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Eddie Carl Gaedel
The shortest and lightest player in Major League history
was Eddie Gaedel, who was 3' 7" tall and weighed 65 pounds. He took the field for one game in 1951.
With attendance waning, St. Louis Browns owner, Bill Veeck Jr. was desperate for
ticket sales. A self-proclaimed “hustler” and a baseball owner who was decidedly anti-establishment, Bill
Veeck Jr. was the greatest promotional genius and innovator the game has ever seen - baseball's version of P.T. Barnum. As
part of a publicity stunt, Veeck promised fans a "huge surprise" during the 1951 doubleheader with the Detroit Tigers on August
19.
He then made a move that didn't warm up the hearts of many of the League's owners.
On the Friday before the doubleheader, Veeck shrewdly telegramed a contract to the Major League office. With
the late filing, he knew that the contract would not be delivered or reviewed until officials returned to work on Monday.
The August 19 games had been billed as a Birthday Party
to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of both the American League and the Falstaff Brewing Co., radio sponsor of the Browns. Because
of publicity generated for the "huge surprise", the Browns had a paid attendance of better than 18,000, their biggest home
crowd in four years. As they entered the park, fans were presented with a can of Falstaff beer, a slice of birthday
cake and a box of ice cream.
Prior to the start of the second game, Veeck had a 7'
tall cardboard cake rolled onto the field. Bernie Ebert, the Browns' announcer, boomed over the loudspeaker system:
"Ladies and gentlemen, as a special birthday present to Manager Zack Taylor, the management is presenting him with a brand-new
Brownie." The cake popped open, and out jumped Eddie Gaedel, all 3-foot-7-inches of him, in a Browns uniform complete with
the number 1/8, and little slippers turned up at the end like elf's shoes.
 The 'real' surprise, however, came to life in the second game when Gaedel emerged from the dugout waving three
little bats. "For the Browns," said announcer Bernie Ebert, "number one-eighth, Eddie Gaedel, batting for leadoff hitter Frank
Saucier." Despite the laughter and the uproar that ensued, Browns Manager Zack Taylor was able to produce a contract
for Gaedel and the incredulous home plate umpire ruled that Gaedel could bat.
Gaedel, a circus midget, dug in at the plate. Thanks to his diminutive strike
zone, he managed to draw a 4-pitch base on balls from Tigers pitcher, Bob "Sugar" Cain, who was laughing
so hard that he could barely throw. As Gaedel made his way to first base, accounts tell of him stopping to tip his
hat to the fans. When he reached first, he was replaced by a pinch runner. Waving his hat and bowing to the cheering
crowd, Gaedel slowly crossed the field to the Browns third base dugout, then waddled up the dugout tunnel and back into the
oblivion from whence he came.
Some saw the humor in the publicity stunt, but overall,
the baseball establishment was not amused. The next day, midgets were banned from baseball by American
League President Will Harridge. Later, fellow owners blocked Veeck's efforts to move the Browns to Baltimore unless
Veeck stepped down as the owner.
Sadly, Gaedel
died in 1961 after being beaten in a bar fight.
Eddie Carl Gaedel
Bats: Right,
Throws: Left
Height : 3' 7"
Weight: 65 lb.
Debut: August 19, 1951
Final
Game: August 19, 1951
Born: June 8, 1925 - Chicago, IL USA
Died: June 18, 1961 - Chicago, IL USA
"Bob Swift and I talked about how we were going to pitch to him, but there was no way we were going to get a
strike over. The midget spread his feet like DiMaggio and he was in a crouch on top of that."
- Bob "Sugar"
Cain, Detroit Tigers pitcher: from 'This Was Craziest At-Bat in Major League History' (Baseball Digest : February 1995)
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