OT: Frank Saucier dead at 98

[RUhasarrived]

He batted only 14 times for the 1951 St.Louis Browns in his only MLB action,but his claim to fame was for an at bat that he didn't take.
He was supposed to be the leadoff hitter in the second game of a doubleheader at home vs the Tigers during the dog days of August with both teams buried in the standards.
The script then changed in a little way.
The announcer intoned:Batting for Saucier,No. one-eighth,Eddie Gaedel.
The crowd gasped as they had just seen the 3 foot 7 Gaedel jump out of a cake during a between games celebration of the 50th year of the American League.
The Browns' Manager,Zack Taylor,came up to home plate waiving a standard player contract for Gaedel.
The home plate umpire examined the contract,then waived Gaedel into the batter's box and for the Tigers' pitcher,Bob Cain,to begin pitching to Gaedel.
The catcher,Bob Swift,got down on his knees to catch,long before Manny Sanguillen brought the practice back.
It didn't work as Gaedel walked on four pitches.
The next day,Gaedel was barred from baseball forever by AL President,Will Harridge.
Gaedel died at only 36 as a result of a robbery in Chicago in 1961.He was given a front page obituary in the NY Times,one of two MLB players to receive with only one plate appearance.Walter Alston is the other.
As for Saucier,a pretty good minor league hitter, the 1950 Sporting News minor league player of the year, he was doing the Village People's other hit song in Korea for two years,never to return to the bigs.
He did a Rodney Dangerfield,getting a degree in math and physics at Missouri's Westminster College,going on to a career as an investment counselor.
The race doesn't always go to the swift.

 

[e5fdny]

Not a saucey guy.

 

[newwavedave1]

Where do you people come up with these obits?

 

[RUhasarrived]

Wikipedia,Baseball Almanac,et al.

 

[RUPete]

I was looking for a familial connection to the relief pitcher Kevin Saucier, but couldn't find one.

 

[colbert17]

Gaedel was banned from baseball just because of his size?? Too bad for him he wasn't around today. They'd call it "height shaming" and MLB would have a massive law suit on it's hands.

 

[RUhasarrived]

Browns owner,the iconic Bill Veeck,half seriously told reporters that he was going to ask for a ruling whether Phil Rizzuto was a short ballplayer or a tall midget.

 

[MADHAT1]

He batted only 14 times for the 1951 St.Louis Browns in his only MLB action,but his claim to fame was for an at bat that he didn't take.
He was supposed to be the leadoff hitter in the second game of a doubleheader at home vs the Tigers during the dog days of August with both teams buried in the standards.
The script then changed in a little way.
The announcer intoned:Batting for Saucier,No. one-eighth,Eddie Gaedel.
The crowd gasped as they had just seen the 3 foot 7 Gaedel jump out of a cake during a between games celebration of the 50th year of the American League.
The Browns' Manager,Zack Taylor,came up to home plate waiving a standard player contract for Gaedel.
The home plate umpire examined the contract,then waived Gaedel into the batter's box and for the Tigers' pitcher,Bob Cain,to begin pitching to Gaedel.
The catcher,Bob Swift,got down on his knees to catch,long before Manny Sanguillen brought the practice back.
It didn't work as Gaedel walked on four pitches.
The next day,Gaedel was barred from baseball forever by AL President,Will Harridge.
Gaedel died at only 36 as a result of a robbery in Chicago in 1961.He was given a front page obituary in the NY Times,one of two MLB players to receive with only one plate appearance.Walter Alston is the other.
As for Saucier,a pretty good minor league hitter, the 1950 Sporting News minor league player of the year, he was doing the Village People's other hit song in Korea for two years,never to return to the bigs.
He did a Rodney Dangerfield,getting a degree in math and physics at Missouri's Westminster College,going on to a career as an investment counselor.
The race doesn't always go to the swift.

>"Pitch him low." - Bob Swift, Tigers catcher, telling his pitcher, Bob Cain, how to pitch to Gaedel<

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Eddie_Gaedel

>"I laughed a little bit but I was a little angry. I'd have given my right arm just to have gotten one strike on him. Swift kept trying to encourage me to get the ball lower. Veeck had told Gaedel that he would shoot him if he swung at a pitch, but it looked like he was itching to swing if I'd gotten the ball any lower. But I walked him..." - Bob Cain, to Danny Peary, We Played The Game<

https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Bob_Cain