Fred Leo Kipp (born October 1, 1931) played professional baseball for the Brooklyn / Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees.

He pitched batting practice in the 1956 World Series and joined the Boys of Summer on the 1956 Dodger Goodwill Tour of Japan.

He threw a no-hitter his Freshman year at Washburn University and then started playing on the Emporia Rangers town team in the summer of 1950.

With an invitation to try out for the Dodgers, Kipp took a 40-hour train ride to Vero Beach, Florida over Easter break from college in 1953.

After getting out of the military to go to graduate school at the University of Northern Colorado at Greeley, Kipp was quickly back pitching for the Kearney Irishmen in the Nebraska International League.

The Mobile Bears were a AA farm team for the Dodgers and Kipp started playing with 7 weeks left in the season.

After the winning season, Clay Bryant convinced Fred to play winter ball in Caracas, Venezuela.

The opportunity to make $1,000/month was a big pay raise, so he went but things didn't go well in Venezuela and he soon returned to the States after just one month.

Spring training at Dodgertown went so well for Fred that he soon started pitching exhibition games with the World Champion Brooklyn Dodgers.

Competition was obviously much harder in the big leagues and he faced many greats that spring from Ted Williams to Mickey Mantle.

Behind Fred were the Boys of Summer – Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges, Duke Snider and all the rest.

Other greats in the league that year were Satchel Paige, Lynn Lovenguth, Billy Shantz, Norm Sherry, and Eddie Lopat.

The Dodgers prevailed in the Pennant race but Kipp was ineligible for the World Series against their nemesis – the New York Yankees.

The Dodgers lost game 7 at Ebbets Field and this would be the last World Series for the Bums who would move to Los Angeles in 1958.

51 players, coaches, wives and friends of the Dodgers got on the plane that day and ended up flying 9,254 miles in 29 hours.

Spring training went well for Kipp in Vero Beach and he again pitched some exhibition games against the Yankees where he faced Mickey Mantle in a rematch of the 1956 World Series.

Kipp stayed with the team through the first couple weeks of the season, but was sent back to Montreal on April 27 before he made it to the mound.

Kipp played with Juan before he pitched in the minor leagues and saw him grow into the dominant pitcher who won more games in the 1960s than any other player.

From the Dodgers, Kipp's teammates were Norm Sherry, Ron Negray, Frank Howard, Stan Williams and Rudy Hernandez.

Kipp got his first start on Friday April 25 in front of a record setting 60,000 fans who came out to see Stan “The Man” Musial in his first appearance in Los Angeles.

Against their arch rival Giants on Labor Day, Kipp pitched all the way to the bottom of the 9th inning with two outs and faced one last batter.

On the 140th pitch, Giants catcher Bob Schmidt hit a home run to tie the game and send it into extra innings.

Kipp joined Mickey Mantle, Yogi Bera, Whitey Ford, Ralph Terry and many other stars.

Kipp reported that teenagers patrolled the streets with AK47s and shotguns at the baseball games when the Sugar Kings made a good play.

They married in the fall of 1961 and honeymooned in Puerto Rico where Kipp played winter ball for the Ponce Leones.

Kipp turned 30 and only stayed a month in the Puerto Rican winter leagues before returning to Kansas City.

With little chance of getting back to the Major Leagues, Kipp retired from professional baseball at the end of the 1962 season.