Walter Clement Pipp born 17 February 1893 in Chicago, Illinois, and died 11 January 1965 at the age of 71 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

He was an American first baseman in major league baseball, best remembered as the man who lost his starting role to Lou Gehrig which was the beginning of Gehrig’s playing 2,130 consecutive games..

After playing 12 games with the Detroit Tigers in 1913, Pipp joined the New York Yankees for the 1915 season and played 136 or more games for them every year until 1925, except for 1918 when he was injured. In 1916 he lead the American League with 12 home runs and 9 in 1917.

His removal from the Yankee’s starting lineup 2 June 1925 and replaced by Lou Gehrig caused many stories over the years. The manager, Miller Huggins had benched some veteran players because of the slumping lineup. A month later, Pipp received a skull fracture when he was hit by a practice pitch from Charlie Caldwell. This was mistakenly linked to his benching.

He was later traded to the Cincinnati before the 1926 season and for the next three years played 372 games and then retired.