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Two Exceptional Wally Pipp Photographs (2)
Wally Pipp was a fine first baseman and productive hitter over 15 Major League seasons, leading the league twice in homeruns in the deadball era. Yet any mention of Pipp leads invariably to his connection with Lou Gehrig, the result of an almost unbelievable string of coincidences. In 1922, Pipp was picking up spare change as a Yankee scout, and “discovered” Lou Gehrig. Gehrig was a rookie warming the bench for the Yankees on June 2, 1925 when Pipp, still recovering from a beaning, complained of a bad headache and asked for the day off. He was replaced in the lineup by Gehrig in what became the first full game of Gehrig’s amazing run of 2130 consecutive appearances (he had pinch-hit the previous day). Pipp was traded to Cincinnati at the end of the season, where he had three more productive years before retiring. In 1939, he ran into Gehrig in Detroit, not having seen him for years; during their conversation, Gehrig mentioned not feeling well, and removed himself from the next day’s game; he would never play again. The two photographs date from Pipp’s years with the Yankees. The first is a very sharp 7” x 6” close-up, with both The Sun & New York Herald and Philadelphia Inquirer Library stamps and a date of October 5, 1921 on the reverse. The second photograph is 5” x 7” and shows Pipp in full swing, and has both Pacific & Atlantic Photos and Philadelphia Inquirer Library stamps on the reverse. Condition of both photographs is NRMT.
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