Cotton Pippen was a 6' 2", right handed pitcher from Cisco Texas. He began his professional career with the Beatrice Blues in 1932 after attending Texas Mines University. He started the second game of the season for Beatrice against the Lincoln Links. The night game at Athletic Park in Beatrice was Cotton's night. He struck out 13, scored 3 runs and touched off a perfect squeeze play as Beatrice won 12 to 3.

While Cotton did well during the year it was his performance during the playoffs that made him a Beatrice hero. Cotton pitched the third game of the series against Norfolk and won 5-3. He pitched a 2 hitter in the sixth game and did not allow a runner past second base as Beatrice won the sixth game 9-0. He played ironman in front of 3,000 fans in Beatrice and won the seventh game 4-3. He also aided his cause with the stick going 2 for 3 at the plate during the last game. For the playoffs Cotton was 4-0 with one victory over Lincoln and three over Norfolk. He did not give up an earned run in four games.

Cotton returned to Beatrice in 1933. He only played in 14 games but won one of the playoff games of 1933. He also hit two homeruns in the victory over Norfolk. Beatrice won the playoffs for the second year in a row.

He spent the winter of 1933 in Beatrice working at the Super Service station. Spring training 1934 was spent with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In 1936 he pitched for Sacramento in the Pacific Coast League. On June 27th he struck out Ted Williams in Ted's first professional at bat. He was 16-9 for the season. He made his major league debut in late August 1936 with St. Louis where he was 0-2. He was back at Sacramento for 1937 and 1938 where he was 15-14 and 17-8.

He reappeared in the majors in 1939 and pitched for the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers. He stayed with the Tigers for the beginning of 1940 then went to the Oakland Oaks.

In 1946 Cotton pitched for the Oakland Oaks under manager Casey Stengel. He was a teammate of Hugh Luby, an Omaha lad who started for Norfolk during the same time Cotton played for Beatrice. In total he had 11 seasons in the PCL with a 20 win year with Oakland in 1943.

In 1951 he was player manager for Reno. In May he pitched a three hit shutout at Redding and had a pinch single to win the game against Redding the following night. In their next game he had a pinch hit double to beat Pittsburg and the next night he pitched a shutout against Pittsburg the following day.

The Oakland paper reported in 1954 that Cotton was now pitching them over the bar at Oscar's on Lakeshore. He attended various baseball banquets and other celebrations and tended bar at a number of establishments in the Oakland area.

He died in 1981 in Williams California.

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