Saints honor Gaedel with walk-a-thon

You may remember that MinorLeagueDugout.com chose St. Paul's Tribute to Ed Gaedel as Saturday's Promotion of the Day. Now we have the pictures.

The Saints, one of the teams owned by a partnership headed by Mike Veeck, honored one of the craziest stunts played by Mike's father, former Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck.

Veeck signed midget Ed Gaedel and used him as a pinch hitter. Predictably, Gaedel walked on four pitches. The next day, in the best interest of baseball, the commissioner banned midgets.

St. Paul decided to see how a team of midgets and dwarfs would fair in today's game. Saints television announcer, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dana Kiecker, took the mound with the Saints regulars behind him and attempted to pitch to the miniature batsmen. The Saints cut the promotion, well, short, after Kiecker walked all nine men he faced.

Kiecker then served up some batting practice fast balls, which a few of the Gaedel stand-ins hit. What did this prove? Nothing, really. But wouldn't major league baseball be a little more interesting if there were more midgets playing? Come on Bud, do it for the little people.

By the way, the Saints also retired Gaedel's number, 1/8, noting that no Saints player will ever wear that number again. Nice touch.

Twin Cycle: West Michigan's Michael Hernandez pulled off a rare feat last night. For the second time this season Hernandez hit for the cycle. It was the third time a Whitecaps player hit for the cycle this season. Mike Holliman also notched a single, double, triple and home run on July 9.