Wearing the uniform number 1/8, Eddie Gaedel walked on 4 pitches.
The 3’7″ Gaedel has a 6’3″ grand-nephew playing in the Padres system.
9 Comments on On This Day in 1951 – Bill Veeck Sent a Midget To the Plate
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Shouldn’t he be playing Little League baseball. I think the preferred term is little people.
Eddies number on his jersey was “1/8”.
Bill Veeck was kind of famous for stunts to get crowds in the ballpark and this one caused quite a stir in the front office.
American League president Will Harridge, saying Veeck was making a mockery of the game, voided Gaedel’s contract the next day. In response, Veeck threatened to request an official ruling on whether Yankees shortstop and reigning MVP Phil Rizzuto was a short ballplayer or a tall midget.
He wasn’t part black was he? 1/8 won’t fly.
I miss Harry Caray. This is what made baseball fun.
http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/when-mascots-were-human-and-superstition-rode-bench
midget? It’s “little person”. #DwarfLivesMatter
Didn’t he do nickel beer night too?
I think he had a bonfire of Disco records too. I might be thinking of someone else.
Don’t think even Rembrandt could paint that strike zone.
Philip Roth wrote a hilarious novel about the major league line up during WWII when freaks and geeks replaced the players gone off to war called, humbly, The Great American Novel.
The manager of the St. Louis Browns told Eddie that if he swung at a pitch he would kill him. True story.