{"id":863925,"date":"2026-08-19T16:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863925\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T16:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:10:14","slug":"i-felt-like-babe-ruth-baseballs-3ft-7in-pinch-hitter-75-years-on-mlb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/863925\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I felt like Babe Ruth\u2019: baseball\u2019s 3ft 7in pinch-hitter, 75 years on | MLB"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bill Veeck had a track record for designing some of the most elaborate marketing promotions during his four stints as a Major League Baseball owner, including an exploding scoreboard<\/a> in 1960. But his most outlandish publicity stunt was sending 3ft 7in inch pinch-hitter Eddie Gaedel to the plate at a game 75 years ago Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Sporting uniform number 1\/8, Gaedel was greeted with a standing ovation at Sportsman\u2019s Park in St Louis as he came to bat in the second game of a doubleheader on 19 August 1951 for the St Louis Browns. A famous Associated Press photo<\/a> shows Detroit Tigers catcher Bob Swift sitting on his knees with a ball in his glove, towering over Gaedel and his tiny strike zone. Not surprisingly, he walked on four pitches, and was immediately lifted for a pinch-runner.<\/p>\n

\u201cDetroit Tiger pitcher Bob Cain walked the first St Louis Brownie to face him today \u2013 he didn\u2019t know what else to do with him. He was a midget,\u201d the AP reported in a story that ran in newspapers across the country.<\/p>\n

Many baseball traditionalists clutched their pearls about the stunt \u2013 more about undermining the seriousness of the national pastime, than out of any concern about exploitation, which would surely derail such a promotion today.<\/p>\n

Years later, Veeck (rhymes with wreck) stood by the stunt, in words that would cause people with modern sensibilities to cringe.<\/p>\n

\u201cWere it in my power to turn back the clock, I\u2019d never send a midget to bat,\u201d he said<\/a>. \u201cNo, I\u2019d use nine of the little fellows, including the designated hitter.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Veeck\u2019s defense, he used similarly politically incorrect language to describe himself. The owner, who got around on a wooden leg after a second world war injury that cost him his right leg below the knee, insisted on calling himself a \u201ccripple\u201d.<\/p>\n

At the time of the Gaedel stunt, Veeck was a new owner of the sad-sack Browns, looking to inject some life into a franchise that always played second-fiddle to the city\u2019s more popular baseball team, the Cardinals. In fact, after winning their lone American League pennant, in 1944, the Browns lost the World Series<\/a> to their crosstown rivals.<\/p>\n

Veeck had a much better run in his first stint as an MLB<\/a> owner, when he ran the Cleveland Indians (now Guardians) in the late 1940s. In 1947, he became the first AL owner to sign a Black player, Larry Doby, just three months after Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier with the National League\u2019s Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1948, Cleveland won the World Series \u2013 still the most recent one in franchise history.<\/p>\n

Eddie Gaedel sits on the bench at Sportsman\u2019s Park in St Louis. Photograph: Transcendental Graphics\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

But the Browns were another story. By 1951, when Veeck bought the team, they were coming off back-to-back seventh-place finishes in the eight-team AL. At the time of the Gaedel promo, they were in dead last.<\/p>\n

To goose attendance, Veeck had earlier announced a celebration would take place at the team\u2019s 19 August doubleheader to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the league. More than 18,000 fans came out<\/a> \u2013 a huge crowd for a team who averaged less than 4,000 fans a game<\/a>, also last in the league.<\/p>\n

But nobody knew about the unorthodox headliner.<\/p>\n

Between games of the doubleheader, the Browns featured<\/a> a procession of vintage 1901 cars and a one-man show by Max Patkin, known as the \u201cClown Prince of Baseball\u201d. There were other promotions that afternoon, including<\/a> free beer to every adult at the ballpark, acrobats and a band featuring legendary pitcher Satchel Paige on drums. The icing on the cake, so to speak, was Gaedel emerging from a giant papier-mache cake. Still, his place on the roster was a well-kept secret.<\/p>\n

