Eddie Gaedel: The Long and Short of a Baseball Legend

The man who died with little fanfare this week (June 17) in 1961 has the highest on-base percentage in Major League Baseball history — 1,000 percent, meaning he reached base in every one of his plate appearances as a major league baseball player.

Then again, Eddie Gaedel only had one major-league plate appearance, in August of 1951, when he strolled to the plate in the second game of a doubleheader between his team, the St. Louis Browns, and the Detroit Tigers. He walked on four straight balls thrown by Tigers pitcher Bob Cain, who faced the unenviable task of trying to throw strikes to a man who stood three feet, seven inches tall.   Cain had actually tried to throw strikes to Gaedel with his first two pitches, but realized the absurdity of it and tossed the second two over Gaedel’s head. That Cain couldn’t help laughing at the image of Gaedel at the plate didn’t help his control.

Gaedel was a dwarf, and that August afternoon he was part of a publicity stunt instigated by the Browns’ owner, Bill Veeck — the P.T. Barnum of Baseball — a man whose fondness for publicity stunts was legendary.   Naturally, when Gaedel arrived at the plate, home plate umpire Ed Hurley called timeout and demanded to know what Veeck was up to. At which point the Brown’s manager, Zack Taylor, produced Gaedel’s valid major league contract, which Veeck had shrewdly filed with the American League office at the end of the day on the previous Friday, knowing it would be perfunctorily approved. Upon reading the contract, Hurley grudgingly allowed Gaedel to take his place in the batter’s box.

After Gaedel walked, he was replaced by a pinch runner at first base, ending his baseball career. The pinch runner was stranded at third and the Browns lost the game 6 – 2.

The repercussions of Veeck’s stunt, and Gaedel’s short career — the next day his contract was voided by American League President Will Harridge — included Harridge barring those classified as dwarfs from ever playing major league baseball. In addition, a rule was instituted requiring that, henceforth, every major league contract had to be personally approved by baseball’s commissioner.

As for Gaedel, today his jersey, with the preposterous uniform number “1/8” on it, is in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and he has been the subject of many stories and baseball documentaries.   Also, to many collectors his autograph, being a rarity, is more valuable than Babe Ruth’s.

Gaedel died tragically, at age 36, when he was beaten up and mugged in his home town of Chicago. Ironically, the only major league baseball player who attended his funeral was Tigers pitcher Bob Cain, the man who had walked him.