Cold Case: Who Killed Eddie Gaedel?
August 19, 1951: St. Louis Browns Manager Zack Taylor Ties Eddie Gaedel's Right Baseball Shoe..
The story of Eddie Gaedel’s one-time at bat as the only midget pinch hitter in big league history back on August 19, 1951 is one of baseball’s biggest travelers...
On August 19, 1951 at a double header between the hapless St Louis Browns and the Detroit Tigers, Eddie Gaedel became the shortest player (at 3 feet 7 inches) in the history of the Major Leagues. He made a single plate appearance as a St Louis Browns player and was walked with four consecutive balls (the strike zone was less than two inches) before being replaced by a pinch-runner at first base. His jersey, bearing the uniform number "1⁄8", is displayed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Gaedel was under strict orders not to attempt to move the bat off his shoulder. When Browns owner Bill Veeck, who masterminded the whole thing, got the impression that Gaedel might be tempted to swing at a pitch, he 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. It didn't matter. Tigers pitcher Bob Cain was laughing too hard to throw anything good.
Three years later the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles. Veeck and Gaedel did not make the move with the team....
On June 18, 1961, Gaedel, who had just turned 36, was mugged and beaten to death. Bob Cain, who'd pitched to Gaedel, was the only Major League Baseball figure to attend the funeral.
... A much less popular subject is the death of Eddie Gaedel nearly ten years later on June 18, 1961 in Chicago. Eddie’s mom found him dead in bed in his apartment on that date. He had a bruise and cuts near his left eye and bruises and cuts on his knees. The coroner’s report concluded that Eddie had died of a heart attack, probably caused by the trauma of physical assault upon his body in physical combat with an unknown other or others. The only fact ascertained by the police in their brief look at the case was that Eddie Gaedel may have gone to a nearby bowling alley the previous evening where he may have had too much to drink and may have either gotten into an argument at the alley or encountered an assailant on his walk home...
...there was no real evaluation performed on Eddie’s blood contents in the sketchy post-mortem that followed. Almost everything about his death had been concluded by the Chicago police from Eddie Gaedel’s reputation as a heavy drinker and combative personality.
Since money was missing, the CPD concluded that Eddie Gaedel had been attacked and robbed, but that he was able to make it home before collapsing and dying. The “evidence” of missing money is not spelled out as a missing wallet, nor do the CPD reports jump out and say how they knew how much cash Eddie had on him in the first place...
Nobody was identified as his assailant, and Eddie Gaedel's murder remains unsolved.
LINKS:
On this day 63 years ago, the 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel stepped up to the plate
Cold Case: Who Killed Eddie Gaedel?
Today’s Glimpse into the Horrible: Eddie Gaedel’s Death
August 19, 1951: St. Louis Browns Manager Zack Taylor Ties Eddie Gaedel's Right Baseball Shoe..
The story of Eddie Gaedel’s one-time at bat as the only midget pinch hitter in big league history back on August 19, 1951 is one of baseball’s biggest travelers...
On August 19, 1951 at a double header between the hapless St Louis Browns and the Detroit Tigers, Eddie Gaedel became the shortest player (at 3 feet 7 inches) in the history of the Major Leagues. He made a single plate appearance as a St Louis Browns player and was walked with four consecutive balls (the strike zone was less than two inches) before being replaced by a pinch-runner at first base. His jersey, bearing the uniform number "1⁄8", is displayed in the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Gaedel was under strict orders not to attempt to move the bat off his shoulder. When Browns owner Bill Veeck, who masterminded the whole thing, got the impression that Gaedel might be tempted to swing at a pitch, he 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. It didn't matter. Tigers pitcher Bob Cain was laughing too hard to throw anything good.
Three years later the Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles. Veeck and Gaedel did not make the move with the team....
On June 18, 1961, Gaedel, who had just turned 36, was mugged and beaten to death. Bob Cain, who'd pitched to Gaedel, was the only Major League Baseball figure to attend the funeral.
... A much less popular subject is the death of Eddie Gaedel nearly ten years later on June 18, 1961 in Chicago. Eddie’s mom found him dead in bed in his apartment on that date. He had a bruise and cuts near his left eye and bruises and cuts on his knees. The coroner’s report concluded that Eddie had died of a heart attack, probably caused by the trauma of physical assault upon his body in physical combat with an unknown other or others. The only fact ascertained by the police in their brief look at the case was that Eddie Gaedel may have gone to a nearby bowling alley the previous evening where he may have had too much to drink and may have either gotten into an argument at the alley or encountered an assailant on his walk home...
...there was no real evaluation performed on Eddie’s blood contents in the sketchy post-mortem that followed. Almost everything about his death had been concluded by the Chicago police from Eddie Gaedel’s reputation as a heavy drinker and combative personality.
Since money was missing, the CPD concluded that Eddie Gaedel had been attacked and robbed, but that he was able to make it home before collapsing and dying. The “evidence” of missing money is not spelled out as a missing wallet, nor do the CPD reports jump out and say how they knew how much cash Eddie had on him in the first place...
Nobody was identified as his assailant, and Eddie Gaedel's murder remains unsolved.
LINKS:
On this day 63 years ago, the 3-foot-7 Eddie Gaedel stepped up to the plate
Cold Case: Who Killed Eddie Gaedel?
Today’s Glimpse into the Horrible: Eddie Gaedel’s Death
