Wally Pipp

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Wally Pipp

Walter Clement Pipp (February 17, 1893 - January 11, 1965) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball, now best remembered as the man who lost his starting role to Lou Gehrig at the beginning of Gehrig's streak of 2,130 consecutive games.

After playing 12 games with the Detroit Tigers in 1913, Pipp graduated from The Catholic University of America in 1914. The Chicago-born Pipp then joined the New York Yankees for the 1915 season, and would play 136 or more games for them every season until 1925 (except 1918 which was curtailed by injury), hitting .282 with little power, even after the end of the "dead ball" era. Pipp did lead the American League with 12 home runs in 1916, and again with 9 in 1917. Pipp is the first Yankee to win a Home Run title, as well as still in the top 3 records for Yankee first basemen. The interesting fact is that Wally Pipp scouted and asked Miller Huggins to sign young Lou Gehrig from Columbia University, and as Pipp was benched for Gehrig, he taught Lou Gehrig how to better play the First base position. Wally Pipp was then traded to the Cincinnati Reds in 1926, but played in Old Timers games as a New York Yankee. Pipp was then hired by Sports Illustrated to write sports articles, one of their first sports writers. His 226 Sacrifice Hits as a Yankee is still a team record.

[edit] Pipp's Removal From the Yankees' Starting Lineup

On June 2, 1925 Pipp was removed from the Yankees' starting lineup and replaced with Gehrig. While many stories over the years have suggested that Pipp sat out the game due to a headache, Yankees manager Miller Huggins had benched Pipp along with other veterans in order to "shake up" the slumping lineup. A month later, Pipp received a skull fracture when he was hit by a practice pitch from Charlie Caldwell, an event that had also been mistakenly linked to his initial benching. Pipp was later traded to the Cincinnati Reds before the 1926 season, for whom he played 372 games over the next three seasons before retiring.

Pipp died at age 71 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.