"Zob" (nickname)--query

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

 Dear members of the American Name Society (with a cc. to baseball researchers and the American Dialect Society):

Is "Zob" a bona fide nickname of anyone--- I'm particularly interested in
1908 Pacific Coast League umpire "Zob" O'Connell---and if so, what would the real first name have been?  "Zob" (with lower-case z-) is also an obsolete U.S. slang term for "fool," and so the umpire might simply have been nicknamed "fool" by the disgruntled fans.  Benjamin Zimmer spotted the 1908 quote below, which provides the earliest attestation of "zob" thus far located.
Btw, it has already been pointed out that "zob" was a French slang word since at least 1870, and perhaps that's the origin of the U.S. slang term.  But several of the earliest attestations of U.S. "zob" are turning up in the context of West Coast baseball, and so umpire "Zob" O'Connell might have played a role in the origin of the term or its limited spread.

   Here now (excerpted) is the first of several interesting "zob" quotes posted recently by Benjamin Zimmer:
 Oakland Tribune, May 11, 1908, p. 9, col. 3 'Oakland Teams Loses Both Games to the Angel Nine. Bad Decision by "Zob" O'Connell Gives Morning Contest to Champs. 'A great throng saw the morning contest, and had umpire "Zob" O'Connell been of keen eyesight the home team might have won.'

Gerald Cohen