Anthony Venzon (June 4, 1915 – September 20, 1971) was a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

who worked in the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

(NL) from 1957 to 1971. Venzon umpired 2,226 major league games. He umpired in three

World Series The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...

and three All-Star Games.

Biography

Anthony Venzon was born in

Thurber, Texas Thurber is an unincorporated community in Erath County, Texas, United States (near the Palo Pinto county line), located 75 miles west of Fort Worth. It was, between 1888 and 1921, one of the largest producers of bituminous coal in Texas and th ...

on June 4, 1915. His family later relocated to Pennsylvania and he attended

Muhlenberg College Muhlenberg College is a private liberal arts college in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1848, Muhlenberg College is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and is named for Henry Muhlenberg, the German patriarch of Luthera ...

. Venzon played in the

minor leagues Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in No ...

from to as an

outfielder An outfielder is a person playing in one of the three defensive positions in baseball or softball, farthest from the batter. These defenders are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. As an outfielder, their duty is to cat ...

. He served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and then umpired minor league baseball for seven seasons before being called up to the NL in 1957. NL veteran umpire

Artie Gore Arthur Joseph Gore (November 13, 1907 – September 29, 1986) was a professional baseball umpire who worked in the National League from 1947 to 1956. Gore umpired 1,464 major league games in his 10-year career. He umpired in two World Series and ...

was dismissed to make room for Venzon and

Ken Burkhart Kenneth William Burkhart (born Burkhardt) (November 18, 1916 – December 29, 2004) was an American right-handed pitcher and umpire in Major League Baseball. From through he played with the St. Louis Cardinals (1945–48) and Cincinnati Reds ...

. Venzon umpired 2,226 games between 1957 and 1971. He worked as home plate umpire during four MLB no-hit games between 1960 and 1970. He umpired in the

1963 Events January * January 1 – Bogle–Chandler case: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation scientist Dr. Gilbert Bogle and Mrs. Margaret Chandler are found dead (presumed poisoned), in bushland near the Lane Cov ...

1965 Events January–February * January 14 – The Prime Minister of Northern Ireland and the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years. * January 20 ** Lyndon B. Johnson is Second inauguration of Lyndo ...

and

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity scale, Mercalli intensity of X (''Extrem ...

World Series. He also called the

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

, 1962, and 1969 All-Star Games. Venzon was home plate umpire when

Dock Ellis Dock Phillip Ellis Jr. (March 11, 1945 – December 19, 2008) was an American professional baseball player. He played in Major League Baseball as a right-handed pitcher from through , most notably as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates teams ...

of the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

threw a no-hitter vs. the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

in the first game of a June 12, 1970 doubleheader. Ellis claimed to be under the influence of the psychedelic drug

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...

while pitching. Venzon died in September 1971 after open heart surgery in Pennsylvania. He had been out of baseball with health problems since that April.

References

External links

The Sporting News umpire card
1915 births 1971 deaths Major League Baseball umpires Sportspeople from Texas Johnstown Johnnies players Mayfield Clothiers players Beaver Falls Browns players Greensburg Senators players Warren Redskins players People from Erath County, Texas {{US-baseball-umpire-stub

Biography

See also

References

External links