Frank Saucier

Francis Field Saucier (born May 28, 1926) is an American former 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 eighteen-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, 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. 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] copy edit 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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