courier, November 8, 1953: 39; Gus Schrader, “C.R. To Open Three-I Season at Home in ’55,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, November 24, 1954: 11.

106 See, for example “Ormsby Cards Ten-State Tour,” The Sporting News, March 2, 1955: 26: “Hear ‘Red’ Ormsby,” The Sporting News, October 24, 1956: 20. Ormsby had speaking engagements as far afield as Fairbanks, Alaska.  “Red Ormsby, Colorful AL Umpire Guest Speaker Here,” Fairbanks News-Miner, December 4, 1952: 4.

107 The Sporting News, July 22, 1959: 43; Jimmy Powers, “Ex-Umpire Ormsby Keeps Active,” New York Daily News, November 28, 1954: 113; Phil Sarno, “Sports,” Hazleton (Pennsylvania) Plain Speaker, November 18, 1954: 32.

108 “Red Ormsby Succumbs at Age of 67,” Galesburg (Illinois) Register-Mail, October 12, 1962: 17.

109 “Ormsby, Long-Time Ump in Junior Loop, Dead at 67.”

110 “Ormsby, Long-Time Ump in Junior Loop, Dead at 67.”