Interesting Question of the Day – 24 June 2019
This is Eddie Gaedel, the shortest player ever to play Major League Baseball.
How tall was he?
The first new player to comment on the website with the correct answer within 1 inch or 3 cm wins a free drink at their next iQ Trivia show.
3 foot 7 or 1.09m.
There’s a reason we cropped the photo where we did.
Now do you know what happened at his only plate appearance?
The reason he was played (as well as a publicity gimmick) was to make a base on balls as the strike zone, below the letters and above the belt was miniscule and the pitchers would not be able to get a pitch into the zone. Unfortunately he swung and was either tagged out at first, caught or missed three pitches.
I was wrong. I checked and he did actually make a base on balls at his only appearance against Detroit for the Browns in 1951. His uniform number was “1/8”.
Yes he was under strict orders not to swing at anything. ANYTHING!