Dolly Stark
Toronto Daily Star, March 7 1928
Albert D. "Dolly" Stark (1897-1968) was the first Jewish umpire in modern major league baseball. He was nicknamed "Dolly" as a reference to Monroe "Dolly" Stark, a major league player from 1909 to 1912 (the two were not related). He was born in the Lower East Side district of New York City; his father died when he was young and his mother went blind, so he played semi-pro baseball and umpired to raise money for his family. The photo caption had it wrong: he actually had been a minor league umpire, as he was umpiring in the Eastern League in 1927 when he was spotted and promoted.
Stark was the first umpire to move about on the field in order to make the right call, which made him a player favorite. He was voted the most popular umpire in the National League in a 1934 poll, and he was presented with a car at "Dolly Stark Day" at the Polo Grounds in 1935, becoming the only umpire ever to be honored with a day at a ballpark.
In 1936, Stark temporarily quit umpiring, as he was holding out for more money; he spent the year as a Philadelphia Phillies radio broadcaster. He returned to umpiring in 1937 before leaving in 1940 due to a knee problem. He then went into women's fashions, designing the "Dolly Stark Dress".
His later life was tragic: he was the financial support for his blind mother and for his sister, who eventually committed suicide, and a marriage in 1952 ended in divorce four years later. He wound up poor enough to apply for unemployment compensation in 1968 and died of a heart attack later that year. Still, I suppose it could have been worse: his namesake, the baseball player, was killed by gunfire in a bar fight in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1924 at the age of only 39.
Created October 16, 2025.