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Neatorama presents a guest post from actor, comedian, and voiceover artist Eddie Deezen. Visit Eddie at his website.
Tens of thousands of games have been played in the history of Major League Baseball. But on August 19th, 1951, the strangest baseball at-bat ever recorded took place in Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis. It was on that day, sixty years ago, that a 3’7″ player came to bat.
Edward Carl Gaedel was born on June 8, 1925. His parents and siblings were all of normal stature, but Eddie, for some unknown reason, just stopped growing sometime during his term in elementary school. According to his sister, “He cried a lot because people used to bother him. He’d come home swearing.”
As an adult, Eddie found work as a mascot for Mercury Records and during World War II Eddie had found employment as a riveter (his stature made it easy for him to crawl inside the wings of planes). By 1951, Eddie was working as a bartender at “The Midget Club,” a bar in Chicago that employed only little people.
In 1951, Bill Veeck was the colorful owner of the St. Louis Browns, the worst team in baseball. Veeck was known for thinking up wild publicity stunts to help draw crowds in to come and watch the pathetic, perennial cellar-dwelling Browns.
The original idea of a little person batting in a baseball game had been used in a 1941 short story (no pun intended) by James Thurber called “You Could Look It Up” (Veeck always denied the story was his inspiration).
In mid-August of 1951, Bill Veeck gave his car keys to the Brown’s public relations man, Jay Edson. Edson was told to go to the given address in Chicago and pick up a guy called Eddie Gaedel. “He’s a midget,” said Veeck.
“A midget?” inquired Edson, slightly surprised.
“Yes,” intoned Veeck.
Gaedel was picked up at his Chicago address, driven to St. Louis, and smuggled into the Chase hotel, wrapped in a blanket. A double-header was scheduled between the Browns and the Detroit Tigers the next day. The crowd of 18,369 had been promised “a festival of surprises” by Veeck.
Between games, Eddie popped out of a giant plastic cake, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the American League and in celebration of the Falstaff brewery. Gaedel’s appearance brought happy laughter from the crowd, who at the time had no idea of the strange baseball history soon to be made. In the bottom of the first inning of game two, the surprised crowd looked on as St. Louis manager Zach Taylor sent Eddie Gaedel up to pinch-hit for lead-off batter Frank Saucier.
Eddie came to the on-deck circle swinging three toy bats. He tossed two to the side and walked to the plate carrying his toy bat, the smallest bat ever to be used in a Major League baseball game. Gaedel wore a borrowed batboy’s uniform which sported the number 1/8. The crowd, at first surprised, was quiet, then burst into raucous laughter.
Ed Hurley, the home plate umpire, was duly shown Gaedel’s contract (legally signed a few days earlier and wired to Major League offices) and Eddie stood at the plate, in a slight batter’s crouch. Before he came to the plate, Gaedel had been warned solemnly by Bill Veeck that he’d have a rifle aimed at his head and if he dared swing, he’d pull the trigger. (In Thurber’s short story, the LP had swung on ball four and grounded out, ending the game.)
more …
Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal is waiting for his chance at a world record. Magar is only two feet tall and weights ten pounds! But he can’t be classified as the world’s smallest man until he officially becomes an adult.
Excitedly awaiting his 18th birthday in October of this year, Khagendra and his family are in contact with Guinness to take the official crown from 2ft 5in He Ping Ping of China.
Weighing only 10lbs, Khagendra has become something of a celebrity in his native Nepal, where politicians have joined the clamour to see him recognised as the smallest man in the world and villagers have dubbed him ‘little Buddha’.
Doctors believe Magar’s size is due to a malfunctioning pituitary gland, but no definitive diagnosis has been reached. Link -via Buzzfeed
