Little Big Leaguer walks into St. Louis, baseball history

ST. LOUIS – A showman looking to put butts in the seats of his baseball stadium. A diminutive entertainer searching for a place to fit in. Together, the two men pulled off one of the greatest stunts in Major League history.

This past June, Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe signed Senate Bill 348 into law, designating Branson the “Live Entertainment Capital of Missouri.” The bill included dozens of provisions for honorary awareness days, weeks, and months, and recognizing people, places, and causes across the state.

One designation tucked in the bill recognizes an important moment, not only in St. Louis history, but baseball history at large.

With the flick of his pen, Gov. Kehoe and Missouri will forever recognize Aug. 19 as Eddie Gaedel Day across the state, celebrating Gaedel's famed—or infamous, depending on who you ask—at-bat for the St. Louis Browns. You see, Gaedel holds the grand distinction of being the shortest Major League player in history.

Eddie Gaedel, the star

Edward "Eddie" Gaedele was born June 8, 1925, in the Chicago area. By the time Eddie turned three, his parents noticed their boy was not growing like siblings. The family lived in the Garfield Ridge and Back of the Yards neighborhoods in Chicago, where Eddie grew up. Because of his small stature, young Eddie found himself the target of ridicule.

When the United States entered World War II, Eddie found work as a riveter, utilizing his size to access hard-to-reach places in aircraft. He became a performer and joined the American Guild of Variety Artists.

Gaedel (it’s unclear when the third “e” was dropped from his last name) was hired after the war to portray the Mercury Records mascot, donning a winged helmet like the company’s Mercury Man logo.

As a fully-grown adult, Gaedel stood 3'7" tall and weighed between 60 and 65 pounds.

Bill Veeck, the showman

Bill Veeck bought the St. Louis Browns "in a moment of madness" in 1951, according to his autobiography, "Veeck—As In Wreck." He purchased the team from Bill DeWitt Sr., who remained with the club as team vice president.

Described by Veeck as "a collection of old rags and tags," the Browns were a hapless, moribund franchise by the time he became owner. The Browns recorded just 11 winning seasons in their 52 seasons in St. Louis. They claimed the American League pennant only once en route to losing the 1944 World Series to their intracity rivals, the Cardinals, four games to two.

Veeck, who owned the former Cleveland Indians franchise from 1946 to 1949, knew how to grab headlines or manufacture spectacle. Veeck had a portable fence installed in center field at Municipal Stadium that could be moved depending on their opponents. After the 1947 season, the American League instituted a rule stating teams could not adjust the distance of the outfield wall during a season.

Cleveland also became the first American League team to break the color barrier under Veeck's watch, signing Larry Doby from the Negro Leagues in 1947, less than three months after Jackie Robinson debuted with the Brooklyn Dodges. Veeck signed aging Negro League legend Satchel Paige the following season. Paige, who became the oldest rookie in MLB history at age 42, finished the season with a 6-1 record and a 2.48 ERA.

In late 1949, Veeck's first wife divorced him, which drove him to sell the club.

A meeting and a proposition

The 1951 season happened to be the 50th anniversary of both the American League and St. Louis beer maker, and Browns radio sponsor, Falstaff Brewing. Veeck wanted to do something special to commemorate both. According to Veeck, no one at Falstaff knew the company's birthday, so he settled on Sunday, Aug. 19, a doubleheader against the Detroit Tigers.

Veeck promised Falstaff executives a big surprise; one that would get them national attention. Just one problem—Veeck didn't know what the surprise would be.

The inspiration for Veeck's grand stunt differs. Some had claimed he took the idea from James Thurber's short story "You Could Look It Up," published in The Saturday Evening Post in April 1941, about a little person getting an at-bat in a doubleheader in St. Louis.

In his autobiography, Veeck said he got the idea from former New York Giants manager John McGraw. Veeck was just a boy when McGraw would pay an occasional visit to his father, who happened to be president of the Chicago Cubs. As Veeck tells it, McGraw kept a short, hunchback fellow by the name of Eddie Morrow around the club. Morrow wasn't a ballplayer, just a good luck charm in McGraw's eyes. The Giants manager joked that he would send Morrow up to the plate during a game.

Whichever version you choose to believe is your business.

Veeck contacted the booking agent from his days as the Cleveland owner and asked him to find an athletic dwarf who would be up for anything. Veeck kept his plans close to the vest.

The agent found Gaedel and sent him from Chicago to St. Louis to meet Veeck.

"Eddie, you'll be the only midget in the history of the game," Veeck remembers telling Gaedel. "You'll be appearing before thousands of people. Your name will go into the record books for all time. You'll be famous, Eddie. Eddie, you'll be immortal."

After the sales pitch, Veeck picked up a toy bat and crouched down to demonstrate the batting stance he wanted Gaedel to take. At the time, the strike zone extended from a batter's armpits to his knees. As of this writing, it's "the area over home plate from the midpoint between a batter's shoulders and the top of the uniform pants."

With Gaedel in the hunched over stance, the little man's strike zone measured approximately 1.5 inches. Gaedel practiced the stance in the batter's box at Sportsman's Park with Veeck watching from the stands. Panic then set in as Veeck watched Gaedel start to take some practice swings. Veeck threatened to shoot Gaedel on the spot if he swung at a pitch during the game.

Gaedel was sent back to Chicago with instructions to return on Aug. 18. Veeck went to work handling everything else.

The uniform was purloined from the Browns' batboy – 9-year-old Bill DeWitt Jr. The number 1/8 was stitched on the back. Veeck drew up two different contracts: a performer's contract and a Major League contract.

The dates of the contracts vary slightly, depending who you hear it from. Some say they were signed on Aug. 17 but Veeck says they were signed the following day on Aug. 18. Either way, the baseball contract arrived at the offices of Major League Baseball when it was closed. The contract wouldn't be under scrutiny until Monday morning.

One at-bat for baseball immortality

More than 18,000 people turned out at Sportsman's Park for Sunday's doubleheader, the biggest crowd of the season. Falstaff execs and fans were promised a birthday celebration of the brewery. Veeck said fans were given a free can of beer, a slice of cake, a box of ice cream, and salt-and-pepper shakers in the shape of a bottle of Falstaff.

The Tigers took game one of the doubleheader by a score of 5-2. Between games, Veeck held his Falstaff birthday party, which included a caravan of old vehicles circling the field, Satchel Paige playing the drums at home plate, and various circus acts at each of the bases. Browns staff wheeled a large paper-mache cake onto the field, with Eddie Gaedel hidden inside. Gaedel popped out of the cake and ran from the field, drawing cheers and laughter from the crowd.

Falstaff management was less than impressed, thinking Veeck had sold them the proverbial bill of goods. Veeck kept his composure, knowing what was to come.

At the start of the second game, the Tigers were retired with runners on first and second at the top of the first inning. Gaedel emerged from the dugout with three tiny bats and began swinging them around.

As the crowd began to piece things together, the stadium announcer declared Gaedel was batting in place of center fielder Frank Saucier. The crowd cheered with delight and Tigers batterymates Bob Swift and Bob Cain laughed. The umpire waved Browns manager Zack Taylor onto the field to explain himself. Taylor brought a copy of Gaedel's Major League contract with him, along with the telegram to MLB headquarters stating he'd been signed, and a copy of the Browns active roster. Everything was properly dated.

Satisfied, the home plate umpire motioned Gaedel toward the batter's box and called for the game to continue. Bob Cain then needed a moment to collect himself and consult with Swift on how to pitch to Gaedel. Cain made a serious effort with his first two pitches, which sailed over Gaedel's head. According to a fan account, Cain could barely stay on the mound he was laughing so hard. The final two pitches were also far afield, and Gaedel earned a walk.

The crowd roared as Gaedel trotted to first base, stopping every so often to remove his cap to the fans. After landing on first base, manager Zack Taylor sent Jim Delsing out to be the pinch runner. Gaedel took his sweet time leaving the field, soaking in the adulation from the crowd. Veeck, meanwhile, received congratulations from Falstaff management for the surprising stunt.

Unfortunately, the Browns couldn't score Delsing, and went on to lose the second game to the Tigers, 6-2.

For that one at-bat, Eddie Gaedel earned $100 while Veeck drew the ire of Major League Baseball and many sportswriters across the country, who decried the incident as tawdry and beneath the game. The president of the American League voided Gaedel's contract on Monday morning and MLB struck him from the record.

Veeck lobbied on Gaedel's behalf and, after the following season, the at-bat was restored for posterity.

Gaedel’s relationship with Veeck didn’t end with the at-bat stunt in St. Louis. When Veeck purchased the Chicago White Sox in 1959, Gaedel made a few other public appearances, on the field in the stands.

On May 26, 1959, Gaedel and three other little people, all dressed as Martian invaders and, carrying ray guns, landed in a helicopter at Comiskey Park. The foursome scurried from the helicopter and delivered the weapons to Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio, supposedly the two shortest men on the White Sox, to help them battle their giant opponents.

