Who?
Frank had a minor role in an infamous baseball incident.
Baseball team owner Bill Veeck was known for crazy promotions and grand, offbeat gestures. With a true love of the game and a wicked sense of humor, Veeck was one of the few executives who realized that baseball was supposed to be fun. Perhaps his most infamous scheme involved signing a Eddie Gaedel, 3’7″ man, to a contract.
No, not as a mascot or a good luck charm. As a player.
What does this have to do with Frank Saucier? Give me time, I’ll get there.
Veeck wanted to pull his stunt in a home game, of course, to take advantage of the hype. Since the home team always has to take the field first and the diminutive would-be slugger could not play the field, an expendable player would start the game and be listed as the lead-off hitter. When it was time for the home team to bat, the manager would announce that Mr. Expendable was being lifted for a pinch batsman, although I’m not sure that “lifted” is the right word here, given that the pinch hitter was Mr. Gaedel.
And Frank Saucier?
He was Mr. Expendable, the only man in major league history to be replaced by a little person.
The rest of his major league career consisted of 14 at bats and an .071 batting average.
So you think I’m making fun of the guy? You could not be more wrong. I came to praise Caesar, not to bury him. Frank Saucier was an amazing man. He was a naval officer at age 18. He was a genius student. He was a successful entrepreneur, and later a CEO. He was the kind of guy they name things after.
So you think he was good at everything but baseball? Wrong again. He was good at baseball. Really, really good. He once made the cover of The Sporting News, and had a lifetime minor league batting average of .380. (That’s not a typo. Three-fucking-eighty!)
What happened to all that potential? Long story. I covered the rest of the Frank Saucier story, including biographical info and all the inside details of the Gaedel incident, in an article at Uncle Scoopy’s Ballpark.
What I don’t like is when someone who went 1-14 in their Major League career gets dubbed “not good at baseball.” No he’s ridiculously good because he got 14 at bats in the Major Leagues. He’s obscenely good at baseball. Like those who make fun of Michael Jordan for not being a good baseball player. He went how many years without playing baseball or facing live pitching and he actually hit in the .220’s with a couple homers in the minors? That is actually insanely good.