Addiction

I must admit that I'm addicted to the Topps Million Card Giveaway. What a great idea and what a great response it has received. The opportunity to unlock and then receive baseball cards from years gone by has made me quite eager to purchase 2010 Topps baseball products.

Although, the odds are more likely that you'll unlock an Omar Vizquel or a Delino Deshields card, sometimes you can get a winner. Today, I was lucky enough to unlock this card.



According to Wikipedia, Bob Cain shut out the New York Yankees in his first major league start, and in 1952 matched one-hitters with Bob Feller and won, 1–0. He is, however, most remembered as the pitcher who faced Eddie Gaedel – the only midget to appear in a major league baseball game.

On August 19, 1951, St. Louis Browns owner Bill Veeck put the 3 foot, 7 inch Gaedel into the game with instructions to hold his bat on his shoulder and not swing. Cain later recalled: "I went out to the mound to start to pitch the bottom half of the first and as I was warming up, Eddie went over and got these little bats. We couldn't understand what was going on." In his crouch, Gaedel reportedly had a strike zone of 1½ inches. Detroit catcher, Bob Swift, advised Cain to "Keep it low."

According to observers, Cain was laughing so hard at the prospect of pitching to Gaedel that "he's practically falling off the mound with each pitch." Cain proceeded to walk Gaedel on four straight pitches, all high.

Another great piece on baseball history for my personal collection.