George Pipgras--Hall of Fame, April 11, 1976

Ex-Yankee hurler Pipgras into 'Hall'

By RON MALY
Register Staff Writer
04/11/1976

The year Babe Ruth smashed 54 home runs, this guy won 24 games for the same New York Yankees. In the World Series game that The Babe "called his shot," this guy was the winning pitcher.

In fact, by the time this guy finished firing his fastball around the American League, he'd won 102 times.

In the Yankee heyday, he could throw almost hard enough to tear a hole through a barn wall. The trouble was, he had to find the wall first.

"Yep, wildness was my problem," George Pipgras said the other day. "At least it was until Herb Pennock, another pitcher on our Yankee staff, straightened me out."

Pipgras knew all about barns long before he could throw hard enough to damage one. He lived his early years on a 160-acre farm near Ida Grove and stayed in Iowa until going off to World War I in 1917.

George, now 76, didn't spend much time in our state after making it to baseball's big time and hanging around with the likes of Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri and Crosetti, but as an oldtimer he certainly qualifies as the eighty-second member of The Register's Iowa Sports Hall of Fame.

PIPGRAS SPENT all or parts of 11 seasons in the major leauges. The big years were with the Yankees, but he could see the end coming when surgeons opened his arm and found seven pieces of broken bone.

"I broke my elbow while throwing a fastball in 1933," he explained. "That ended my career."

George spent two unproductive seasons with the Boston Red Sox before calling it quits in 1935. He closed with an overall record of 102-73 and a composite big league earned-run average of 4.09.

But Pipgras still hadn't had enough baseball. He turned to umpiring in 1936, advanced to the American League in '38 after two years in the minors and stayed through '46.

"On the field," Pipgras said, "umpiring was great. But off the field it was a lonely life.

"After getting out of it, I scouted two years for the Red Sox, instructed umpires three years, then left baseball altogether. I've been retired since."

PIPGRAS, IN "pretty good health," lives in Iverness, Fla., a small town north of Tampa, with his second wife (the first died of cancer seven years ago). He's been a Floridian since 1925.

"I don't go to baseball games any more," Pipgras said. "I even quit going to spring training here in Florida. It's like everything else -- once you're through with a job, you don't want to go back to it."

But George enjoyed his days in baseball. Of course, he had some advantages others didn't -- like playing on those brilliant Yankee teams with Ruth, Gehrig and the rest, going to the Series, starring in Yankee Stadium.

"I liked New York," he recalled. "They tell me it's not such a good place now, but you seem to like whatever city you're working in.

"We didn't make the money ballplayers make now, but all in all it was a good life."

THE PIPGRAS family farm was 5 1/2 miles outside Ida Grove. By the time George was ready to play high school baseball, his dad had traded the farm for a hotel in the Schleswig-Holstein area.

"That's where I did my high school pitching," he said, "and baseball was the only sport in which I competed. I was always big (a 6-foot 2-inch, 200-pounder when a Yankee), so I should have been able to throw hard.

"Still, I was the runt of the family. My dad was 6-4 and my brothers (one of whom, Ed, spent a year with the old Brooklyn Dodgers) were either 6-3 or 6-4."

George didn't give that much thought to playing baseball for a living until after he went into the Army as a 17-year-old.

"I joined in Sioux City," he said, "and later was stationed in Texas and New York."

The young soldier spent nine months in England and France. He wasn't shot, but caught the flu and came back to the U.S.

"I guess the flu is what saved me," he said.

A MAN IN PIPGRAS' company -- his name was Ralph Works -- is credited with suggesting baseball as a livelihood.

"He said I should take it up after I got out of the army," George explained. "He'd seen me pitch in New York when we were stationed there.

"Well, the Yankees signed me and I was sent to Madison, S.D., in 1921. The Yanks bought me from there in '22, but later farmed me out to Charleston, S.C.

Then it was on to the big club in 1923 -- the year Yankee Stadium was dedicated.

"I didn't know a place could be so big," Pipgras admits now.

He won only one game (while losing three) in that rookie season, and went 0-1 in '24.

"It was tough breaking inot a staff that included Waite Hoyt, Urban Shocker and Carl Mays," said Pipgras. "So I went back to the minors in 1927."

Now the big guy with the whiplash right arm was ready. The season of '27 was a magic one for the Yankees. It was the year Ruth blasted his 60 homers. It was the year the Yanks swept the World Series from Pittsburgh in four games.

Pipgras not only flashed to a 10-3 record during the regular season, but whipped the Pirates, 6-2, on a seven-hitter in the second game of the series.

But the best was yet to come. In 1928, Pipgras surged to a 24-13 record, worked 300 innings and had a 3.38 ERA.

"I should have won 30," George said flatly. "Believe it or not -- with hitters like Ruth and Gehrig in our lineup -- the Yankees didn't get me a run for 46 straight innings. We lost a lot of 1-0 and 2-0 games when I was on the mound."

BUT THE YANKEES again won the pennant, went to the Series and swept it in four games (this time from St. Louis). And again Pipgras was a winner in the second game. His four-hitter checked the Cardinals, 9-3.

His victim was Grover Cleveland Alexander, then in the twilight of a brilliant career.

"I could throw harder than Grover," Pipgras said, "but he could put the ball through a knothole. He had perfect control."

But, with the help of Pennock, Pipgras' control was improving.

"I was off stride all the time," he explained. "I kept falling toward first base when I pitched. Pennock fixed my stride and also taught me a curveball."

Pipgras had an 18-12 record in 1929. He leveled off to 15-15 in '30 and 7-6 in '31.

The Yankees had gone three straight years without a World Series appearance, but that changed in '32. And so did Pipgras' luck.

He went 16-9 during the regular season and drew the World Series assignment in game No. 3 against the Chicago Cubs in Wrigley Field.

IT WAS THE LAST Series of Ruth's spectacular career -- and what a way to go! In the fifth inning of the third game, legend had it the Babe pointed to the most distant part of the park, took two strikes from Charlie Root, then hammered a homer to the part of the bleachers to which he'd pointed.

It is still known as one of the more brazen and defiant gestures in baseball history. The Yankees -- Ruth in particular -- had been riding the Cubs during the entire Series because the Chicago players had voted only a fraction of a Series share to Mark Koenig, a former New York shortstop.

"I remember the whole thing very well," said Pipgras. "Babe called his shot on that homer, all right.

"He never said anything when he came back to the dugout. All he did was laugh. The Cub pitchers denied Babe did it, but he did -- and it was the only time I ever saw him do it."

There is one other thing Pipgras remembers about that game: He struck out five times.

"That was about the only record I got out of the whole deal" he said with a laugh.

THE BROKEN elbow came the following season, and Pipgras split his time between New York and Boston. After going 11-10 that summer, he didn't win another game the rest of his career.

Many of the Yankees of that era have died. Pipgras still looks back to those years fondly. -- He said he and Ruth were "good friends" and added that Gehrig was "quieter than Babe."

And Pipgras? "Well, I didn't talk or pop off much."

The last time George recalls going through Iowa was in 1929. These days, he spends as much time as possible playing golf.

"I usually shoot between 80 and 85," he said.

Obviously, he could find the barn wall now.