When I wrote the book The Last Yankee Dodger with my father Fred Kipp, I used many articles from the Iola Register to piece the story of my fathers baseball career together. My father grew up in Piqua and went to Iola High School before becoming a major league baseball pitcher. Hes the last Yankee Dodger because he is the last living player to play for the New York Yankees and the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers.
My father often went to The Register to talk with Bud Roberts the sportswriter of the time. Bud would write articles about my father from when he chose to go to K-State or when he pitched in Japan. People from around the world would send Bud clippings from other newspapers and Bud would pass the articles on to my fathers parents Chuck and Ida Kipp. I now have the treasure trove of thousands of articles.
Bud would comment on the articles in the Register and how Fred was doing. One of the interesting articles Bud wrote was on July 27, 1955. Bud titled the article How Far Fred Kipp? The article was written after my father won four games in the 1955 National Baseball Congress in Wichita. My father was pitching for the Goodland Tigers who were managed by Billy Martin, of New York Yankee fame, while Billy was in the army. The article says:
The chances that Fred Kipp of Piqua will some day get a trial in the major leagues are better than ever. If advancement to the top transpires, imagine the thrill it could be for the folks of Piqua. Putting a native son in the big leagues would be more reward than they ever expected.
There are really concrete reasons for thinking Fred can make it. The ex-Iola High basketball stalwart has never had anything but success since he started in Piqua baseball at 14. Progress has been steady.
Before going into army service he led a Class A league in pitching. He is a lefthander with exceptional control. He is big. His temperament is excellent. He is smart. He is young. He is athletic all the way.
Bud knew my father pretty well and had been reporting on him since before his baseball successes when Iola won the Southeast Kansas League in 1949. He continued to track my fathers career and noted when he got his first appearance in the majors when he pitched at Wrigley Field on September 10th, 1957:
Fred Kipp of Piqua Makes Major Debut
Piqua has its major league ball player officially today. Fred Kipp pitched four innings for the Brooklyn Dodgers yesterday in Chicago against the Cubs. Kipp coming in behind Sandy Koufax and Don Bessent.
That was the first and only game my father pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers, but that put him in an elite group that has dwindled to only 22 surviving members today. Less than a month later, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved to Los Angeles and Bud told my father about the move in this article:
Piquas Brooklyn Dodger Suddenly an L. A. Dodger
It was just the dutiful annual call suggested by The Register, but the visit Tuesday turned out somewhat memorable at that, for Fred Kipp of the Brooklyn Dodgers and Piqua.
I really dont know any more than anyone else – none of us do. Just what we read, the tall, straight, and willowy pitcher now baptized in the major leagues was saying as he leaned on the counter.
He referred to whether the Dodgers would play in Brooklyn or Los Angeles next season, and in no more than a minute he knew-and for sure apparently. The bell tingled a bulletin signal on the Associated Press teletype, and this message followed:
BULLETIN
NEW YORK (AP) – The Brooklyn Dodgers will move to Los Angeles in 1958, President Walter OMalley announced today.
Big Fred showed not much more outer concern about the news than others in the office who bent over the teletype machine to look. There is not much any Dodger could say, and the Piqua resident, usually on the quiet side, would be the one to say the least perhaps. Playing major league baseball would offer so much of the interest, and also material gain, that no player could afford to express regret at going to the great western metropolis. Neither would they care to cheer publicly for leaving a place as exciting as New York.
Los Angeles would turn out to be good for my father in 1958. He went 6-6 that season and pitched in 40 games. The favorite story my father likes to tell about his career is his first start against the St. Louis Cardinals in the LA Coliseum in front of 60,000 fans. Heres what Bud said about my fathers first start and win:
