Word: gaedel
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...smack his lips and go back to watching the game. You give 1,000 cans to one guy, and there is always the outside possibility that 50,000 people will talk about it." In St. Louis, Veeck enraged baseball purists by sending Midget (3 ft. 7 in.) Eddie Gaedel up to bat against the Detroit Tigers. League President Will Harridge instantly wrote midgets out of baseball-and that was all Veeck needed. At 5 ft. 6 in., he insisted, should Yankee Shortstop Phil Rizzuto be classed as "a short ballplayer or a tall midget"? And "are we to assume that...
Died. Eddie Gaedel, 36, big-league baseball's only midget (3 ft. 7 in.), hired in 1951 by promotion-prone Impresario Bill Veeck, then boss of the fanless, feckless St. Louis Browns; in Chicago. In his one time at bat (against the Detroit Tigers) during his brief playing career, Gaedel drew a walk. A few days later, after Veeck had threatened to use him as a pinch hitter every time the bases were loaded. League President Will Harridge canceled Gaedel's contract "in the best interest of baseball...