Frank Saucier

Francis Field Saucier (born May 28, 1926 in Leslie, Missouri) is a retired American professional baseball player, an outfielder who played two months of the 1951 baseball season for the St. Louis Browns. Although he had a spectactular minor league career, he is perhaps best known for being replaced by the shortest player in baseball history, Eddie Gaedel, who pinch-hit for him in a stunt devised by Browns' owner Bill Veeck in 1951, Saucier's only season in the big leagues.^[1]

In his brief (18-game) Major League career, Saucier had one hit in 14 at-bats, giving him a .071 batting average. Saucier also had three walks, scored four runs, and had one RBI.^[2] He was much more prolific in the minor leagues, however, hitting .348 in 1948, his first pro season, at Belleville in the Illinois State League, and followed that with a .446 average at Wichita Falls in 1949, which led all of professional baseball. This attracted the attention of Veeck, who signed him in July, 1951, paying him a substantial bonus to return to baseball.^[1]

In 1950 in baseball, Frank batted .343 for the San Antonio Missions in the (Texas League-batting champion) and was named the Sporting News Minor League Player of the Year for that season. An injury in 1951 and two years in the U.S. Navy-Lt. during the Korean War (in addition to 38 months in World War II) short-circuited his playing time, and he never played in the majors again.^[1] Professional baseball was his "stepping stone" to Texas.

Saucier graduated from Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri with a degree in math and physics; the baseball field there is named after him.^[3] Ironically, the site is named Frank Saucier Field; his full name is Francis Field Saucier.^[2]

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