Frank Saucier received batting titles in three minor leagues and appeared destined for an excellent profession as a significant league outfielder when he joined the St. Louis Browns in 1951. However a lingering shoulder damage and repair within the Navy in the course of the Korean Battle restricted him to 18 main league appearances over three seasons.
Nonetheless, when Saucier died on Monday in Amarillo, Texas, at 98, he held a document of types that may virtually actually by no means be matched. He was the one main league participant faraway from a recreation by his supervisor in favor of a 3-foot-7 circus performer.
His demise was introduced by Main League Baseball.
The Browns had been certainly one of baseball’s worst groups when Invoice Veeck turned their chief proprietor in July 1951. Hoping to present followers a purpose to point out up at Sportsman’s Park, which the Browns shared with the St. Louis Cardinals, Veeck introduced {that a} celebration would happen to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the American League’s founding when the Browns confronted the Detroit Tigers in a doubleheader on Aug. 19.
After the primary recreation, a procession of classic 1901 vehicles rolled out and the baseball clown Max Patkin carried out a one-man skit. Then Eddie Gaedel, standing 3-foot-7 and sporting a miniature Browns uniform with the quantity ⅛, popped out of a big paper cake.
Saucier (pronounced SO-shay), who was the beginning proper fielder for the Browns within the second recreation of the doubleheader, was scheduled to steer off within the backside of the primary inning. However the Browns’ supervisor, Zack Taylor, who was in on the stunt, referred to as him again. Gaedel, who had signed a one-year contract to play for the Browns with out the American League workplace or his teammates realizing something about it, was despatched in to hit for Saucier.
In an interview with The New York Occasions in 1982, Saucier recalled the umpire, Ed Hurley, telling Gaedel, “Why, you’ll be able to’t play on this recreation.”
“And Zack got here out and stated, ‘He’s beneath contract,’” Saucier stated. “Hurley stated, ‘Let me see it,’ and Zack confirmed him.”
Gaedel, armed with a bit bat, went right into a crouch, making his strike zone fairly small. Bob Cain, the Tigers’ pitcher, walked him on 4 straight balls.
Saucier would do not forget that, as Gaedel made his method to first base, “he stopped two or 3 times and took his hat off and bowed to the group.”
Gaedel was changed by a pinch-runner, Jim Delsing, who later went to proper discipline to take Saucier’s spot.
When Will Harridge, the American League president, realized of Veeck’s stunt two days later, he voided Gaedel’s contract.
Francis Area Saucier was born on Might 28, 1926, on a farm exterior Leslie, Mo., the youngest youngster of Alexander and Margaret (McGee) Saucier. When he was 5, his household moved to a bigger farm close to the Missouri River city of Washington and an older brother, Clay, taught him baseball fundamentals.
He entered Westminster School in Fulton, Mo., in 1943; he turned a star outfielder and catcher there and joined the Navy’s V-12 officer coaching program on the campus. He accomplished his Navy coaching on the College of Notre Dame, was commissioned as an ensign and noticed 38 months of obligation within the Pacific throughout World Battle II. He then returned to Westminster, the place he excelled at baseball and basketball and graduated with a level in engineering.
Taking part in for the San Antonio Missions of the Texas League, Saucier hit .343 and was named the 1950 Minor League participant of the yr. He signed with the Browns in 1951.
Throughout spring coaching in 1952, he was recalled by the Navy for service within the Korean Battle. He served till his discharge in April 1954.
Saucier was practically 28 when he returned to civilian life and presumably too outdated to contribute a lot to the Browns. He stop baseball, settled in Texas and spent 38 years as an govt within the oil, gasoline and chemical substances industries.
Saucier, who lived in San Antonio, is survived by his son, John; his daughter, Sara; two granddaughters; and 4 great-grandchildren. His spouse, Virginia Pullen Saucier, died in 2009.
Eddie Gaedel, who continued to make present enterprise appearances after his transient second within the baseball highlight, died of a coronary heart assault in June 1961 after he was mugged on a Chicago road. He was 36.
In “My Story,” a 60-page memoir he wrote in 1997, Saucier stated that, though “it might need value me a time at bat,” “Eddie’s antic was the funniest factor I ever noticed.”