ANALYSIS/OPINION
I generally agree with the sentiment that a player shouldn’t lose his job due to injury.
But there’s always room for exception when the replacement is exceptional.
Wally Pipp is history’s most famous example. He was the New York Yankees first baseman who sat out a game in 1942 due to a headache. Some guy named Lou Gehrig took his place and never left the lineup, eventually playing a then-record 2,130 consecutive games.
Thus, a new term came into being. The former first baseman was “Pipped” by Gehrig, who enjoyed a Hall of Fame career and was immortalized in “Pride of the Yankees.