Rip Sewell
| Rip Sewell | |||
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| Pitcher | |||
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Born: May 11, 1907 Decatur, Alabama |
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Died: September 3, 1989 (aged 82) Plant City, Florida |
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| MLB debut | |||
| June 14, 1932, for the Detroit Tigers | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 18, 1949, for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Win–loss record | 143–97 | ||
| Earned run average | 3.48 | ||
| Strikeouts | 636 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
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Truett Banks "Rip" Sewell (May 11, 1907 – September 3, 1989) was a right-handed starting pitcher in Major League Baseball who played 13 years in the major leagues with the Detroit Tigers (1932) and Pittsburgh Pirates (1938–1949). Sewell was selected four times to the National League All Star team (1943–1946) and is credited with inventing the "Eephus pitch."
Born in Decatur, Alabama, Sewell attended Vanderbilt University in the 1930–1931 school year, where he played college football on scholarship for coach Dan McGugin. However, Sewell only played on the freshman team and left because of the academic requirements. After leaving school, he went to work for Dupont in Tennessee, and started playing semipro baseball.
He signed with the Nashville Vols, who then sold his contract to the Detroit Tigers for $10,000. He played only one season (1932) with the Tigers, appearing mostly in relief. Sewell later recalled that he was shipped to the minor leagues in Toronto the day after Jimmie Foxx hit one of Sewell's best pitches over the left field wall. (Donald Honig, "Baseball When the Grass Was Real" (1975), p. 250) (Though Sewell DID allow a home run to Foxx in his first appearance on June 14, he was not sent down after that game. He pitched four more times, the last a game in which he gave up a home run to Smead Jolley in Boston.) Sewell pitched only 10-2/3 innings for the 1932 Tigers, giving up 15 earned runs for a 12.66 ERA.
In 1934, he got a second chance with the Tigers, attending spring training with the team. However, he got into a fight with Hank Greenberg in Lakeland, Florida. According to Sewell, Greenberg made a comment about Sewell's southern heritage, and Sewell responded with a comment about Greenberg's Jewish heritage. The fight was eventually broken up by the police, and the next day, Sewell was called in by manager Mickey Cochrane, who told him: "Rip, don't think I feel any less about you for it; in fact, I think more of you. But we've got thirty pitchers and only one first baseman. What do you think I'm going to do?" (Donald Honig, Baseball When the Grass Was Real (1975), p. 253) Sewell spent the 1934 season playing for the Toledo Mud Hens.
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