Veeck paid Gaedel, who was identified in news coverage as a 26-year-old stunt man from Chicago, $100 for the baseball gig<\/a>. That was serious money back then: nearly $1,300 in today\u2019s dollars.<\/p>\n

Gaedel wore a jersey that belonged to the team\u2019s 9-year-old batboy<\/a>, Bill DeWitt Jr, the son of team vice-president Bill DeWitt. Today, DeWitt Jr is the 84-year-old owner of the Cardinals.<\/p>\n

The team\u2019s regular center fielder, Jim Delsing, was initially upset at being left out of the starting lineup for the second straight game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat\u2019s going on?\u2019\u2019 he asked manager Zack Taylor, as Delsing recounted to Murray Chass of the New York Times<\/a> in a 2001 story to mark the 50th anniversary of the stunt.<\/p>\n

\u201cRelax,\u201d Taylor responded, \u201cyou\u2019ll find out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four pitches later, Delsing came on the field to pinch-run for Gaedel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI trot over there, he gets off the bag, pats me on the derriere, says good luck and walks back to the dugout. That was the last I saw him,\u201d said Delsing, who died in 2006<\/a> at the age of 80.<\/p>\n

Eddie Gaedel, the smallest player to appear in a Major League Baseball game, is photographed at work in 1951 in St Louis. Photograph: Transcendental Graphics\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Gaedel entered the game in the bottom of the first inning as a pinch-hitter for leadoff man Frank Saucier. Umpire Ed Hurley initially tried to block Gaedel from coming to bat, Saucier recalled in a 1982 interview<\/a> with the Times.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy, you can\u2019t play in this game,\u201d the ump told him.<\/p>\n

Then Taylor, came out from the dugout.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s under contract,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet me see it,\u201d Hurley said, and Taylor showed it to him.<\/p>\n

So Gaedel got his at-bat, but it turned out to be the proverbial cup of coffee. Two days later, AL president Will Harridge voided his contract.<\/p>\n

Still, the stunt man made the most of his time in the limelight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he went down to first base, he stopped two or three times and took his hat off, and bowed to the crowd,\u201d said Saucier, who died last year<\/a> at the age of 98. \u201c\u2018When he came back to the dugout, I said, \u2018Eddie, you really kind of clowned that up a bit, going to first, didn\u2019t you?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd he said, \u2018Man, I felt like Babe Ruth.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaedel\u2019s walk didn\u2019t have much of an effect on the game. The Tigers won the game 6-2, to complete the doubleheader sweep.<\/p>\n

Veeck had another zany promotion less than a week later, when he invited fans to make strategic decisions, such as whether to steal, bunt or play the infield in. Dubbed \u201cGrandstand Managers Night\u201d, it had fans vote by applauding choices posted on placards, in an early version of crowdsourcing decisions.<\/p>\n

Taylor, the manager, sat in a rocking chair with his feet up, sipping a drink.<\/p>\n

It actually worked. The Browns beat the Philadelphia Athletics that evening, just one of 52 victories for a Browns team who had the worst record in baseball that year.<\/p>\n

The Browns lasted just two more seasons in St Louis, before moving to Baltimore to become the Orioles in 1954.<\/p>\n

By then, Veeck had sold the team, but he would return with two stints as owner of the White Sox, in the late 1950s\/early \u201960s and 1970s. After selling the team a second time, he would sit in the bleachers at Wrigley Field to watch the Chicago Cubs, of whom his father had been team president early in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Despite owning a lifetime MLB pass, Veeck spent his own dough on the bleacher seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI pay for my tickets so I can complain,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Frederic J Frommer, a sports and politics historian who has written for the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Atlantic and other national publications, is working on a book on 1970s baseball.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bill Veeck had a track record for designing some of the most elaborate marketing promotions during his four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":863926,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-863925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863925","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863925"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863925\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/863926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}