A Short Story: Baseball Group Gathers in Pasadena to Celebrate a Big Little Man

Sixty-four years ago this week, a little man walked up to the plate in St. Louis’ Sportsmans Park and walked into major league baseball history.

St. Louis Browns’ manager Bill Veeck (yes, as in “wreck”) needed to shake up the attendance for the struggling St. Louis Browns, second stringers in town next to the respectable St. Louis Cardinals. So, he surreptitiously signed and brought in 26 year-old journeyman circus performer Eddie Gaedel, to bat against the Detroit Tigers in the second game of an afternoon double header.

Only seven people in the universe knew what was going to take place that day.

The umpire pitched a fit, the opposing manager had a fit to match, and when Gaedel’s official American League baseball contract was shown to them, it was on.

Gaedel, who was 3′ 7″ and wore uniform number “1/8”, drew a walk on four pitches, and trotted off into history. He didn’t even get to run the bases, as the manager put in a pinch runner. But his spot in the eternal lineup of baseball legends was secured.

It’s the stuff that baseball fanatics can’t get enough of, and so, last night, the Eddie Gaedel Society Los Angeles Chapter Three, hosted by the Baseball Reliquary, a Pasadena-based group of baseball fans, afficionados, and amateur baseball historians, got together in a South Pasadena pub to re-tell the tale and celebrate a “little” bit of history.

Sportswriter Bill Christine was 13 and in the stands that afternoon in St. Louis, and eagerly shared his story before the group. He is, by his own estimate, one of only three people left in the world who were at that game.

“I remember like it was yesterday,” he told us. He walked us through a myriad of details from that afternoon, but if we related them here, this wouldn’t be a short story, would it?

So we all sang, traded business cards and baseball trivia, and walked off into the night, just a little taller.

 

For a short history of Eddie Gaedel, see “Eddie Gaedel Day” in South Pasadena.

For more, visit http://www.baseballreliquary.org/