All baseball history buffs know about Eddie Gaedel, the man who stood 3 foot 7 inches and was brought in as a pinch hitter for the St Louis Browns on August 19, 1951. It was a stunt by Browns owner Bill Veeck, known for his off-the-wall publicity moves. Gaedel walked, of course and his mark as the shortest man to ever play baseball still stands.
But I learned something the other day that kinda blew my mind. There is a descendant of Gaedel’s that is playing the game of baseball today. Kyle Gaedel is Eddie’s great-nephew and plays for Valparaiso University.
The irony of it all? Not only is Kyle Gaedel a fine ballplayer (he was drafted by the Rays out of high school in 2008) but he is a statuesque 6 foot 4 inches.
The Valparaiso University athletics web site did a spotlight on him last year.