True Or False Question

[THUNDER HANDS]

Poll question: True Or False Question

Major League Baseball has an explicit ban on midgets.

[LearnedHand]

1. They'd ALL love to have a batter...

...with NO STRIKE ZONE!

[peekaloo]

2. mental midgets are welcome!

:+

[RobertSeattle]

3. Eddie Gaedel Rule

http://espn.go.com/mlb/s/2001/0816/1240553.html

Not sure if MLB has their rulebook online. I'd love to see the actual rule.

[mojowork_n]

4. But they'd probably think about it, again,

...if there was a midget who could actually swing the bat and get on base. It was passed originally because the St. Louis Brown's owner, Bill Veeck, (rhymes with "wreck"), sent up a little person to pinch-hit, who never had any intention of swinging. And everyone admitted it was just a dumb stunt, to make it really, really tough on pitchers, with not much of a risk on the batter's part. (Hence, taking the fun out of the game.)

Go, Twins; Go, Giants!

[Wickerman]

5. True

but I beleive the term is Little People

[RobertSeattle]

6. Are you going to provide the answer?

I went to MLB site and looked at the rule book but didn't see anything about this.

[THUNDER HANDS]

7. THE ANSWER

Yes, major league baseball does have a ban on midgets (or little people) after the Eddie Gaedel scandal of the 1940's.

:)

[RobertSeattle]

8. But do you have a link?

I'd LOVE to see that in writing.

I believe they also ban women from playing in the MLB.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. Bullshit. I have searched the entire MLB rules site

and there is not one mention of "height" anywhere in it,... or "little people" or "midget" or "dwarf"

LUUUUUUUCCCCCY.... you goooot some esplainin to do...

on edit... the link...
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/official_info/official_rules/definition_terms_2.jsp

[Spider Jerusalem]

10. 1951, actually.

Gaedel was 3'7", called up as a pinch-hitter for the St. Louis Browns, perennial AL doormats, in one inning of one game, wearing the number 1/8.
After the game the AL rules were changed to prevent such a thing happening again (as far as I know the NL doesn't have a corresponding rule).

(The Browns still lost, though.) Browns owner Bill Veeck was known for his wacky publicity stunts.