Major League Baseball Figure. He was the mascot/Batboy for the New York Yankees, serving in that capacity from 1921 till May of 1932 when he was involved in a serious car accident. Born an orphan with severe physical deformity (known then as having a “hunchback”) in the mid-west, he served time with the Chicago White Sox and Brooklyn Dodgers before joining the Yankees, where he became a beloved figure in the clubhouse. He was known to take the teams losses as hard as the players, and was often seen crying in time of triumph and defeat. Yankee players would often rub the hump on his back for luck before they strolled to the plate. Bennett loved to have a good time when the team was on the road, where he often roomed with pitcher Urban Shocker. Not the most camera friendly of people due to his hunchback condition, it was very rare that he posed for the camera with a smile on his face. After his accident, which resulted in a severely broken leg and other broken bones, doctors advised him not to go back on the field. The excruciating pain from his injuries caused him to suffer from severe depression, which led him to drink to ease the pain. His imbibing became excessively worse, eventually leading to his death at the age of 31. A land lady found his lifeless body amidst memorabilia that he had collected throughout the years. Yankees management paid for all funeral and burial expenses for ‘Little Eddie’ as he was laid to rest in St. Johns Cemetery in Queens. Newspaper reports of the day reported that not a single Yankees player showed up for the funeral. Officially, his cause of death was heart failure due to alcoholism. (bio by: Frank Russo)