Eddie Gaedel Baseball player
Edward Carl Gaedel (June 8, 1925 – June 18, 1961) was an American with dwarfism who became famous for participating in a Major League Baseball game.Gaedel (some sources say the family name may actually have been Gaedele) gained recognition in the second game of a St. Louis Browns doubleheader on August 19, 1951. Weighing 65 pounds (29.5 kg), and standing 3 feet 7 inches tall, Gaedel became the shortest player in the history of the Major Leagues. He made a single plate appearance and was walked with four consecutive balls before being replaced by a pinch-runner at first base. His jersey, bearing the uniform number "1⁄8", is displayed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.St. Louis Brown's owner Bill Veeck, in his 1962 autobiography Veeck – As in Wreck, said of Gaedel, "He was, by golly, the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball. He was also the only one."Gaedel was a professional performer, belonging to the American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA). Before his appearance as baseball's most-famous pinch-hitter, Gaedel's most notable gig arguably was when he was hired in 1946 by Mercury Records to portray the "Mercury man." He sported a winged hat similar to the record label's logo, to promote Mercury recordings. Some early Mercury recordings featured a caricature of him as its logo.
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Baseball player
Career start | August 19, 1951 |
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Career end | August 19, 1951 |
batting side | Right |
former teams | |
teams | |
throwing side | Left |
Eddie Gaedel on Wikipedia
External resources
- http://baltimore.orioles.mlb.com/stats/historical/individual_stats_player.jsp?c_id=mlb&playerID=114507&HS=True
- http://books.google.com/books?id=s4r4xMX9gqIC&pg=PA73&dq=%22eddie+gaedel%22&as_brr=0&sig=YPv-nJLPhEKlBwY72NLy474PTvE#PPA73,M1
- http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/s/2001/0816/1240553.html
- http://www.baseball-almanac.com/boxscore/08191951.shtml
- http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/ballplayers/G/Gaedel_Eddie.stm
- http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=2915
- http://www.seth.com/coll_letters_14.html