After receiving complaints from fans that vendors were blocking their views of the game, Veeck recruited Gaedel and other little people for a game on April 19, 1961, to act as replacement servers. It would be Gaedel's last public appearance before his death.

The fate of the Browns and Sportman's Park

In Veeck's three years as owner, the club amassed a dismal win-loss record of 170-292. By the end of the 1953 season, attendance had dwindled to fewer than 4,000 fans per game. Things were so grim that season that the Browns had to ration or reuse baseballs. Things were so grim that season that the Browns had to ration or reuse baseballs.

Veeck, who believed St. Louis could not support two baseball teams, had a glimmer of hope in 1952 when Cardinals owner Fred Saigh was indicted for tax evasion and agreed to sell the team. For a moment, it looked like the Cardinals would relocate to Houston until Saigh found a local buyer – Gussie Busch.

With the wealth of the Anheuser-Busch brewing empire backing the Cardinals, Veeck knew he was beat and sought to move. He sold Sportsman's Park to the Cardinals and attempted to relocate the franchise to Milwaukee, the Browns' original home. However, the Boston Braves, a National League team, had first claim to the city. Veeck made a large, six-figure offer to owner Lou Perini, but Perini moved the Braves to Milwaukee just three weeks before the start of the 1953 season.

Meanwhile, Baltimore elected and civic leaders wanted to bring baseball back to the city, and discussed relocating the Browns to the Charm City. However, owners in the American League blocked the move, likely still bothered by Veeck's antics. In the end, Veeck sold his stake in the team for $2.5 million (equivalent to $30.1 million in 2025), the Browns moved, and were renamed to the Orioles.

The Cardinals remained in Sportman's Park, now renamed Busch Stadium in honor of August "Gussie" Busch Jr. after MLB Commissioner Ford Frick rebuked the owner's desire to rename the facility Budweiser Stadium.

The stadium, Busch Stadium I, hosted its final World Series in 1964 as the Cardinals beat the Yankees in seven games. Construction on Busch Memorial Stadium (Busch II) in downtown St. Louis began in May 1964.

Busch I, nee Sportman's Park, hosted its final ballgame on May 8, 1966. The Cardinals lost to the New York Giants, 10-5. After the game, home plate was put on a helicopter and flown to its new home downtown. Gussie Busch donated the property to what is now the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater St. Louis. The grandstand and stadium were demolished in 1966. The field is still in use today.

Veeck, who died in 1986, was posthumously inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991.

An unfortunate end for baseball's little big leaguer

In a 2001 episode of ESPN's Outside the Lines commemorating the 60th anniversary of the stunt, family members made note that Gaedel had a passion for drink, perhaps due to frustration over his height, and would get into fights.

On June 18, 1961, Gaedel, now unemployed, was drinking at a Chicago bowling alley and, whether it was in the building or on his walk home, got into an argument with strangers. Those folks followed Gaedel home and attacked him outside his apartment. Beaten bloody, Gaedel eventually made his way inside his apartment and climbed into his bed. His mother found him dead in his bed. It's believed Gaedel, who had an enlarged heart, suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of the beating. He was 36.

Gaedel was buried near his father in Saint Mary Catholic Cemetery and Mausoleum, located in Evergreen Park just outside Chicago. His mother died in 1982 and was buried with them.

Only one person from the baseball world attended the funeral service – Bob Cain, the now-retired pitcher who walked Gaedel during that historic at-bat. Cain drove more than 300 miles to be there and, according to Outside the Lines, would include the moment on his Christmas cards until he passed away in 1997 at age 72.

Gaedel's jersey can be found at the Cardinals Hall of Fame and Museum. A cutout of Gaedel in the batter's box is on display at Cooperstown, in the same glass case as the uniform of 6'11" Jon Rauch, the tallest player in Major League history.

It's happened before

While Gaedel is almost certain to hold the title of smallest player in Major League history in perpetuity, he is not the only little person to step up to the plate in a pro baseball game.

In September 1905, actor and vaudeville performer Jerry Sullivan, who stood all of 3’11” feet tall, was sent in as a pinch hitter by the Buffalo Bisons in the ninth inning of a double header against the Baltimore Orioles in the Eastern League. Sullivan, who carried a regulation-sized bat to the plate, is said to have hit a single off pitcher Fred Burchell. Sullivan was driven in that inning, but the Bisons ultimately lost, 10-6. Sullivan, 31 at the time of the stunt, retired with a perfect batting average, having recorded just one plate appearance.