The Pecan Park Eagle

Of all the players who made it to the big leagues for only one single game appearance, these three guys are my favorites. Given the romance we enjoy in baseball lore and literature for the bizarre and unusual, how could they not be?

Moonlight Graham

(1) Moonlight Graham, June 29, 1905: Leading, 11-1, in a National League game at Brooklyn against the Superbas in Washington Park, New York Giants manager John McGraw pulls right fielder George Browne and replaces him starting the bottom of the eighth with first (and only) time rookie Moonlight Graham.

Graham is on deck as the next hitter in the top of the 9th when Giants batter Claude Elliott lifts a fly ball for the third out, denying Graham his only chance in the game to hit. Three infield out later in the bottom of the 9th and Brooklyn is done. Graham finishes the game without coming to bat or having anything to do with the six outs that take places on defense while he is in the game.

Graham’s minor league career continues through 1908, but he never again appears in another major league game. He subsequently moves to Chisholm, Minnesota and spends the rest of his life practicing medicine as a small town doctor.

Doc Graham dies in Chisholm in 1965.

In 1975, baseball novelist W.P. Kinsella incorporates the unusual one-game record of Archibald “Moonlight” Graham into his novel, Shoeless Joe, and that character, of course, is then immortalized in the movie Field of Dreams by actor Burt Lancaster.

Eddie Gaedel

 (2) Eddie Gaedel, August 19, 1951: Eddie Gaedel was the supreme promotion of showman Bill Veeck in the waning days of the old St. Louis Browns. Brought into the picture b the Browns owner to play one game only, the little midget (vertically challenged) ballplayer came into a game at Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis as a pinch hitter in the bottom of the 1st inning for lead-off batting center fielder Frank Saucier, drawing a walk on four pitches and then exiting the game for pinch runner Jim Delsing.

Here’s the parody I wrote about Gaedel years ago to the melody from “Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer”:

The Ballad of Eddie Gaedel
(sung to the tune of “Rudolph, The Red-Nosed Reindeer”)
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.

John Paciorek

 (3) John Paciorek, September 29, 1963: It was arguably the greatest one-game career in the history of major league baseball. Playing out the last game of the season at Colt Stadium in Houston, the Astros blast away at the New York Mets by a score of 13-4.

Right fielder John Paciorek celebrates his only appearance in a regular season big league game by reaching base in all five times he comes to bat. His three singles and two walks result in both a 1.000 career batting average and a 1.000 on base percentage, with four runs scored and three runs batted in.

Back problems and surgery prevent Paciorek from playing in another big league game, but he continues his minor league career through 1969 and ten spends the rest of his working life as an amateur coach.

John Paciorek’s brother Tom had a six-season MLB career during the 1970s and 1980s; an another brother, Jim, plated 48 games with the 1987 Milwaukee Brewers.