Rip Sewell

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."

Early years

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.