When 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel stepped up to bat for the St. Louis Browns on Aug. 19, 1951, a “magic moment” in baseball occurred, according to Spokane’s Tom Keefe.

After four consecutive balls – the strike zone is significantly smaller and harder to hit for a short batter – Gaedel, 26, became the shortest person in history to play in a Major League Baseball game with a single plate appearance.

Seventy-five years to the day, that unforgettable ball game magic will continue at O’Doherty’s Irish Grille as the Spokane Gaedel Society, created and led by Keefe, a Gaedel aficionado, will celebrate the historic at-bat for the 16th year in a row.

“That’s the thing; Eddie’s story is terrific, but the lighthearted nature that Tom has brought here, and he brings to the event, it’s a really wholesome, fun deal,” said O’Doherty’s owner Tim O’Doherty, while sitting at one of the pub booths with Keefe.

With free “diamond jubilee” Gaedel Society T-shirts and an annual rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” the pub – which is already somewhat of a Gaedel shrine – will be filled with Gaedel fans for the “Eddie Gaedel Day” event.

Over the years, O’Doherty said the Irish pub has collected Gaedel enthusiasts and regular bargoers who have stumbled upon the annual party.

This year, the biggest thing on the agenda for the Gaedel Society is a petition to get Windy City-native Pope Leo XIV to grant fellow Chicagoan Gaedel sainthood.

Starting in Spokane, several other chapters of the Gaedel Society have now popped up, including one in Clondalkin, Ireland, Keefe said.

“What I tell people is that whenever one or more gather in Eddie’s honor, on his day, and lift a pint and invoke the words: ‘Ball 1, ball 2, ball 3, ball 4 – take a walk, Eddie,’ that is an Eddie Gaedel Society club,” Keefe laughed.

Keefe first learned about Gaedel as a Little Leaguer and was immediately taken with his story.

Gaedel was brought to the field by Browns’ owner Bill Veeck, who O’Doherty declared the P.T. Barnum of baseball for his showman antics back in the 1950s. The day of the game, Gaedel came out of a cake to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the American League.

“I thought for a person who had never played baseball before could go up to the plate in a major league baseball game is incredible” Keefe said. “I just couldn’t get it out of my head about how cool it was that he’d gone up there.”

Gaedel wore a jersey with the number 1/8 on the back, which was the uniform of a then-bat boy and future St. Louis Cardinals owner William DeWitt Jr.

For the 65th anniversary of “Eddie Gaedel Day,” the Cardinals distributed 32,000 Gaedel bobbleheads with some making their way to Spokane at O’Doherty’s, Keefe said.

For Keefe, baseball should be played because it’s fun – a piece of advice he received from late player Don Larsen, known for throwing the only postseason perfect game in history, and a Spokane Gaedel Society Hall of Famer. Larsen was a longtime resident of Hayden Lake.

“One of my theories about baseball is that for every kid, every boy that ever put on a little league uniform and looked in the mirror, saw a Major League Baseball (player) looking back at him,” Keefe said. “So I’ve always really admired the fact that you play as long as you can – hardly anyone makes it in the big leagues – and to see that Eddie Gaedel moment, it’s just a magic moment for baseball.”

Gaedel’s “magic moment” is just one of a million moments that have occurred in the sport’s lengthy history. That’s what makes it so special.

“They happen all the time,” he said. “That’s the thing about baseball.”