Andy Oyler
| Andy Oyler | |||
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| Outfielder | |||
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Born: May 5, 1880 Newville, Pennsylvania |
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Died: October 24, 1970 (aged 90) East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania |
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| MLB debut | |||
| May 8, 1902, for the Baltimore Orioles | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| July 21, 1902, for the Baltimore Orioles | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .221 | ||
| Home runs | 1 | ||
| Runs batted in | 6 | ||
| Teams | |||
Andrew Paul (Pepper) Oyler (May 5, 1880 – October 24, 1970) was a Major League Baseball third baseman. He was born in Newville, Pennsylvania and attended Washington & Jefferson College. He played professionally for the Baltimore Orioles in the 1902 season. In 27 professional games that year, he had 77 at-bats with 17 hits and one home run.
He batted and threw right-handed. He was small in stature and was an excellent fielder, but not a good hitter. Even so, he was difficult to pitch to, since he would crouch "pretzel-like" in the batter's box to make his strike zone smaller. He died in East Pennsboro Township, Pennsylvania.
In 1953, sportswriter Jocko Maxwell published an article in Baseball Digest describing the shortest home run in baseball history. Maxwell described a baseball game where Oyler, as a shortstop for the Minneapolis Millers, was crouched in the batters' box in the bottom of the 9th and ducked to avoid a pitch thrown at his head. The ball hit off of Oyler's bat, which was still resting on his shoulder, and became stuck in the mud in front of home plate. Oyler was able to complete an inside-the-park home run before any opposing players were able to find the ball. Maxwell's article indicated that the story was originally told by WWRL radio station in Woodside, New York. This story was repeated by sportswriter Bill Bryson, Sr. in Baseball Digest in 1958. Another version of the story, as told by Halsey Hall, had Oyler chopping at a low pitch and sticking the ball into the mud 5 1⁄2 feet from home plate.
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