Fred Kipp: The last Yankee Dodger

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May 19, 2018 - 6:43 AM

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 father’s baseball career together. My father grew up in Piqua and went to Iola High School before becoming a major league baseball pitcher. He’s 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 father’s 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:

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