The Shortest Man in MLB History

SIAP or if you know about it, but an older co worker was telling me a story today of Eddie Gaedel, who was the shortest player ever to play in an MLB game. The St. Louis Brown's really needed a base runner, so they let Eddie take care of the rest.

WIKI ARTICLE

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Gaedel made a single plate appearance and was walked with four consecutive balls before being replaced by a pinch-runner at first base. His jersey, bearing the uniform number "?1/8", is displayed in the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

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Immediately, umpire Ed Hurley called for Browns manager Zack Taylor. Veeck and Taylor had the foresight to have a copy of Gaedel's contract on hand,[13] as well as a copy of the Browns' active roster, which had room for Gaedel's addition.

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The contract had been filed late in the day on Friday, August 17.

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When Veeck got the impression that Gaedel might be tempted to swing at a pitch, the owner warned Gaedel that he had taken out a $1 million insurance policy on his life, and that he would be standing on the roof of the stadium with a rifle prepared to kill Gaedel if he even looked like he was going to swing.[

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With Bob Cain on the mound—laughing at the absurdity that he actually had to pitch to Gaedel[12]—and catcher Bob Swift catching on his knees, Gaedel took his stance.[1] The Tigers catcher offered his pitcher a piece of strategy: "Keep it low." Cain delivered four consecutive balls, all high (the first two pitches were legitimate attempts at strikes; the last two were half-speed tosses). Gaedel took his base (stopping twice during his trot to bow to the crowd) and was replaced by pinch-runner Jim Delsing. The 18,369 fans gave Gaedel a standing ovation.

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Imagine something like this happened today