This is a story about stories. About how they round off the rough edges and make things fit into place just a little bit more than the way things actually happened. Maybe even a lot more.
We use stories as heuristics. I know I do. I think, ‘oh, this is like that story, so I’d better do blah blah blah … ‘ Those stories are a signal, They provide clarity. Except the stories are usually bullshit, cobbled together over tellings and retellings to suggest a much clearer message than anything real life ever delivers.
In challenging times, we might rely on our stories even more, like the question — should I keep going or should I take a break? Hard one. Sports fans, especially serious baseball fans, know that it’s dangerous to take a break, you could get Wally Pipped.
Wally Pipp’s story, as opposed to Wally Pipp, tells athletes the day they take off is the day they get replaced and never get back in. It’s not FOMO; it’s fear of Losing Out — FOLO. Pipp was doing OK, starting First Baseman for the New York Yankees. One day he has a headache, asks out, Lou Gehrig steps in and doesn’t step out for 2,130 consecutive games.
Definitely gets your attention.
The real Wally Pipp was hit in the head with hockey puck playing on the frozen ponds of Grand Rapids, Michigan where he grew up in the early 1900s. He had headaches his whole life.
He probably didn’t ask to sit down on May 6, 1925.
There are many versions of the ‘true story’ and the one that sounds the most realistic to me is that he asked trainer for some aspirin before the game that day. Miller Huggins, the Yankee manager, heard it, which made it easy to ask Pipp to take the day off. The Yankees were having a terrible start to the season. One thing managers do to shake things up is bench people. He had already benched shortstop Everett Scott, who had the longest consecutive game streak in baseball history at that time — 1,307 games. Pipp hadn’t been hitting well for three weeks.
If he asked out, it was by exposing a vulnerability his manager then used gracefully and in the best interests of Pipp and the team.
It also wasn’t the first game of Lou Gehrig’s amazing streak. He entered in the late innings as a pinch hitter the day before. The Pipp game was game two, doesn’t help the story.
Here’s what else doesn’t help the story:
Lou Gehrig was college educated, Columbia University, very unusual at the time. So was Wally Pipp, Catholic University.
Wally Pipp scouted Lou Gehrig playing at Columbia and brought him to the attention of the Yankees.
After Gehrig signed, Pipp helped him adjust to the life of a professional baseball player and mentored him on and off the field.
One of Pipp’s children claims her father did ask to sit down and it was because he knew what would happen that he did it.
As best I can tell, Wally Pipp had a full and satisfying life after he was replaced. He was sold by the Yankees, had a few more good seasons with Cincinnati before retiring. He made some money in the market and lost it all in the Crash of 1929. He worked as a writer and he worked in factories. He sold equipment, did some broadcasting and attended lots of Old Timers Games.
He died in 1965 of a heart attack, at 71, leaving his wife and four children.
It is probably essential to use stories to find our way.
I like to notice the stories lots of people use to help with important decisions, notice how they’re being interpreted, notice all the different ways, for instance, Wally Pipp’s story can be told.
There is an odd baseball stat called Sac or Sacrifices. It refers to an at-bat, a rare and precious opportunity for a ball player, in which a batter intentionally makes an out, but in a way that will advance a teammate. The personal sacrifice is recognized by not counting the at-bat in the calculation of the individual’s Batting Average.
Wally Pipp still holds the Yankee Lifetime Record for Sacrifices — 226.
Plus one more Really Big One that he had been working on for a few years. That’s how I’m telling the story.