A Big Story

Jay Edson remembers one of baseball’s greatest gags as if it were yesterday.

In fact, it was 50 years ago, on Aug. 19, 1951, that the late Bill Veeck, the maverick impresario of owners, sent 3-foot-7, 65-pound Eddie Gaedel to bat as a pinch-hitter for his St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park.

That anniversary was marked by a reenactment Saturday at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y.

Edson, 77, of Naples, Fla., is an operations manager for promoter Bob Arum’s Top Rank boxing organization and a former referee. Then, he was, using his term, a “gofer” in the Browns’ public relations office.

Veeck sent Edson to bring Gaedel from his Chicago home to St. Louis, and then keep him hidden before his memorable appearance.

” . . . Mr. Veeck sent me on what he called a secret mission,” Edson said. “I remember him saying, ‘And if anything leaks out about this, I’ll see that you never work in sports again.’ ”

Edson said he drove Gaedel to St. Louis in Veeck’s car, then carried him into a hotel wrapped in a blanket.

“I didn’t put him down even to close the car door or open the elevator,” Edson said. “Fortunately, there wasn’t anyone else on the elevator and the room was only two floors up.”

Edson kept the wraps on Gaedel until the next day.

“I remember Xavier Cugat and Abbe Lane were at the hotel that night, and Gaedel wanted to go see the show,” Edson said. “I called Mr. Veeck and he said, ‘Absolutely not.’ We didn’t leave the room until the next day.”

Edson said Gaedel chose one of two pint-sized Brown uniforms that were available, picking the one with the “1/8” on the back. Then Edson slipped Gaedel into the ballpark through a side entrance, again with Gaedel wrapped in the blanket.

“When that little one waddled up those three steps from the dugout and went out to home plate, you could hear Mr. Veeck laughing all the way from the press box,” Edson said. “He was really happy we had kept it a secret.”

Umpire Ed Hurley called Brown Manager Zack Taylor to home plate for an explanation, but Detroit’s Bob Cain was ordered to pitch to Gaedel after the discussion ended. Predictably, Gaedel walked on four pitches, then was replaced by a pinch-runner at first.

“It was Eddie Gaedel’s 15 minutes of fame,” Edson said. “Nothing like that could ever happen today.”