"sloppy seconds" (UNCLASSIFIED)

Mullins, Bill AMRDEC Bill.Mullins at US.ARMY.MIL
Tue Dec 16 19:19:55 UTC 2008


Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE


> >
>   In fact,
> it's been claimed (on some sports blog I was reading) that
> Avery is the only player of a major sport whose actions in a
> game one day that, while legal, so antagonized everyone
> involved that a rule was created the very next day to make
> the practice in question illegal.

Eddie Gaedel was a midget who had one at-bat with the St. Louis Browns
on Sunday, 8/19/1951.
He drew a walk.

Two days later, AL president Will Harridge voided his contract.
(Wikipedia wrongly says that it was on "the next day", the 20th, when
Harridge did so.)

Later that year, he made a plate appearance in Syracuse as a paid player
in an amateur game.  He struck out, leading to the wonderful headline
"Midget Fans upset as Midget Fans".  They don't write them like they
used to . . . .

Bill Mullins
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

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