Edward James "Irish" Conwell. I think the man's story needs to be told....quite possibly on the silver screen. Born January 29th, 1890 to Dexter and Bonificio Conwell. Direct descendant of Confederate war hero, Gen.Cornwell Jackson. Died May 1st, 1926, having been done in by a ham sandwich on dark rye at the tender age of 36 in Mt Carmel, ILL....which brings up an important topic rarely discussed. The reports of Ed Conwell's demise are sketchy, but it appears the man choked to death over lunch. Many people choke to death yearly. Most are needless deaths that could easily have been prevented. If you are driving by yourself out in the middle of nowhere, NEVER eat. To do so is a risky move. If you would happen to start choking, your goose would most assuredly be royally cooked as there would be nobody to rescue you. You take a big enough chance eating while cruising around town in normal traffic. If you did start choking, you couldn't just pull on over and spring out of your car clutching your throat because that would scare fellow motorists off as they'd be freaked out. Besides refraining from EWD(eating while driving), there is only one preventative measure that you can take. I have a big sign that I always keep under the front passenger seat of all my vehicles. The sign reads(in very large letters) "I'm choking to death!! Please pull over immediately and apply the Himelick Manuever!! Do it right and there's a crisp new $100 bill in it for you".....sorry got a bit off track here....we'll get back to Ed later.

IIRC, Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx also died while choking on food.

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--- Jmodene1 wrote:

IIRC, Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx also died while choking on food.

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Didn't St. Louis' own, Redd Foxx succumb that way too? Wait a minute....no I think the big one got him. Matter of fact, I think he had a heart attack while filming a show and all of his cast members thought he was faking it and didn't immediately rush to his aid. I guess Redd called wolf once too often....."once"?...more like about a thousand times too often. Loved that old show of his as a kid. I think Sanford was his real last name.

Humorous account, Pugs, but factually challenged. Mr. Conwell played around the minors until he became ill with some unspecified condition in 1921. He spent the next few years in poor health living with his parents in Chicago were he died in the hospital in 1926 at age 36.

Here is a detailed account of his professional career, including the game with the Cards.

seamheads.com/2009/10/02/cup-o...-irish-conwell/

1/31: Brad Thompson (31), Rafael Santana (55), Tom Alston (died 1993), Stuffy Stewart (died 1980), Steamboat Williams (died 1979).

Domeboys wrote: 1/31: Brad Thompson (31), Rafael Santana (55), Tom Alston (died 1993), Stuffy Stewart (died 1980), Steamboat Williams (died 1979).

For some reason, there is a local restaurant (Windy City Beef & Dogs) about a mile from my house that has an autographed picture of Brad Thompson mixed in with all the Chicago memorabilia.

Tom Alston, as everyone knows, was our first African-American player.  Didn't do well, from everything I've read, he simply couldn't handle the pressure.  Our *second* such player did much better - pitcher Brooks Lawrence - but he was traded to Cincinnati rather abruptly because he had the misfortune to be with us during the reign of Trader Frank Lane, who traded everybody - including Schoendienst - at the drop of a hat and very nearly traded Musial to the Phillies for Robin Roberts.

2/1: Hector Luna (33), Kent Mercker (45), Bob Smith (82).

2/2: Ronny Cedeno (30), John Tudor (59), Red Schoendienst (90), Cy Warmoth (died 1957).

2/3: Skip Schumaker (33), Terry Bradshaw (44), Bake McBride (64), Joe Stripp (died 1989), Slim Sallee (died 1965).

2/4: John Frascatore (43), Pat Perry (54), Stan Papi (62), Eddie Ainsmith (died 1981), Possum Whitted (died 1962).

2/5: Mike Heath (58), Chuck Diering (died 2012), Max Flack (died 1975).

2/6: Bill Dawley (55), Doug Howard (65), Walt Huntzinger (died 1981).

Agree that Green would probably have helped later in the Series, but Viola had his way with the Cards in G1, winning 10-1. Pags actually had one of the Cards' five hits. Sadly, I was there at the Metrodome, watching those stupid Homer Hankies being waived. The noise was deafening. Hard to believe it was just over 25 years ago...

I was happy to see Max Flack mentioned a couple days ago. Started out in the Federal League, a teammate of Mordecai Brown on the 1915 Federal League champion Chicago team. I got to meet him a couple times when I was a kid, he lived in the St. Louis area his whole life.

Also noticed Possum Whitted, who was once traded for Casy Stengel. He broke in with the Cards in 1912 and went on to play in a couple world Series elsewhere.

Domeboys wrote: Agree that Green would probably have helped later in the Series, but Viola had his way with the Cards in G1, winning 10-1. Pags actually had one of the Cards' five hits. Sadly, I was there at the Metrodome, watching those stupid Homer Hankies being waived. The noise was deafening. Hard to believe it was just over 25 years ago...

I remember that game quite well, too, although I wasn't there - I was in the Civil Defense bunker under the Governor's house in Guam, watching the game while we were waiting out a typhoon.

Losing Clark and Pendleton hurt, but we still might have won that series had Mathews not hurt himself during the NLCS and been available to start.

2/7: Ralph Citarella (55), Dan Quisenberry (died 1998), Spike Shannon (died 1940).

Cool photo. Thanks for sharing.

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--- blingboy wrote:

Spike Shannon at Robison Field, home of the Cards in the early 1900s



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Look on down the left field line over Spike's shoulder. Not a soul to be seen. A guy could clean up on nabbing foul balls by being the only one hanging out over there. Doesn't take Albert Einstein to figure out how he got the name. It very well may have been the reason that Spike's likeness cannot be found anywhere within the city limits of Cooperstown, NY. Also, how many Shannons have played for the Cards? Spike makes 3 that I know of. And how about all of those old nicknames like Spike, Possum, Stuffy, Bake, Red, Steamboat and Slim? Pretty cool stuff if you asked me! When I was in my 20's I was a sales manager for a wholesale grocery, tobacco and health & beauty aids Co. in Phoenix. Anyway, I insisted that all 12 of the sales reps who I worked with take on catchy nicknames so our clients would not forget their names. "Slim" and "Red" were two of them. We had this one gentleman rep in his 50's who initially refused to take on a nickname.....and looking back, who could blame him? Well we all started calling him "Sparky"....and believe it or not, he came to love the name.