Learning Wally Pipp
April 24th, 2019
Wally Pipp.
Many fans if not athletes have heard of Wally Pipp. But they only know him by the verb “Wally Pipped.” That’s when you lose your job due to injury.
After underwear football practice today, Arians was talking about depth and guys willing to practice well and Wally Pipp came up.
“These guys are too young to know who the hell Wally Pipp was, but you always tell that story about Wally Pipp,” Arians said. “A guy replaced him one day because he had a headache, his name was Lou Gherig, he played 2,000 games in a row and you never heard of Wally Pipp again and he was an all-star. So, who’s here is here.”
Though the true story of Wally Pipp is a bit muddied, nearly 100 years ago, 1925, Pipp played first base and was beaned in the head. Baseball players didn’t wear helmets in those days.
Two days later, Pipp reportedly still had a headache and asked not to play. His manager complied.
Pipp played first base for the Yankees was replaced by a young player named Lou Gehrig. Most people only know Gehrig by the awful, incurable disease that slowly kills its victims, which was named after Gehrig. Some believe football players get it from getting their brains beat in over the years.
But Gehrig was a fabulous player and a popular movie was made of his life (in part because of how a star athlete was killed by a disease). When Pipp took the day off, Gehrig started the next 2,130 Yankees games in a row. Pipp’s days with the Yankees were finished and Pipp finished out the final three years of his career in Cincinnati.
So being Wally Pipped means one can lose his job and possibly his career by missing one game.
This may sound harsh but the way the Bucs played the past two years, there are a lot of guys who ought to be scared to death they aren’t already Wally Pipped by Arians.
Some should be.
April 24th, 2019 at 9:33 pm
Which reminds me, the Joel Buchsbaum story tomorrow.
Classic.
April 24th, 2019 at 9:47 pm
Way to go BA, now I’m depressed about misdiagnosed concussions of yesteryear.
April 24th, 2019 at 10:02 pm
donovan smith?
April 24th, 2019 at 11:44 pm
Haha yep Donovan Smith getting Pipped would be awesome
April 24th, 2019 at 11:59 pm
Joe – to get Pipped properly, you have to have a Gehrig as depth. Does anyone think we are holding one or more Gehrigs on our depth chart?
Beuhler…..Beuhler……
April 25th, 2019 at 12:00 am
The two examples I thought of right away were Trent Green (Kurt Warner) and Drew Bledsoe (Brady, of course).
April 25th, 2019 at 2:13 am
I hope that’s not true.
The Lou Gehrig and Wally Pipp reference wasn’t lost on me but I’m not a millennial.
April 25th, 2019 at 4:50 am
A football equivalent might be Drew Bledsoe and Tom Brady. Next man up
April 25th, 2019 at 4:53 am
My uncle died of Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Was horrible. He wasted away. Couldn’t even swallow food. I was young, and I tried talking with him when I visited, but I could not understand a word he said.
My aunt understood everything though.
Not a fun thing to watch.
April 25th, 2019 at 10:48 am
“Most people only know Gehrig by the awful, incurable disease that slowly kills its victims, which was named after Gehrig. Some believe football players get it from getting their brains beat in over the years.”
I certainly hope people don’t conflate ALS with CTE. Two wildly different things.
Also, Lou Gehrig is certainly as well-known for his baseball prowess as he is for the disease that killed him, even amongst younger folks.