When 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel stepped up to bat for the St. Louis Browns on Aug. 19, 1951, a \u201cmagic moment\u201d in baseball occurred, according to Spokane\u2019s Tom Keefe.<\/p>\n
After four consecutive balls \u2013 the strike zone is significantly smaller and harder to hit for a short batter \u2013 Gaedel, 26, became the shortest person in history to play in a Major League Baseball game with a single plate appearance.<\/p>\n
Seventy-five years to the day, that unforgettable ball game magic will continue at O\u2019Doherty\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the thing; Eddie\u2019s story is terrific, but the lighthearted nature that Tom has brought here, and he brings to the event, it\u2019s a really wholesome, fun deal,\u201d said O\u2019Doherty\u2019s owner Tim O\u2019Doherty, while sitting at one of the pub booths with Keefe.<\/p>\n
With free \u201cdiamond jubilee\u201d Gaedel Society T-shirts and an annual rendition of \u201cTake Me Out to the Ball Game,\u201d the pub \u2013 which is already somewhat of a Gaedel shrine \u2013 will be filled with Gaedel fans for the \u201cEddie Gaedel Day\u201d event.<\/p>\n
Over the years, O\u2019Doherty said the Irish pub has collected Gaedel enthusiasts and regular bargoers who have stumbled upon the annual party.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Starting in Spokane, several other chapters of the Gaedel Society have now popped up, including one in Clondalkin, Ireland, Keefe said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I tell people is that whenever one or more gather in Eddie\u2019s honor, on his day, and lift a pint and invoke the words: \u2018Ball 1, ball 2, ball 3, ball 4 \u2013 take a walk, Eddie,\u2019 that is an Eddie Gaedel Society club,\u201d Keefe laughed.<\/p>\n
Keefe first learned about Gaedel as a Little Leaguer and was immediately taken with his story.<\/p>\n
Gaedel was brought to the field by Browns\u2019 owner Bill Veeck, who O\u2019Doherty 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought for a person who had never played baseball before could go up to the plate in a major league baseball game is incredible\u201d Keefe said. \u201cI just couldn\u2019t get it out of my head about how cool it was that he\u2019d gone up there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
For the 65th anniversary of \u201cEddie Gaedel Day,\u201d the Cardinals distributed 32,000 Gaedel bobbleheads with some making their way to Spokane at O\u2019Doherty\u2019s, Keefe said.<\/p>\n
For Keefe, baseball should be played because it\u2019s fun \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne 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,\u201d Keefe said. \u201cSo I\u2019ve always really admired the fact that you play as long as you can \u2013 hardly anyone makes it in the big leagues \u2013 and to see that Eddie Gaedel moment, it\u2019s just a magic moment for baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gaedel\u2019s \u201cmagic moment\u201d is just one of a million moments that have occurred in the sport\u2019s lengthy history. That\u2019s what makes it so special.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey happen all the time,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s the thing about baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel stepped up to bat for the St. Louis Browns on Aug. 19, 1951, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":["post-861783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}