Thursday, August 19, 2021

Cup of Coffee: 1951 Eddie Gaedel

This past March when we introduced our Java feature on Twitter. One of the first comments was from @HeavyJ28 who mentioned a very notable Cup of Coffee player, Eddie Gaedel.

Five months and 17 cups later we grant HeavyJ His Wish.

1951 Topps Eddie Gaedel

Today marks the 70th Anniversary of the Eddie Gaedel game. 

On August 19th 1951 Gaedel pinch hit for Frank Saucier in the bottom half of the first inning of a St Louis Browns Game versus the Detroit Tigers. The 3’7” Gaedel walked and then was removed for pinch runner Jim Delsing. The strategy did not help the Browns who lost 6-2.

His SABR Biography is worth a read, sometimes inspiring but mostly tragic (https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gaedeed01.shtml)

Canvas:

1951 Topps, the same year as the game. The image is based off of the AP Photo most baseball fans should find familiar. 

Eddie Gaedel 

For the game portion of the card we chose "WALK", in the top right we have Gaedel's uniform number 1/8, and across the bottom we have the date of the Game. 

Sources & Links

1 comment:

Fuji said...

What an awesome collectible! Very, very cool.

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