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On August 8, 1902, Harry Kane, a young man from Hamburg, Arkansas, made history as the first Arkansas-born pitcher to step onto a Major League Baseball mound. Over a century later, Arkansas continues to produce big-league talent, with 112 homegrown pitchers having followed in his footsteps. The last Arkansan added to the list was Ashdown’s Jaden Hill, who made his major league pitching debut on September 7, 2024. Among this distinguished group, one name stands out for his remarkable career: Lonnie “Lon” Warneke, the legendary pitcher known as the “Arkansas Hummingbird.” From his dominant days with the Chicago Cubs to his post-baseball career as a county judge, Warneke’s legacy endures as one of the most accomplished and beloved figures in Arkansas sports history.
Warneke is part of an elite group of Arkansans who have made their mark in Major League Baseball, a roster that includes some of the sport’s most revered names. This select group features Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean, Cy Young Award winner Cliff Lee, and Sporting News Pitchers of the Year like Johnny Sain and Preacher Roe, Ellis Kinder, and the hero of the 1948 World Series, Gene Bearden.
Warneke, a five-time All-Star from Owley, Arkansas, won more major league games as a pitcher than any Arkansan in baseball history. Being part of the 100+ Arkansans to pitch in the big leagues is an extraordinary accomplishment, but winning the most big-league pitching victories places Montgomery County’s Lonnie Warneke at the top of a prestigious list.
Warneke is also the career leader among Arkansas-born major league pitchers in Complete Games, Shutouts, and Innings Pitched. He is second in career Earned Run Average, and his .613 Winning Percentage (192-121) is second only to Dizzy Dean. After a modest 2-4 record in his first two seasons, Warneke produced 10 consecutive winning seasons. Although he was remarkably consistent, Warneke was phenomenal in a decade of Aprils. The tall, lanky Arkansan they called the “Arkansas Hummingbird” was the best April pitcher of his time.
Being the starting pitcher on the first day of the Major League Baseball season is an honor and a daunting assignment. It was a duty that Lon Warneke relished. He was the ace of the Cubs’ staff beginning in 1932 and Chicago’s Opening Day pitcher beginning in 1933.
Warneke was the starting pitcher for the Cubs on Opening Day for four consecutive years and won all four games. He was one of the dominant pitchers in the National League during the decade of the 1930s, but in his starting assignments in April of those seasons, his record was a remarkable 18–4. Although Warneke had many outstanding season-opening months in the big leagues, none approached his performance in April 1934.
On April 17, 1934, Cincinnati fans responded to new ownership with renewed optimism by packing newly christened Crosley Field for an Opening Day matchup with the Cubs. After speeches, a parade around the field, and a rousing rendition of Happy Days Are Here Again by a local band, Reds’ fans witnessed the same hapless ball club. By the sixth inning, the home fans were cheering for the opposing pitcher.
Warneke breezed through the first eight innings without giving up a hit. Entering the bottom of the ninth, the Cincinnati crowd was enthusiastically supporting the Cubs’ ace in his no-hit bid. When Cincinnati left fielder, Adam Comorosky, the second hitter in the bottom of the ninth, hit a harmless-looking dribbler just passed Warneke and into center field for the Reds’ one and only hit, the home crowd responded with a chorus of boos.
In the expected sportswriter hyperbole of the day, Chicago Daily News reporter Ralph Cannon wrote, “Friends make way for a hero . . . Warneke struck out 13 men and seemed on the portals of the Hall of Fame.”
Five days later, Warneke and the Cubs would face a much more formidable foe than the woefully inept Reds. In a Sunday game at St. Louis’ Sportsman’s Park, Lon Warneke was matched against Future Hall of Famer Dizzy Dean. Diz had won 20 games the previous season, and he had opened the 1934 schedule with a six-hit complete-game win over the Pirates a few days earlier.
St. Louis fans, expecting a pitchers’ duel, had hardly settled into their seats when the game was essentially decided. The Cubs batted around against Dean in the first inning, scoring four runs. Chicago added two more runs in the bottom of the second inning. Warneke had picked up where he left off the previous week, holding St. Louis hitless while the Cubs built a 6–0 lead.
In the home half of the fifth inning, Warneke allowed a double, a walk, and two runs. One run was unearned. The fifth inning would be the only blemish on another outstanding performance by the Arkansas farm boy with whip-like delivery. The final line for Warneke’s second start of the season was nine innings pitched, one hit, and one earned run allowed. Lon Warneke had opened the 1934 season with two consecutive one-hitters.
Warneke had one more April start in the Cubs’ ninth game of the season. Although he was not as dominating as in the two previous outings, Warneke won his third game in April of the 1934 season, a 3–2 extra-inning complete-game win over the Cards. In one of the most remarkable pitching performances in the annals of major league baseball’s opening month, Lon Warneke pitched three complete-game wins, two consecutive one-hitters, and finished the month with an ERA of 0.93.
In his first six years with the Cubs, Warneke looked every bit like a Hall of Famer. From 1932 to 1936, he averaged 20 wins and 21 complete games a season. He won an ERA title in 1932 and led the league in shutouts twice. In four of those years, he was in the top 20 in the MVP vote. He was second in 1932. The modest country boy from the Ouachita Mountains was a Chicago favorite. When asked about the stress of pitching in a big game, Warneke replied,
Just another row of cotton to be chopped, another bunch of cows to be milked.
Much to the dismay of Cubs fans, Warneke was traded to the St. Louis Cardinals in 1937. Although the trade was unpopular in Chicago, down-home in Arkansas, Cardinals fans were delighted at the prospect of Lon Warneke and Dizzy Dean teaming up on the Redbirds’ pitching staff. Having the two Arkansas county-boy pitchers looked promising for the Cards until the infamous toe injury in the 1937 All-Star Game led to a steep decline in Dean’s effectiveness and a premature end to his career.
After the trade to St. Louis, the pitcher known as the Arkansas Hummingbird never won 20 games again. Warneke had posted 100 pitching victories as a Cub. He won 83 games as a Cardinal before being traded back to Chicago in mid-1942. Unfortunately, Warneke was a Cub again when St. Louis went on to win the National League pennant and subsequent World Series title.
Lon Warneke’s 1955 baseball card pictures him as an umpire. Processed by eBay with ImageMagick, z1.1.0. ||B2
In a move that was relatively common in the 20th century, Warneke retired as a major league pitcher in 1945 and reported to the Pacific Coast League the following spring as an umpire. After three years in the PCL, umpire Warneke made the major leagues again. He worked a total of 1056 major league games as an umpire, including a World Series and an All-Star game. By 1955, the idea of a farm and a family called The Arkansas Hummingbird home for good.
Not one for leisure time after baseball retirement, at the urging of friends, Warneke ran successfully for County Judge of Garland County. Judge Warneke served as a popular county judge for 10 years before resigning for health reasons in 1973.
Lon Warneke is not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Considering the fluid definition of what makes a Hall of Famer, he may someday be selected. He was inducted into the Arkansas Sports Hall of Fame in 1961.
Warneke died at his home in Hot Springs on June 23, 1976. He is buried near his birthplace in the community of Owley, Arkansas. His gravestone bears the nickname, “Arkansas Hummingbird.”
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