Eddie Gaedel
St. Louis Browns
Sportsman’s Park
August 19, 1951
Great News for You, Mr. Eddie Gaedel!
The Pecan Park Eagle has just received an unsolicited comment from Mr. Tom Keefe, the founder and President of The Eddie Gaedel Society. President Keefe discovered your modest ballad while perusing the archives of this esteemed Eagle history patron and now hopes to get his group to sing it at their fifth annual meeting next year at O’Doherty’s Bar in Spokane, Washington. Of course, we gave Mr. O’Keefe our best wishes in the the fond hope that they, indeed, shall do so. Sung to the theme and choral notes that back “Rudolph the Reed-Nosed Reindeer,” the song is both exalting in praise for you, Eddie, and also factual. It is also easy to sing if people have the words in front of them in the company of good friends, a shared love of you, a few beers, and a tavern state of mind.
Thank you too, Tom Keefe! “The Ballad of Eddie Gaedel” deserves to be immortalized by the group that now bears his good name and accomplishments down the hall of celebratory nights and far into the corners of all places that exist through the ages as memorials to the great ones! – To not get it done next year would be tantamount to Eddie having struck out back on August 19, 1951. We cannot allow that to happen!
That being said, here it is again, “The Ballad of Eddie Gaedel!”:
The Ballad of Eddie Gaedel
(All verse stanzas are in regular shade type and are sung to the main tune of “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer.” The two chorus stanzas, shown in bold type, are sung to the chorus tune from “Rudolph” that goes with “Then one foggy Christmas Eve, Santa came to say, etc.”)
by Bill McCurdy, 1999.
Bill Veeck, the Brownie owner,
Wore some very shiny clothes!
And if you saw his sport shirt,
You would even say, “It glows!”
All of the other owners,
Used to laugh and call him names!
They wouldn’t let poor Bill Veeck,
Join in any owner games!
(chorus)
Then one humid summer day,
Bill Veeck had to – fidget!
Got an idea that stirred his soul,
He decided to sign a – midget!
His name was Eddie Gae-del,
He was only three feet tall!
He never played much baseball,
He was always just too small!
(chorus)
Then one day in Sportsman’s Park,
Eddie went to bat!
Took four balls and walked to first,
Then retired – just-like-that!
Oh, how the purists hated,
Adding little Eddie’s name,
To the big book of records,
“Gaedel” bore a blush of shame!
Now when you look up records,
Look up Eddie’s O.B.P.!
It reads a cool One Thousand,
Safe for all eternity.
“I’ll be listening for you next year at O’Doherty’s in Spokane – and my hearing now is just as great as my perfect OBP career was back in 1951!”!”
The Pecan Park Eagle 
Leave a comment