Eddie Gaedel
Dwarf baseball player
Died when: 36 years 10 days (432 months)Star Sign: Gemini
Edward Carl Gaedel (June 8, 1925 – June 18, 1961) was the smallest player to appear in a Major League Baseball game. Gaedel gained recognition in the second game of a St.
Louis Browns doubleheader on August 19, 1951. Weighing 60 pounds (27 kg) and standing 3 feet 7 inches (109 cm) tall, he became the shortest player in the history of the Major Leagues.
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. St.
Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck, in his 1962 autobiography Veeck – As in Wreck, said of Gaedel, "He was, by golly, the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball.
He was also the only one."