Midget pinch-hits in the Majors

Pinch-hitter Eddie Gaedel, just 43 inches tall, takes a pitch high from Tigers pitcher Bob Cain in 1951. The catcher is Bob Swift and the umpire is Ed Hurley.

By

Dan Holmes:

Tigers pitcher Bob Cain couldn’t believe his eyes. As he stared into home plate to get the sign from his catcher Bob Swift, the tall right-handed hurler faced a batter unlike any other he had ever seen. Eddie Gaedel was 43 inches tall and waved a toy bat in his hands, but he was a legitimate big league hitter, at least for that one plate appearance.
The date was August 19, 1951, and the Detroit Tigers were playing the St. Louis Browns in the second game of a doubleheader in St. Louis. In between the games, the Browns had put on a show to delight the 18,369 spectators. There were jugglers, trapeze artists, a marching band, and a woman who was sawed in half by a magician. It was, Browns owner Bill Veeck promised, a “Day of Surprises.”
As Cain warmed up for the second game, a large cake was wheeled onto the field. Seconds later, emerging from the cake was a tiny little fellow – a miniature man – who waved his arms to the roaring crowd and trotted from the field, the latest spectacle in the sideshow. That little person was Gaedel.
Gaedel was 26 years old, a dwarf from Chicago who made a living making appearances in shows and circuses. During World War II, Gaedel had worked as a riveter, crawling into the tiny spaces of airplane wings to perform his work. In the late 1940s he was discovered by Veeck, who never met a promotion he didn’t like. His appearance against Cain and the Tigers was Gaedel’s biggest moment.
Wearing a Browns uniform with the number “1/8″ stitched onto the back, Gaedel arrived at home plate to lead off the first inning, announced as a pinch-hitter for Frank Saucier. Immediately, umpire Ed Hurley objected. Hurley was a no-nonsense veteran of the big leagues, but when St. Louis manager Zack Taylor, barely concealing a grin, produced a valid MLB contract for Gaedel, Hurley had no choice but to holler “Play ball!”...Continue reading...