Long-time baseball fans have certainly heard the story of Eddie Gaedel, a 3’7" midget who pinch hit for the St. Louis Browns in 1951, drawing a walk in his only plate appearance. He signed a contract the same weekend that he entered his game, meaning that the American League had not had time to review his contract. The league voided his contract shortly afterward, claiming that he was making a mockery of the game. Nowadays, the league reviews contracts in a more expedient manner.
My question is, what would prevent a similar stunt from happening again today? Did the league impose a minimum height for its players? Or is it just not worth a team’s while to sign a one-dimensional player whose only function would be to draw a base on balls in a pinch-hitting appearance? In my opinion, it would be silly to use a roster spot and pay such a player a major league salary, but some executive may disagree.
I’m pretty sure the commissioner would simply not approve the contract.
Minnie Minoso broke into Major League baseball in 1949. He played until 1964 before moving to the Mexican League. He came back as coach for the White Sox and played in a game or two in 1976 getting a hit after age 50. He played in another game in 1980 becoming the second player to appear in 5 different decades. In 1990, the White Sox signed him to a contract in an attempt to get him to be the only player to ever appear in 6 decades. He would have been 64 and 10 months or so. Commisioner Vincent wouldn’t approve the contract.
If such a player were approved, and if he really did draw a walk every at-bat, he would be the greatest batter in the entire history of the game, past and future. Absolutely that’d be worth it, especially in the AL where you could put him on DH and not care about his lack of fielding.
Gaedal couldn’t hit, couldn’t run, couldn’t field. A single walk and he’s out for a pinch-runner.
Randy Johnson was as complete a player as is expected of a pitcher.
You bring him in when the bases are loaded. If he’s good for a run every plate appearance, that’s not too shabby, even if it’s only one PA max per game.
Not a publicity stunt per se, but Charlie O. Finley’s A’s had Herb Washington, a “designated runner,” in 1974 and 1975.
Washington was a star sprinter, and had been a champion at the University of Michigan, and held several world records. He hadn’t played baseball since high school, and Finley didn’t expect him to do anything except run, so he was truly a one-dimensional player.
He played in 105 games, and wound up stealing 31 bases, but he never had an official plate appearance.
You’re kidding, right? Johnson is as far from being a mockery as you can get. Five time Cy Young award winner, World Series co-MVP, oldest pitcher to throw a perfect game, Hall of Famer. 22 years in the majors. Holds the career record for strikeouts by a southpaw.
Even if it was a guaranteed walk, that means you also lose a starting player for the rest of the game, so you need a replacement fielder/pinch runner ready to go. Are bases-loaded situations really common enough, and the guaranteed run vs a regular player at bat valuable enough, to give up a dedicated roster spot plus loss of a starter for half the game?
And, I wonder how guaranteed the walk is. Surely, some pitchers, throwing “fast” balls (without trying to get speed at all) could hit the shorter target 3 out of 7 times a moderate amount of time? It’s not like the Gaedel is going to be able to hit even the juiciest home-run-derby meatball of a pitch (contact, maybe, but with all the fielders on the infield, no chance of a base hit).
I recall reading somewhere (maybe it was Veeck’s memoir, maybe somewhere else) that for the first couple of pitches Cain was actually trying to pitch to Gaedel. As running coach’s photo shows, catcher Bob Cerf was on his knees, to get low enough to catch a Gaedel-size strike. Cain did end up throwing the ball way over Gaedel’s head.
And Ponch8’s cite suggests that a pitcher could throw a strike against him.
Baseball roster rules are substantially more complex now than they were in 1951. Even if the Commissioner of Baseball was a big fan of people with dwarfism, a roster spot is a valuable resource. A team can have only 40 people in the organization permitted to play major league ball (and that includes anyone on the short disabled lists) so to sign an Eddie Gaedel would require releasing a player of actual value though the expenditure of the 40-man-roster spot.
A major league pitcher could certainly throw strikes to a dwarf if he wasn’t laughing really hard. There’s nothing automatic about this out.
Again working off of the probably-unfounded assumption that he’d always walk, I’m not so sure that he actually would need a pinch-runner. Once he’s on base, one of a few things would happen: If the next batter also walks, he advances just like anyone else. If the next batter gets a homer, he scores just like anyone else. If the next batter hits an easily-caught fly or strikes out, then it doesn’t matter what Gaedel does. Only if the next batter gets a base hit would he need to run, and then you’re still basically advancing everyone ahead of him by two bases at the cost of one out. Plus, of course, if he really would be a guaranteed walk, then it wouldn’t be too hard to fill an entire lineup with players that short, and just keep on walking in runs for as long as you’d like.
It’s always reported that the pitcher walked him on four pitches but the whole thing was a big joke and the pitcher was probably being a good sport and playing along. I read one account where he actually rolled one of the balls to the catcher for laughs.
That might work for away games. You bat first and just keep walking in runs until the other side runs out of pitchers. But what about home games? An entire lineup of players under 4’ tall isn’t going to be much on defense and you have to take the field first at home.
