‘There’s got to be mascots’: Spokane Indians executive Otto Klein inducted into Spokane’s Eddie Gaedel Society hall of fame

Eddie Gaedel already famously owns the title of shortest player to appear in a Major League Baseball game. If Spokane’s Tom Keefe gets his wish, Gaedel may someday become the world’s shortest patron saint.

That might be a long shot, but with Pope Leo XIV a lifelong Chicago White Sox fan – and Gaedel was born, lived and died in the Windy City himself – why not dare to dream?

Like Father’s Day, Bloomsday and Hoopfest, the Eddie Gaedel Society is a uniquely Spokane institution, started by Keefe, though no one knows if Gaedel himself ever visited the Lilac City.

Keefe founded the first chapter in Spokane in 2010 as a way to honor the diminutive Gaedel, who on Aug. 19, 1951 , made his first and only big -league appearance for the St. Louis Browns. Standing at 3 -foot-7 , Gaedel made a single plate appearance and was walked on four consecutive pitches.

Gaedel’s appearance was the inspiration of Browns owner Bill Veeck, a showman who enjoyed staging publicity stunts in service to his baseball team.

Keefe first became aware of Gaedel after reading Veeck’s 1962 autobiography “Veeck – As in Wreck” as a youngster, and he became enthralled instantly with the only fan to take an at-bat in a big -league game.

“I read it when I was 14 – it was a birthday gift from my dad,” Keefe said. “I couldn’t believe it really happened.”

It was only later in life that Keefe formalized his infatuation by starting the Eddie Gaedel Society, with annual meetings at O’Doherty’s Irish Grill in downtown Spokane on Aug. 19 where the idea organically germinated.

“There were several of us at the bar trying to stump the others with trivia questions,” Keefe recalled. He challenged the others to name the ballplayer whose autograph sells for more than Babe Ruth. When Keefe shared the answer, a fellow patron shouted “Who the hell is Eddie Gaedel?”

That day, Keefe began an one-man crusade to keep the memory of Gaedel’s deed alive.

“Veeck promised Eddie immortality,” he said. “And the room was full of knowledgeable baseball fans that had never heard of him.”

Keefe inadvertently started something of an international movement, with approximately 15 other cities – including one in Ireland – memorializing Gaedel with a chapter over the years.

“People would call and ask me what it takes to start an ‘official’ chapter,” Keefe said. “There’s nothing really formal. Just a desire to remember Eddie.”

The Society’s annual meeting is an excuse for like-minded baseball fans to come together to share beers and memories. But it also has a hall of fame to recognize the contributions of others who are in or around the game.

This year the society honored Otto Klein, the senior vice president of the Spokane Indians. And though a plaque wasn’t ready for Tuesday’s festivities, Keefe presented Klein with an autographed photo of Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

Before his death in 2020, Larsen was a prominent member of the Spokane chapter of the society, often making the trip over from his home in Hayden Lake to attend the annual meeting.

“There’s this fascination with the sport of baseball, and to be able to see it as more than balls and strikes … you need to appreciate the fun that baseball is to be part of that fun,” Keefe said. “What I really admire about Otto is that he gets it on the same level Bill Veeck did.”

“Bill Veeck was one of the pioneers of sports promotions,” Klein said. “Just doing this today is having a small connection, I guess, to Veeck. And it’s a lot of fun.”

Klein, who’s been with the Indians for 33 years, has often said that he’s not in the baseball business, but in the entertainment business.

“I’ve spent my entire adult life in promotions and entertainment, and I really do believe that’s what we provide,” he said. “I think it’s a part of the game as much as anything else in baseball, and I’m so happy to get to be a part of it.”

Still, the honor surprised Klein, who “never expected” to be enshrined in any type of hall of fame.

“I’m not even in the Indians hall of fame, but now I’m in this one.”

Keefe, 77, laments that with so many options for sports entertainment these days, baseball is “no longer king.”

“We’ve got to get our children and grandchildren to go,” he said. “There’s got to be mascots. There’s got to be dollar drops from helicopters, or chances to run the base paths. … There’s fun out there at the ballpark and that’s the thing Otto recognizes too.”

But Keefe sincerely believes that a player who made one appearance in one game 74 years ago can be part of that fun as well.

“When you hear the story of Eddie Gaedel, you have one of two reactions: smile or laugh,” Keefe said. “One of the things I cherish about Eddie is when people focus on him and what he did for the sport, it make you want to go see a game.”