Eddie Gaedel - Legacy

Legacy

Gaedel is one of only five Major League players who drew a walk in their only plate appearance and never played the field. The first three all played in the 1910s: Dutch Schirick (Sept. 17, 1914 with the Browns), Bill Batsch (Sept. 9, 1916 with Pittsburgh) and Joe Cobb (April 25, 1918 with Detroit; Cobb was born Joseph Serafin and was unrelated to Tigers' star Ty Cobb). On June 24, 2007, Kevin Melillo of the Oakland Athletics, became the first player in over half a century to do so, against the New York Mets. Melillo remains active in the minor leagues, and still has a chance to get a major league at-bat.

Gaedel's one-day career has been the subject of programs on ESPN and the Baseball Network. He was mentioned by name in the lyrics of Terry Cashman's homage to 1950s baseball, "Talkin' Baseball (Willie, Mickey, and the Duke)." His at-bat was the No. 1 choice on a 1999 list of "Unusual and Unforgettable Moments" in baseball history published by the Sporting News.

Due to its scarcity, Gaedel's autograph now sells for more than Babe Ruth's. In his autobiography Veeck as in Wreck, Bill Veeck commemorated Gaedel as "the best darn midget who ever played big-league ball."

Gaedel's grandnephew Kyle Gaedele is also a ballplayer, drafted in the 32nd round by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2008 out of high school. The 6-foot-4 Gaedele chose instead to attend Valparaiso University; after hitting .373 as a sophomore in 2010, he was invited to play for the Madison Mallards of the summer collegiate Northwoods League. Kyle led the Mallards in home runs (9) and RBI (38) and went 3-for-4 in the league's All-Star Game. In the June 2011 MLB Draft, the San Diego Padres picked up Gaedele in the sixth round and assigned him to Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League. Despite a .203 average in 63 games, the Padres promoted Kyle to the Fort Wayne TinCaps of the Midwest League in 2012, where he hit .258, with 53 walks and 23 stolen bases.